Below are a series of good practices for creating effective, elegant, and creative slide presentations. These "dos and don'ts" are great suggestions, but not absolute principles. If you have a good reason to do a "don't" or avoid a "do," you can still create a great presentation. Our tutorials are geared specifically for use of Google Slides (Available to students, faculty & staff in their Google Drive), but many of the same concepts are available in PowerPoint or Keynote, too.
See also this demonstrator slidedeck.
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This slideshow, together with notes, can be viewed outside this wiki by going here.
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Consistancy and Clarity
- Pick a few colors, fonts, and accents. Stick to them across all slides
- slidescarnival.com and https://slidesmash.com/free-google-slides-templates/ are great sources of free slide themes.
- colourlovers.com is helpful for choosing color sets or palettes that might make great slide themes.
- graphicriver.net related set of sites useful for comparing different color combinations (as well as graphics and related content.)
- pictaculous will suggestion suggest color combinations based on a submitted image.
- Simple Fonts
- Text as big as possible
- Important content toward the top of each slide
Text Content
- Less is better
- Fewer bullets is better
- Use multiple slides or animations to keep minimal text on screen at any time
- Is text necessary at all? Perhaps images alone might make a great compliment to what you say
Images
- Non-topic Specific: helpful if follow a theme.
- Topic Specific: Active learning? Ask audience to analyze image.
- Get Creative
- low-cost tools such as Pixlr and Paper Camera are handy for altering pictures or creating other images.
- Screenshots (with markup) are easy with Jing or Skitch.
- Shaped Crops, Fade animations
- Avoid spreadsheet slides
- Try to simplify charts and graphs, if possible
- A few animations are helpful. Too many are distracting
- Have a specific reason for each animation
Other Helpful Tips
- Contact information on the first and/or last slide
- Header or footer with your name, a means of contact (social media, email, etc.)
- If slides are available to your audience, let them know at the beginning
- Humor can be effective, so long as it is in good taste and appropriate for the occasion.
- Create a faux "Breaking News" Cable-TV style image: http://www.classtools.net/blog/design-a-breaking-news-screenshot/
Other Resources
- Quick Guide to Google Slides
- TedBlog: 10 Tips for Better SlideDecks