UNLEASH YOUR INNER DESIGNER

LOOKIN' AT THE BASICS

As weird as it sounds, creating a slideshow presentation is basically a process where you make a bunch of decisions, both large and small. No matter how many guidelines, rules, and pieces of advice we get on how to create our presentation, we still have to make some choices.

It's not like there's a class called, "Here's that presentation you've got to give next Wednesday," with step-by-step instructions on building your visuals. Although, that would be pretty sweet.

So, you've got your laptop in front of you, PowerPoint is open, and you're staring at the first blank slide. It's decision making-time. A few of the decisions that you'll come across might include:

• What's the problem? That should be the goal of every slide. You've got a problem in your speech: there's an element that needs an image or chart so that the audience can understand you. But, what do they need to understand? Define that, and you'll know what you need to accomplish with that slide.

• What layers do we need? You want to keep this as simple as possible. If you can get away with just an image, do it. If you need a background, keep it neutral. You want to keep your visual as easy to visually process as you can. Just don't have more than three layers; if you think you need more than three, chances are the info should be broken into more than one slide.

• Is the text necessary? Is your image strong enough that words would just be in the way? Can you easily include the necessary description into your speech? Skip the words. If something needs a label to know what it is, that's when you should add the text.

• Is the image necessary? As much as we love pictures, they can sometimes be distracting. The best tip? If the picture illustrates a point, it belongs. If the picture is just for decoration, you don't need it. Clip that art.

• Do I really need this in my presentation? Sometimes, we get excited and on a roll, and slides practically start making themselves. But, remember that not everything in your speech requires a visual aid. If you look at something and think, "Hmm. This really isn't required for audience understanding, and it doesn't emphasize my main point," bust out those scissors and cut away.

• Does my design follow the three-second rule? No, we're not talking about how long your food can sit on the floor before it's too gross to eat. We're talking about the amount of time it takes to process the information on your slide.

Your audience is busy. They're listening to you talk, they're checking out your visual aids, and they're trying to figure out the meaning of it all. At some point, they probably have to breathe and stuff, too. Don't give them too much to do with your slides. If it takes them more than three seconds to interpret and understand what they're seeing, it's probably too complicated to be on a slide. Simplify or break it up.

Not all of these decisions need to be made carefully and thoughtfully. In fact, sometimes slowing down to consider all the options can break up the flow of your work. Don't be afraid to make snap decisions. Use that gut of yours; it'll lead you to some awesome places in your visual display.

CALMING THE CHAOS: THE PLACEMENT OF ELEMENTS

Through this unit, we focus on "design" as a verb: "to create or make creative decisions about something." But, for this reading, we're going to talk about the lesser-used noun definition: "the roadmap or strategic structure."

Our presentation needs to have a kind of map to follow. Dropping main points into a pot, mixing them around, and hoping for the best isn't going to get us the results we want. Instead, we want to line up those points end-to-end in a way that's logical.

The same applies to the individual slides within a presentation. While we could drag and drop the slide elements all willy nilly, we should make mindful decisions about the placement of our slide elements.

First, let's talk about placement on a slide. It's like cleaning your room; everything has its place. And it should look good enough to make Momma proud.

Your first task, before anything goes on the slide, is to figure out the purpose of the presentation. Ask yourself these questions to help figure out what you want the goal of your presentation to be:

• What should my audience take away from my presentation?

• What action do I want my audience to take?

• How much does my audience already know about the topic?

• How much time do I have to convince or inform my audience?

• What evidence do I need to support the main idea?

By answering some of these questions, you can narrow down the focus of your presentation to a main point. And that main point is what's going to be at the forefront of your visual presentation.

Then, as you create your individual slides, think of it like building the structure to support your main idea. That thing is heavy, so your slides need to be strong. Too much weight or information on a slide, and it'll weaken it, so be mindful of sticking to just one idea per slide.

But, where do you put it all? Here are a few guidelines for placing elements on your slide:

1. Think of your slide like a grid. Imagine a fake set of lines going across and down your slide, all at even intervals, and use the rule of thirds to position everything. Basically, you cut your slide into thirds (or fifths, etc.) in both directions, and you use the lines to guide the placement of the important elements.

2. Don't shy away from white space. In the artistic world, anything that doesn't have a color or an element of design is called "negative" or "white" space. And, it's okay to have that. In fact, it's encouraged. By leaving a bit of space untouched, you create a clean, sleek feel to your slide. If you force too much design onto your slide, you might end up making your slide cluttered and overwhelming to the audience's eyes.

3. Put the gun away; bullets aren't helpful. You might be tempted to organize a bunch of text into a bullet list. Don't. When you create this list of words, phrases, or sentences, you take your slideshow from a visual aid to a teleprompter. Avoid that trap because it'll suck you in, begging you to stare at your slides as you speak, as opposed to making a connection with your audience. If you absolutely must include them, just be sure that you don't use more than six lines on a slide; the text will be way too small for your audience to read, and no one will remember anything past those six points. Bottom line: bullet points belong on note cards, not in slideshows.

4. Create a hierarchy. Our eyes can't help it. They all follow the same path through visuals. But, you can use that to your advantage by creating a visual hierarchy. Essentially, our eyes hit the top of the screen first, reading the largest information present. From there, our eyes move down and towards smaller text. To make this journey easier for your audience, create a flow that meets the expectations of our eyes. Start at the top with the big, important stuff, and slowly move down towards the lesser points of your slide.

5. Create points of interest. Maybe there's a small element within a larger image that you really want your audience to notice. You don't want to just use the picture and hope for the best, though. Take action, and point to the stuff you want them to really see. There are actually a couple of techniques for adding emphasis to a small detail:

   • Pan or zoom in on the element

   • Use arrows

   • Circle the detail in bright colors

   • Change the font color of a specific word or phrase within the text

   • Make it bigger

   • Place it in the center or near the top

   • Focus on the detail, while slightly blurring everything else

This technique is for those times when you want your audience to see how that detail fits within a whole. If it's just the detail that's important, skip the point of interest, and just make it the star of the show…or slide.

In the end, one of the best things you can do is to just take a step back. Does it look good from far away? Remember to use those gut feelings of yours, and you'll be golden.

ORDER IN THE COURT!

First, decide on a topic. Then, outline your main points and the evidence you'll use to support them. Give your presentation. Finally, be sure that your visual aids are valuable to your presentation, as opposed to just displaying them just so your audience has something pretty to look at.

Wait. Something was off in that last paragraph. It was… out of order. We'd never give a presentation before we assess our visual aids.

It just goes to show that order matters. The sequence of your slides is important, so you need to give that concept the attention it needs.

But, why does it matter? Does the audience really care what order your slides show up in? In short, yes. By having things in an order that makes sense, it helps your audience stay oriented and be able to sort of predict the overall structure of your essay, meaning they'll be better able to make sense of what you're saying.

Perhaps you'll run your presentation in chronological order. This means you're following a timeline, and everything is presented in the order that they happened.

Another idea is to present topics in a problem-solution structure. In that, you'll thoroughly explain the problem to get your audience invested, and you'll provide an explanation of how to fix it.

Maybe you'll follow a spatial order, which is a really great strategy for talking about things like location and direction. For example, you might give a presentation on tourist attractions in a city, and you can separate things into a north, south, east, and west structure, giving your overall presentation a more organized feel.

One of the most popular structures, though, is the topical order strategy. Basically, you introduce one topic at a time, and you don't move on until you've talked through the first idea. That way, your presentation doesn't feel like it's bouncing around, making your audience feel all disoriented.

What else do you need to know when it comes to order? What more could there be than just putting things in a sequence that makes sense? It's a cut-and-paste kind of world, and we're just living in it, right?

In addition to the actual order of the slides, we've got to consider the glue, as well. The glue is the transition between each slide. It's how well you move from one topic to the next. That way, we get a flow throughout our presentation.

But, how can you do that? Here are a few strategies:

• Ask a question to get the audience thinking about the next topic.

• Use bridge words, like "in addition," or "furthermore."

• Flashback to something you already said to emphasize its importance in the upcoming topic.

• Use your body. By turning yourself in a new direction, walking across the room, or even just pointing to the newest slide or image can help you move to the next topic.

Imagine going down a waterslide with no water. That's not going to be fun. It's the same concept if you try to create a presentation without transitions. Give that slideshow a little something extra, and you'll be slipping and sliding to success.