Slide design guidelines

1. 10 Simple Guidelines to improve your PowerPoint1
By Patrick Lowenthal
1. The use of PowerPoint should support your learning objectives & instructional strategies
Sometimes the best way to improve your PowerPoint presentations is to not use them.
2. Avoid PowerPoint templates
PowerPoint templates tend to contain too much distracting material and often detract from your
presentation/lecture.
3. Avoid using more than one level of bullets
Bullets and numbered lists can be useful (if used sparingly) to help demonstrate main points, as
well as to illustrate relationships between ideas. However, nested bullets can quickly begin to
confuse learners. Further, students do not learn in bullets, rather it is the stories and the context
that connects the ideas that help students remember what they learn.
4. Less is better: less words & less slides
The more slides you have, the more time you are tied to the technology. Further students often
have a difficult time following the continuity from slide to slide. The more transitions you have, the
more your presentation/lecture is controlled by the technology. The more text you have on the
screen, the more time students are reading and not listening.
5. Avoid using distracting clip art or unrelated images
A picture can be worth a 1,000 words if it is meaningfully related. If it isn’t, it can even hurt
learning by distracting and confusing students. Further, most clip art, more often than not, are
simply bad cartoons. Find relevant photos, simulations, or videos or create your own graphical
representations of concepts.
6. Avoid distracting slide transitions
Fancy slide transitions distract and annoy learners. At some level, the technology should become
transparent. Flying text and complicated transitions simply detract from your message.
7. Use CARP (Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity) to improve design
Remember that if you want your learners to read your slides then you should make every effort to
make them more accessible to students.
8. Type Matters: Avoid using all CAPS
Remember that the font you use can make a difference. Avoid using all CAPS or word art and be
aware that italices and underlining can be harder to read than simply bolding the text.
9. Move beyond text by maximizing PowerPoint’s multimedia capabilities: use visual & audio
when appropriately
PowerPoint’s strengths lie in its visual and multimedia capabilities. If something is important for
your learners to have, give them a handout or a copy of your notes rather than pages and pages
of slides. Avoid using PowerPoint only for text.
10. Don’t let PowerPoint control your teaching and student learning
It is okay not to use PowerPoint. Technology in and of itself does not improve learning but rather
it is how we integrate it into our teaching that makes the difference. Be aware of PowerPoint’s
strengths and limitations and use it if, and only if, it can help promote student learning. Don’t let it
control what you do. And always have a back up!
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Please note that the rules change when you put PowerPoint presentations online.