Transcript Good Design in PowerPoint The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication

Good Design in PowerPoint
The Cain Project in Engineering and
Professional Communication
ENGINEERING SERIES
Making Use of Design Elements
• Design elements allow reinforcement
• Strategic choices create interest
• Practice develops judgment
– Analyze what you like
– Borrow with what you like
– Use choices coherently
Your Design Options
• Templates
• Text
• Design rules
• Graphics
• Colors
• Special effects
• Fonts
• Effects and
transitions
Choosing a Good Template
• What is the mood/image
you want to convey?
• Very dark or very light
backgrounds work well
• Simple backgrounds
work well
To Choose an Existing Template
Step 1:
Select Design
Template
Click OK
To Choose an Existing Template
Step 2:
Select the one you want to use
Hit “OK”
To Design Your Own Template
• Write down words to suggest the image you
want your choices to convey
– Such as “technical,” “professional,” “strong”
• Choose a background color appropriate for
the room and lighting
• Choose a font and colors that
– match your image choice
– yield strong contrast and legibility
• Follow basic design rules
Palatino or Times New Roman suggests Financial Business
Accents
Helvetica suggests Process Industries
Accents
Futura suggests Environmental Firms
Accents
Typical Font and Color Combinations
Basic Design Rules
Rule 1: Use blank space to group or separate items
Rule 2: Use visual balance to please the eye
Rule 3: Create contrast to make objects stand out
Organize with Blank Space
Identify groups
of items
separated by
Blank Space in
this Web Site
•
•
•
Blank Space: An empty area
Directs viewer’s eyes
“Pushes” or groups items and separates them from others
Use Contrast to Group, Emphasize
Contrast by font, color, or size
Contrast occurs when 2 elements are different
Engineering contrast should be functional, not decorative
Choose Colors for Legibility
Well-lit room
use light background/
dark text and visuals
Dimly-lit room
use dark background/
light text and visuals
Strong light reduces contrast on dark background
Avoid Vibrating Colors
Bright complementary colors
that are close to each other in intensity
“vibrate” or reduce legibility
Learn Color Basics at Poynter!
http://www.poynterextra.org/cp/
Choose Easy-to-Read Fonts
Good for print
Good for projecting
E
E
Serif (“tail”)
Such as Times New Roman
Sans Serif
(uniform shaft width)
Such as Arial
Font Aspects Affect Legibility
• Contrast between background and text
• Uniform shaft width
• Size of font
• Type treatment of font
S
S
32 pts Times Arial
Drop Shadows
Reduce Legibility
Choose Effects to Support Points
• Avoid slow moving or fancy effects:
– Crawl in
– Swivel
– Spiral
• Effects should have a point / support your concept
• Don’t overuse special effects
• Keep effects and transitions consistent
Use Text Properly
• Use keywords and phrases instead of sentences
• Avoid “orphans”
– This is an example of an
“orphan”
• Be consistent in your capitalization
• Use grammatical parallelism
Design to Match Audience Action
• Your audience...
• So you . . .
– Skims each slide
– Use only essential info
– Looks for critical
points, not details
– Guide their eyes with
hierarchy, color
– Needs help
reading/seeing
text
– Use big. legible fonts and
framing blank space
Displaying Text
Bullets
Short phrases
Grammatical parallelism
Bullets Help Audience
• Skim the slide
• See relationships between information points
• For example, this is Main Point 1, which
leads to...
– Sub-point 1
– Sub-point 2
(To get back to previous level: use “promote” or “demote”
arrows at top)
To Use Bullets
• Select the “bulleted list” or “two-column list” slide
(from the 12 pre-designed slide formats)
• Type a phrase then hit “return”
• Type a second phrase, hit “return” then hit “tab” to indent
• OR use “promote” or “demote” arrows at top to create a
bulleted hierarchy
Matching Bullets to Your Image
• Go to “format” and then “bullet”
• Select the style, color, and size of the
bullets you’ll use
• OR highlight text you wish to bullet and
select the bullet button at top
Text Display Tips
• Use vivid, concise phrases or imperatives
• Write complete sentences only in certain
cases:
– Hypothesis
– Questions
Use Parallelism
• Put similar ideas in similar forms
– Same part of speech
– Same type of clause or phrase
– Complete sentences
• Reinforce with color, type treatment,
place on screen
Use Parallelism
Parallel:
• Use keywords
• Avoid wordiness
• Opt for bullets
VERBS
Equivalence
Not Parallel:
• Use keywords
• Wordiness is bad
• You should opt
for bullets
Each verb expresses an action of equivalent importance.
List similar items in the same grammatical form.
Revise for Grammatical Parallelism
• Not Parallel:
Criteria to Assess Alarm System
– Price
– Effectiveness
– How easily the alarm could be installed
• Parallel:
Criteria to Assess Alarm System
– Price
– Effectiveness
– Ease of installation
Parallelism: Your Turn
• Make the following list of sub-points parallel:
• Reliable data collection relies on
– Consistent use of techniques (pipetting, making
solutions)
– Correctly calibrated equipment, such as balances
and pipettors
– Researcher bias is minimized (expecting data to fit
model; conflict of interest)
Displaying Visuals
• Insert needed visuals
• Use color
• Resize appropriately
• Draw attention
That was purely
gratuitous!
Resize Images: How to . . .
• Click on the visual you wish to resize
• Go to “format” and then “object” or
“autoshape”
• Select “size”
• Change size and scale
• OR simply click and
drag the corners of the image
Simplify and Draw Attention
http://www.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/tca-cycle.html
Animating: Tips
• Custom animation allows you to animate
text, visuals, or line work
• Custom animation should be used
purposefully (and sparingly!)
– Animating should help audience comprehend
your message
– Don’t animate solely for aesthetic purposes
Offer Familiar Images First
• Offer figure or
image familiar to
audience first
• Technical image
next
• Water treatment
example
simplified for
government
officials
Give Technical Images Next
• Build toward technical
understanding
• Sequence: Photo /
diagram/ schematic/
cross-sections/other
technical drawings
• Technical water
treatment example
Present Images Realistically
Don’t distort images
Use Legible Graphics
• Don’t stretch Web
images to the point
of graininess
• Don’t shrink them
to be too small to
read
Avoid Overused, General
Clip-Art
Make Choices Work Together
• Blank space and balanced items create
meaningful organization
• Color, contrast, and point size indicate
importance and direct viewers’ attention
• Text reinforces speaker’s voice but should
not overload or distract
• Special effects and images indicate
relationships and emphasize aspects
Rehearse with a Coach
• To evaluate how well your
visual choices work with your
spoken presentation
• To make sure images are
legible
• To test visual aids under
expected room conditions
Lead through Excellence
in Engineering Communication
More resources are available for you
•
under “Engineering Communication” at
Connexions at http://cnx.org
•
at the Cain Project site at
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj
•
in your course Communication Folder in
OWLSPACE.