Effective Slide and Screen Design

“Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Desgin can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”-Paul Rand 

More than 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made on a daily basis (Weinstein, 2011). When designing presentations and its slides, its important to not only use vital design principles, but to also think of the target audience to whom you will be presenting.

Szabo and Kanuka’s (1999) study on screen design and its effects on recall learning, study time, and completion rates yielded interesting results. Their study found that good screen design did not affect achievement. They did find, however, that poor use of the design principles resulted in more instructional time. Therefore, using the principle desgins when designing slides is important when there is a concern about “minimizing learning time and maximizing learner completion rates” (p. 39).

Levy and Yupangco (2008) discusses the importance of color and the five design principles designers need to think about when designing effective slides. Those five principles include balance, proportion, dominance, rhythm, and unity. Other principles include C.R.A.P., simplicity, perspective, and layout. What other principles can you think of that are vital to slide/screen design?

I thought the most interesting article we were assigned in our learning unit was Simon’s (2004) Does PowerPoint make you stupid? Simon does a good job of pointing out Tafte’s ineffectiveness of making a valid argument about PowerPoint. This goes along with our discussion in class and how Dr. Wilcox brought up that it is not the software itself that makes a project ineffective, but how well the designer uses his or her resources and design principles to create that project. It is also interesting to note the year in which this article was published, in 2004. People were already questioning the effectiveness of PowerPoint, and yet nine years later we are still using it! 

Here are some useful sites on color to help you with creating your slide set

http://www.worqx.com/color/color_basics.htm

Bringing this one back again- we have already worked with it.

http://www.avivadirectory.com/color/

This website has its own list of several online color resources for designers.

http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/05/24/45-color-tools-and-resources-for-choosing-the-best-color-palette-for-your-designs.html. This website may be especially useful to you while designing your slides. This site has color tools on the website to help you design and pick out your color palette for your slides.

Finally, here is a YouTube video that includes useful tips and guidelines to creating an effective presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgeF3ALl0g 

Questions

1. Although we have discussed that it is the designer who makes the slides/project effective or ineffective, what are your thoughts on PowerPoint? Is there a “better” program to use? Do you prefer to use any other program besides PowerPoint to design slides? Why or why not?
2. Are there any other design principles you think are especially important to use when designing slides, outside of the five principles mentioned above?
3. What are elements of a slideshow that you find effective and that gain your attention?

References 

Levy, S., & Yupangco, J. (2008). A picture is worth 1000 words: Visual design in e-learning. The ELearning Guild, 1-8.

Simons, T. (2004).  Does PowerPoint make you look stupid? Presentations.com, 1-6.

Szabo, M., & Kanuka, H. (1999). Effects of violating screen design principles of balance, unity, and focus on recall learning, study time, and completion rates. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 8(1), 23-42.

Weinstein, H. (2011). Epidemic PwoerPoint misuse. The Associated General Contractors of America.

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