PowerPoint is not a bad tool. Somehow, though, it’s the tool that produces the most consistently bad presentations. It’s not that the presentations lack information, but that they don’t organize it in a way that the most understandable. With that in mind, here are some mistakes I’ve seen:
1. Bad color schemes: You’d think that Microsoft with all their money would hire great designers to put together great color schemes that are optimized for projectors. But that’s not the case. I’ve seen such horrible color combinations in presentations. I always try to use a dark background with light text. Your eye is attracted to light, so make the text the light piece. A screen isn’t a piece of paper, so I really like that combination. I’ve seen a blue background with yellow text. That’s okay, but it really feels retro to me. Whatever you do, avoid colors that are similar. Dark blue with light blue is bad. It’s hard to read; that’s the most important.
2. Clip art: Happily you don’t see this as much anymore, but I am so tired of clip art. You still get a bunch of it in Powerpoint despite the fact that it’s gone out of style. When I started using PowerPoint 11 years ago, I’d use it all the time, but then I noticed how much better photographs looked than clip art. There’s something so much more dynamic when you use a photo than a drawing that looks like it’s been around since 1984.
3. Animations: Most of the animations in most programs are completely useless. My first video, I used the “random transition” feature, so I speak from experience. Text shouldn’t type in for each point. Lines shouldn’t fly in. There are exceptions, but less is more. Try having text either dissolve in or even just appear, in whole sentences or paragraphs, when needed.
4. Too much text: If I had a dollar for one mistake, this is the one I’d choose. Never put more than six lines of text on a screen. I don’t care what your reasoning is, don’t do it. The eye gets lost too easily. If you have to reduce the font size to fit the words in, you have too many. For song lyrics, I’m extreme in using one or two lines, but you get my point. No one loses track of which line they’re reading if there are two. I’ve done it with four. I’ve seen 15 lines and thought the whole text to War and Peace was on the screen. It just seems like a lot more than it is.
5. Using it for creation: If you’re in a bind and need to create something fast, the built-in image editing tools are fine. I just know people that use them to the exclusion of Photoshop, Video editing and text editing software. If you can, try using Photoshop to create your slides instead of PowerPoint and your slides won’t be as editable, but they won’t look like every other presentation either. The first time I did this people were astounded at how great the slides looked. All I did was add a stroke and an outer glow to the text on a background I made.
6. Stock Templates: Speaking of backgrounds, everyone uses the ones in PowerPoint. I know where there’s a sign that even uses a stock Microsoft background as part of the design. Don’t do it. Look online for examples of great templates and use them for inspiration.
7. Bad Fonts: I could talk for weeks on fonts, but I’ll summarize. There are two basic types of fonts. One is meant to be used for titles. The other is meant for the body. The first is much more dramatic and less legible. The second is more boring, but readable. Most of the time you’ll want to use a font like Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, etc. over LoserBoi grunge. Occasional use for emphasis is fine (or as part of a background element), but if it’s something you want people to write down or sing, keep it simple.
Since legibility is the goal here, have someone with average, but not great vision try an read your text from the worst seats. Can they? If not, increase size and adjust contrast between text and the background. Obviously someone who’s legally blind will never be able to read what’s on the screen, but an average person should be able to. Legible is better than cool, but strive for both. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Paul
