“If learners think it looks bad, you may have lost a good percentage of the battle in getting them to pay attention.” – Patti Shank
The key rule for designing an effective PowerPoint is to remember that it is supposed to complement your presentation, rather than replace it. Here are some design tips to keep in mind as you prepare your slides.
1.Use the template provided to you by the learning experience designer. PowerPoint templates are available by program to facilitate the design process. The template contains a variety of slide layouts that you can pick and choose from to construct your presentation. This helps maintain consistency across slides.
2.Use a sans serif font. These types of fonts work best on screens. Some examples include: Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, Gil Sans MT, Tahoma and Franklin Gothic. Do not use more than two fonts in your presentation.
3.Use images appropriately. Visuals strengthen your message when they are relevant to the topic at hand. Rather than getting carried away with pictures, charts and/or characters, try to stick to one image per slide for a more impactful presentation. When possible, stay away from clipart unless you want your presentation to look like it’s straight out of 1993. Be sure to use images that are free of copyrights and remember to include a reference for them.
4.Keep fonts sizes consistent. Generally, your titles and headings should be no larger than 48 point and your body text should be no smaller than 24 point. Your font sizes should also follow a logical order (i.e. your headings should not be smaller than your body text).
5.When it comes to text, less is more. Try to adhere to the 6X9 rule where your slide contains a maximum of 6 lines of text with 9 words in each. This applies to bullet points as well.
6.Use colour with purpose. Stick to a flat palette and choose no more than 5 colours for your presentation. While rainbows, neon colours and bright yellow look nice in other contexts, they don’t look good in PowerPoint.
