Designing Your Presentation Prepared by Jillian Oliver for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada November 2013 The

slideshow of this presentation is available here.

Introduction This guide outlines the most basic principles of designing an effective presentation. Especially as the capabilities of various presentation software programs evolve, there is a lot more room for creativity when it comes to designing visual presentations. However, one main theme running through current guides on presentations is that less is more. Your slideshow should serve as a visual complement to your oral presentation. With that in mind, here are some basic principles to follow when designing your presentations.

Planning Like anything, good presentations require planning. Research Before you begin designing a new presentation, do a bit of research on recently-given presentations. Start by looking for presentations on your topic or a similar one, but also look at visual presentations given on other subjects. Good sources for this are YouTube, TED Talks and Pecha Kucha events. Presentations unveiling new technology, such as smartphones and computers, can serve as design inspiration and will give you a good idea of what current basic presentation design trends are. Review Your Information In one sitting, review all of the information that you will be presenting. Wherever possible, make note of the points that could best be complemented by images, charts and graphs. Distill Your Mail Point Try to distill the main point of your presentation into one sentence. What is the one thing that you want your audience to leave the presentation thinking? This will form the basis for your presentation, and will be reflected in its title.

Create an Outline After you have established the main point, or theme of your presentation, create an outline and plug your various elements of information into it. Your outline should categorize all of your information into various sections. The basic format for an outline is just like an essay: Title slide Table of Contents Body of presentation Conclusion (reassert your main point!) End slide, which should include your contact information and where the audience can access the long-form version of your presentation. Depending on the length of your presentation, you may have sub-table of content slides for each section. Your audience likes to know what they will be hearing about before you get to it. In any presentation, some minds will wander. If you give them things to think about beyond each slide, then their minds are more likely to wander within your presentation, rather than outside of it.

Create a Storyboard Once you have your outline, create a storyboard. With a pen and paper, draw out the various sections and figure out what will go on each slide of your presentation. Wherever possible, assign an image to complement each slide. Title slide: should include the title and your name. It can also include a company logo or a graphic that depicts the theme of your presentation. Table of contents: This will let your audience know whats coming. Unless the presentation is very short, the ToC should NOT include every single heading from each slide. Instead, it should state the general sections that you will be covering. Shoot for 3-8 subjects. Body: This is the bulk of your presentation. Each slide should feature one point only, plus a graphic that helps explain or represent that point. Conclusion: reassert your main point. End slide: the final slide should contain your contact information, as well as information about where the audience can access the long form version of your presentation (a web link or via email.)

Selecting Software When selecting software, consider time constraints and logistical restraints. Ask: where will you be developing the presentation? Where will you be delivering it? What do you know about the specifications of the presentation room, such has how big the screen is, how big the audience is etc.? How much time do you have to prepare? And finally, what are you most comfortable with?

Here is a comparison of various slideshow programs: Software PowerPoint Pros Familiar usability; Integrates to Microsoft Office suite. Cons Can feel clunky; Can get stuck in generic-looking templates; May be difficult to transport the file. Will need to pay for non-public presentations; May be a bit of a learning curve. Need good editing software; May be too simplistic; Requires internet connection.

Prezi

Web-based- dont need to worry about file transportation; Visually engaging; Allows you to get very creative. Translate very well to printing; Very simple; Web-based you can access it from anywhere; Can make it public or keep it private; Can have multiple people working on the same project. Very easy to create on-the-go presentations with an iPad.

Interactive PDFs Google Drive

Haiku Deck

May be too simplistic.

The Design Process The design process is probably the most daunting aspect of presentation creation for those of us without a design background. Here are some very basic guidelines to follow so that your designs are attractive and impactful. The main goals for your design should be simplicity and clarity. Dont get too fancy! Layout Divide each slide into 2 or 3 equally sized vertical columns. If you are only displaying one element, such as a graphic, it can be centred. For pages with a title, you can either have a long title across the top, plus two equally sized vertical columns below it, or keep the title within one of the column widths. Whitespace Leave lots of whitespace on each slide. Less is more. 3

Leave Margins Make sure that you leave margins between the elements on your slide and the outer edges of the slide. This makes it more visually appealing, but will also make sure that your presentation doesnt get cut off if there are wonky screen settings during your presentation delivery. One Point per Slide Only make one point per slide. Dont be afraid of having too many slides. If you are working off your outline, then you will still be displaying the same amount of information, just in a more visually appealing way. It is important that your audience be able to focus, rather than having to decide which of your many points is most important. Try not to exceed ten words per slide. Maximum Three Elements per Slide Do not include more than three elements per slide. This will most often be: title + point + visual. Sometimes, two elements will be most impactful (title + visual) or (point + visual) or even just one visual! One Chart or Image per Slide You should only use one graphic or image per slide. In general, your graphics should be clear enough that they dont require any explanatory text. When in doubt, ask someone who hasnt seen the rest of your presentation if they understand what the chart or graphic is intended to depict. Here is a good guide on how to design your own charts and graphs, and here is a good guide to choosing different kinds of charts for your data. Colour Pick two contrasting neutral colours (black/white/shades of grey) plus two exciting colours. These colours can be easily combined into many combinations. If you are unsure which colours go well together, look at other well designed presentations, corporate logos, websites etc. Also, Google complementary colours and you will get some complex colour wheels that show you which two shades of various colours go together. Typographic Style Use sans-serifs, which are a family of fonts that do not have small projecting serifs, and instead consist of clean, consistent lines. They also tend to have less line and width variation than serif fonts. Many sans-serif fonts such as Calibri and Helvetica were specifically designed to be used on screens. Also, standard sans-serif fonts like Arial will translate into most programs, screens and browsers. Use Wikipedia to learn about fonts. Most fonts have a Wiki page describing their ideal use.

Sans-Serifs Helvetica Calibri Arial Verdana Century Batang Georgia Oxford

Serifs

Font Size When choosing a font size, you should consider how big your audience is and how big the screen projection will be. That being said, a general rule of thumb is that headlines should be 30 point and bold, and body text should be regular and 24 point. Do not use underlines and italics. Images Source high-quality images from sites like Wikimedia Commons, Flickr and iStock. Classical images (i.e. classical works of art) can be quite impactful and are considered public domain as their copyright has expired. Wikimedia Commons has most works of classical art, and will tell you when an image is in the public domain. Generally, a copyright expires if the author has been dead for 50 or 70 years, depending on the country. However, US copyright laws are a bit more convoluted than that. If you are using free images (Wikimedia Commons, Flickr) make sure to check the license and properly attribute credit. You can use relatively small font for this. Shorten the citation by adding in the hyperlinks. How to use Wikimedia Commons: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Go to: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page In the Search bar at the top right hand side, type in your keyword. Scroll down to view the images. I suggest opening the images that you like into a new tab (right click + open in a new tab). Check the license for each image. To save an image, right click + Save Image OR you can use the image URL by clicking Download. To get the source information, click use this file on the web. Copy the text in the Attribution field that pops up. Paste this text underneath your image. To shorten it, you can add in the hyper links. i.e. Hyper link the section of the text that reads the license type, such as CC-BY-2.0, with the link that comes immediately after it. You can erase the brackets, as this is HTML code for the Wiki format.

Process Your Presentation Save Multiple Files If you are using a desktop program, like PowerPoint or InDesign, create a folder and save multiple versions of your presentation as you are working on it. This will make sure that you dont end up with file corruption issues. Of course, you can avoid this issue altogether if you use Google Drive. Run Through on Presentation Computer If possible, run through your entire presentation on the same computer that you will be giving you presentation on (and projector if available). This will make sure you dont have any file or screen issues. If you have time and a willing friend, it can also be a good idea to practice it out loud. Leave Time Leave time between when you finish creating and designing your presentation and when you have to give it, ideally at least a full day. This will give you time for the presentation to mentally sink in and you will feel more natural when you present it.

Giving Your Presentation Establish Format At the outset of your presentation, tell the audience: 1) How long it will take, 2) When they can ask questions (throughout, at the end, or at section breaks?), 3) Briefly describe the purpose of your presentation and state your main point. Dont Hide When delivering your presentation, dont hide behind the laptop. The primary focus should be on you, and the slideshow should serve as a visual aide to complement your presentation. Consider standing up, if possible. Use laser pointers and clickers If they are available, use laser pointers and clickers for your presentation. There are laser pointer-clicker combinations that work best. Provide a Web Link and Your Contact Information At the end of your presentation, provide your contact information, as well as a web link where the audience can access your more detailed presentation. Some good tools for this are email, Google Drive, DropBox and Scribd.

Resources YouTube Tutorials When you move into more complicated aspects of presentation design, or if you are just unsure of how to do something, there is probably a YouTube tutorial for what you are looking for. Simply go to YouTube.com and search for your topic. For example, searching PowerPoint Tutorial Animation will give you this popular tutorial. Forums If you have a specific question, try Googling it or searching it on Microsoft Community. 99% of the time there will be a how-to guide for your exact question. Watch Highly-Rated Presentations Like I stated before, when you are lost in terms of design and approach, spend a little time watching some highly-rated, recently-given presentations. Apple iPhone 5S unveiling TED Talks Pecha Kucha (international event where speakers deliver a talk using 20 images that are displayed for 20 seconds each).

Conclusion Use a simple, clear design that complements your oral presentation.