Design Guidelines
Guidelines to help avoid
common presentation mistakes
Design Guidelines
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Simplicity is your
friend
Lots of white
Organized
Path for the eye
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3/19/2016
Rule of seven
Color and contrast
Typography
Content
Hale - Huff - Patience
Simplicity is your friend
 Content is center stage
 Draw attention to presentation, not special effects
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Text
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Graphics
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Sound
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Background
Colors
 Consistency - slides, bullets, fonts
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3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Simplicity Is Your Friend
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Content (and speaker) is center stage
Draw attention to presentation, not special
effects
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Text, graphics and background
Sound
Colors
Consistency - slides, bullets, fonts
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Lots of White Space
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Too much filler will overwhelm the viewer
Makes your eyes tired –
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You won’t bother to read it
If you have a lot of information to share in a
slide, consider either using PowerPoint to
display the point and you discuss it, or break
things up in to several slides
You need a place for the viewer to focus on
as you discuss a point - otherwise, he or she
could just read it themselves ...
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Lots of White
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Don’t want to overwhelm audience
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Place for focus
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Keep things short
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Break up into several slides
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Organized
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Audience feels movement to a conclusion
Easy to see progress
Pace of slides (rehearse)
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Too fast, exhausts them
Too slow, put them to sleep
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Path for the Eye
This versus
Oh, boy, another
class…
I feel so
informed!
This (nothing
dominant)
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Oh, boy, another
class…
I survived …
Confusing
PowerPoint
Presentation
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Rule of Seven
Thou shall not use more
than SEVEN lines
Thou shall not use more
than SEVEN words
per line
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Color
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Green
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Growth and movement
Blue
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Calm
Power, energy, danger
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Positive
Purple
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Red
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Yellow
Spiritual
Brown
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Neutral
One to three colors is
PLENTY
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Hale - Huff - Patience
… And Contrast
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Light background
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Dark background
•Black
•White
•Red
•Yellow
•Orange
•Orange
•Green
•Green
•Blue
•Red
•Purple
•Blue
•Yellow
•Purple
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Colors for Presenting
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Dark Room – dark background
Light Room – light background
35 mm slides – dark background
Overheads – light background
Handouts – light background
This one has a dark background to show
the difference…
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Colors for Presenting
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Dark Room – dark background
Light Room – light background
35 mm slides – dark background
Overheads – light background
Handouts – light background
This one has a light background to show
the difference…
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3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Colors for Presenting
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Maintain a consistent color scheme
throughout the presentation
Be conservative
Too many colors only confuse, distract,
and “cheapen” the presentation
Contrast between background and
foreground
Lettering is more important
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Colors for Presenting
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Keep background simple
Consider the people who have major
problems
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Example:
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Green and reds should not be placed
adjacent to each other
Do not use green background with red
lettering or place green beside red on a pie
chart
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Typography - Font (44 pt)
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Smallest font 28-30 points (32 pt)
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Large for emphasis: Titles
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Simple fonts - Arial, times
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Avoid script
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Limit: 1 or 2 fonts
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No more than 3 sizes
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Typography - Style
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Don’t hyphenate
Errors: check, recheck, someone proof
Avoid italics – least likely to be read
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Typography - UPPER CASE
DON’T USE ALL CAPITALS FOR LARGE
BLOCKS OF TEXT. READERS READ
FASTEST WHEN SENTENCES ARE
PRINTED IN UPPER AND LOWER CASE
- THE WAY THEY NORMALLY ARE
SEEN IN PRINT. HEADLINES ARE IN
ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT REQUIRES THE
READER TO SLOW DOWN, GIVING
EMPHASIS TO A FEW WORDS.
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Typography - Title Case
Don’t Use All Caps for Large Blocks of
Text. Readers Read Fastest When
Sentences Are Printed in Upper and
Lower Case - The Way They Normally Are
Seen in Print. Headlines Are in All Caps
Because It Requires the Reader to Slow
Down, Giving Emphasis to a Few Words.
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Typography - Sentence Case
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Don’t use all caps
Readers read fastest when
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Sentences are upper and lower case
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Headlines are in all caps
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The way they normally are seen in print
It requires the reader to slow down
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Content
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Only the essence
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Few words
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Items in order
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No extraneous data you’ll ignore
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Relate graphics to content
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Text
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Avoid long line of text
Avoid too many lines of text
Use phrases instead of complete
sentences
Avoid small text
Remember the 6 x 6 rule
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No more than 6 lines, no more than 6 words
per slide (bulleted items)
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Bulleted Text
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Do not use a single bullet on one slide or
use more than five bullets per slide
Do not use more than two levels of bullets
Use consistent wording
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Clipart
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Use clipart that relates to the content and
does not distract from the message
Avoid temptation to “jazz up” a slide show
with TOO much clipart
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Hale - Huff - Patience
Charts
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Keep charts simple
Pie charts with three or four slices and
column charts with three or four columns
Only use charts if they enhance your
slideshow
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Special Effects
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Transitions and special effects should be
used sparingly
Be sure to practice the presentation and if
you find yourself waiting on things to
appear, take out the transitions and
special effects
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Final Slide
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Final slide should provide a conclusion,
summary or recommendation
Show be obvious that it is your ending
slide
No put “The End” on the final slide
Provide some form of handout so your
audience can keep track of the
presentation
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience
Design Summary
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Less is more!
Anecdote from Presentations Magazine
3/19/2016
Hale - Huff - Patience