Presentation Design Questions

[Karen Schriver <ks0e+ -at- ANDREW -dot- CMU -dot- EDU>]

Hi,

Kristen Black asked:

<snip>

I need to get information on design issues for presentations--things like
what colors work best, what fonts are good, how many graphics per screen is
too much, etc.

<snip>

Please reply offline, unless you think everyone would be interested in your
responses.

Thanks!

Kristen Black
Freelance Editor, Writer, and Indexer
kblack -at- itsnet -dot- com

I would be interested in any new books/good articles you might find
about designing presentations. I have a lengthy chapter in my book
Dynamics in Document Design (1997, NY: Wiley, ISBN 0471 30636 3) on
typography and on ways to display visual clusters such as itemized lists
(a common feature of oral presentations). This chapter as well as an
appendix on Guidelines for Online Displays could prove helpful to you,
since many of the issues regarding typography for online displays and
overheads and 35mm slides are similar (though certainly not the
same).These sections of the book also provide comprehensive references
to the research to help you decide about issues raised in other posts
(e.g. serif and sans serif). The research literature shows quite clearly
that either style of typography can be employed for online displays, but
that extra care needs to be taken in choosing serif faces. A heavier
weight serif font with sturdy, uniformly thick letterforms can be just
as good a choice as a clean looking sans serif face.

So far my favorite book on designing presentations is this one:

McGraw, K. L. (1992). Creating desktop presentations that work.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

I like it because it takes a cognitive approach, focusing on thinking
through the task of designing a presentation, not just on using
software. She also has nice examples of colors that work and that don~t
on overheads and slides. And seems to know her stuff since she also
wrote a book on Powerpoint. A limitation of the book is that the book
seems  dated in that most of the references to software are obsolete
(e.g., who still uses MacPaint?).

I~d like to find a great book that gives state of the art knowledge on
planning, writing, designing, visualizing, producing, and delivering
high quality presentations. I~m looking for one with references to the
research not just glib armchair assertions. I~m so tired of watching
presentations in which I can~t see the slides, in which data is poorly
displayed, in which garish colors are used, and in which dancing letters
take priority over good content.

good luck and please post what you find,

karen schriver
KSA, Document Design and Research

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