18 PowerPoint Design Rules to Live By
By Ellen Finkelstein
A PowerPoint expert shares her guidelines for the best possible presentation slides. –PC Pitstop
Slide design can be very subjective but there are some rules that are objective. These rules ensure that your slide is easy to understand and remember. When you use these rules, you can create clear slides that no one will struggle to comprehend. You’ll find that these rules are general enough to allow for lots of creativity and flexibility in your design.
I’ve broken up the rules into a few categories.
Rule 1: The background shouldn’t be so busy that it attracts attention to itself and away from the slide’s content. This includes logos, footers, etc.
Rule 2: The background should leave enough space for your content.
Rule 3: The background color should contrast highly with the text color.
Text
Rule 1: The text color should contrast highly with the background color — or the color of anything else the text is on, such as shapes, images, charts, or text.
Rule 2: The text should be big enough to be read by a person with mediocre eyesight at the back of the room. Even chart labels should be readable and main text should be even larger.
Rule 3: In most cases, text should be sans-serif (such as Arial, Verdana, or Tahoma) because it’s easier to read on-screen.
Rule 4: There should not be so much text on a slide so that your audience is reading while you’re talking.
This post is excerpted with the permission of PowerPoint Tips.
