4 simple principles to help you design better PowerPoint Slides for your presentations.

1. Principles of Good
Presentation Design
Free E-Book
By Vivek Singh
www.allaboutpresentations.com

2. What is this e-book about?
In this e-book you will learn about basics of good design.
These simple principles will help you make better looking
PowerPoint slides. These principles are simple to understand
and easy to apply.
Who is this e-book for?
Most of us think that good slides are only made by
professional designers and creative people. Most of us
consider ourselves; ‘not creative’. This book is for non-
designers, for novices like us who have no formal education
in design. We can become better designers with the use of
these simple techniques.
Credit for this e-book
This e-book is based on Robin Williams’
book; The Non-Designer’s Design
Book. I have tried to present a crux of
her excellent book and illustrated it with
examples (many of which are paper ads
taken from www.afaqs.com)
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3. Rights of Usage & Distribution
I hereby give you complete right to distribute this e-book to
anyone. You can use this e-book in any which way you want to.
Just mention the blog’s name and provide a link where ever
possible.
Blog’s name: All About Presentations
Blog’s URL: www.allaboutpresentations.com
Read this e-book online
This e-book was originally written as a six part series on my blog
All About Presentations. Given the popularity and importance I
am releasing it in this e-book form. Go ahead, read it and share it
with your friends and colleagues.
Links to read it online:
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
Chapter 4, Chapter 5 & Chapter 6
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4. Contents
Introduction: What makes a design look good? 5
Design Principle #1: Proximity Principle 9
Design Principle #2: Alignment Principle 15
Design Principle #3: Repetition Principle 20
Design Principle #4: Contrast Principle 26
Conclusion 31
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5. 1
What makes a design look good?
A good presentation is a result of three
things; meaningful content, good looking slides
and powerful & engaging delivery. These three
elements are equally important and we cannot get away
by mastering only one or two out of the three. Most of us
have no formal training in design and many of us do not
consider ourselves creative.
In this e-book, you will learn; what makes a design
appealing? Why do we like some slides and don't like
others? What are the basic principles we can use to
make our slides awesome?
Principles which are easy to understand and easy to
apply. Our guide here is Robin Williams and her book 'The
Non-Designer's Design Book'.
The term design applies to every type of design; slide
design (a PPT slide), newspaper advertisement,
newsletter, websites, etc. etc. The approach of her book is
very simple and anyone can understand and apply the
same.
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6. The Four Basic Principles
1. Contrast
2. Repetition
3. Alignment
4. Proximity
First, we need to understand each principle (this will be
covered in next few chapters). Second, we have to
recognise when we are violating them. Third, we have to
use the principles to make our design awesome.
What are these principles?
I will offer a small description here. We shall understand
each one in a separate chapter. But before we can
understand these principles we need to understand the
meaning of the term element. We will be using this word
often.
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7. Elements are the various objects on a page (or a
slide). A line of text or image placed physically together is
one element. Robin says, "To know the number of
elements on a page, squint your eyes and count the
number of times your eye stops, seeing each separate
item."
Example: In the image below, the visiting card on the top
has 3 elements whereas the one below has only 2. Notice
how your eyes moves to three places in the first card. In
the bottom card, because the logo and company name
are so close, they become one element.
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8. Let us now understand about the four principles in brief.
Contrast - Contrast makes the design attractive. This is
what gets reader's attention. It also helps organise the
design so readers know what is going on.
Repetition - Repetition is consistency. All the slides of a
presentation should have a consistent design for audience
to know it is from the same presentation. Even within a
slide consistency matters. It brings unity to design.
Alignment - Every element in the design has to have a
visual connection with the other elements. It gives the
design a balanced unified look.
Proximity (Closeness) - Elements which are not related
should be placed far away. Elements which are related
should be placed physically together.
We will understand each principle with practical examples
in the following chapters.
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9. 2
Design Principle #1: Proximity
What does it mean?
This is the first principle of good design. Proximity means
closeness. Physical closeness of elements on the slide.
What is the Proximity Principle?
On a slide there are many elements (images, text). The
elements which are related should be placed together
(physically closer) on the slide. The elements which are
not related should never be placed together. Physical
closeness (proximity) implies a relationship.
Example #1
Look at the example on the next page. This is something
very similar to what Robin shares in her book. Which
visiting card looks better?
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10. The one at the bottom looks better. There were 4
elements on the top visiting card. The proximity principle
wants us to group the similar elements together. So we
put investment banker with the name. We put the logo
with the company name and address. Thus we make the
card more organised, easy to understand and more
appealing.
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11. What are the benefits of following this principle?
1. The slides become more organised. Grouping similar
things makes logical sense. It also reduces the number of
elements on the page, thus the total 'space' is managed
better, visually.
2. This organisation tells readers where to start reading,
how to navigate through the page and where to end.
3. All of this enhances the communication. The slide
becomes easy to understand.
4. 'White space' is needed to rest the eye. By grouping
similar elements, we are freeing more white space. We
will understand more about 'white space' on page 31.
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12. Example #2
Let us take a look at this slide from Marico's presentation
taken from their website. Marico is a leading FMCG player
in India with market leadership position in hair oils. This
slides relates to that.
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13. This particular slide does not look very good. The space
on the slide is ill managed. The elements are all
haphazard. Let us try to apply what we learnt in this
principle. Place similar things together. Do not place
dissimilar things together.
The slide talks about two things: Volume market share &
Market size. The images in this case are only illustrative of
the brands they are talking about. PCNO is the blue bottle,
Nihar is the green bottle. I have marked 1 for elements
which relate to market share, 2 for market size and 3 for
images.
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14. By grouping these together, we arrive at this:
This slide looks much better. The white space has been
better managed. It can be improved further by applying
the other three principles of design, but we shall not do
that now.
Through this example we have learned how we can apply
the 'Proximity Principle' to a slide and improve it.
Tomorrow if we are touching up our slides we know
how we will use this principle and make a small but
important impact on the look and feel of the slide.
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15. 3
Design Principle #2: Alignment
What does it mean?
Alignment is the adjustment of an object in relation with
other objects (Wikipedia). You are aware of left alignment
(often called left justify) and right alignment. By alignment
here, we mean the way every element is positioned in
comparison to the other element.
What is the Alignment Principle?
Every element on the slide should have a visual
connection with other elements on the slide. A slide which
has all the elements aligned gives a more cohesive look. It
appeals more to the eye.
Robin suggests that every element should be aligned
in the same manner. If the slide header text is aligned
left, the body text should also be aligned left. Have a look
at the image below. The slide on the left is the most
common thing to do. Robin urges us not to. The slide on
the right gives a more 'balanced' look.
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16. Robin also urges us to avoid center alignment at all times.
Choose right or left but not center because it is too old
style and dull. Right or left alignment gives a more
sophisticated look. I am not sure why she is so against
center alignment. Personally I am not totally convinced.
But then she is the expert not me.
In the example below, center alignment is the worst choice
but that does not mean it is worse everywhere. I
personally need to study more examples before I can buy
her point fully.
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17. When there is text and a (related) image on a slide, align
the text to unite it strongly with the image. Take a look at
this example:
It is very clear which slide looks better. The text which has
been right aligned creates a unity. It strengthens the lines
of the book and creates a strong alignment.
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18. Alignment in real life?
After browsing scores of paper ads on the website
www.afaqs.com I figured out that most ads have the
basic alignment in place but they have not followed the
rule to the last word. Which I guess is fine. There is one
ad which kind of follows the principle to the last word.
Here it is.
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19. The header, the body text and the bottom text are all right
aligned. There is a strong structure which is visible
because of this alignment throughout.
What are the benefits of alignment?
Overall, aligning all the elements to each other makes the
various elements part of the same design. All the
elements appear united thus making the slide look better
and appeal more.
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20. Design Principle #3: Repetition 4
What does it mean?
Repetition is a simple word which means to repeat. To
repeat an element across the design. In our context, it
stands for consistency as well. Consistent use of elements
(colour, fonts, etc.) on a slide and throughout all slides.
What is the Repetition Principle?
This principle of good design states that we repeat some
aspects of the design throughout the presentation. It helps
organise information and guides your reader through the
presentation.
How to apply this principle?
Here are the a few tips to remain consistent throughout
the slides
1. Use a template (can be created by you as well) so that
the looks across all slides remain the same.
2. Use the same font size across all slides (one size of
header and one for body text).
3. Use the same font type across all slides.
4. Use the same font colour across all slides.
5. Use the same colour scheme for all tables & charts
(graphs) across all slides.
Repetition of elements can also be on one slide. To know
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more see examples below.

21. Example #1
Look at these three print ads which belong to the same
company. Even without reading a word you will know why
they belong to the same company.
There is a strong visual connect between all the various
ads (which are like slides only). The element of repetition
is at work here. This is an extremely helpful tip if you are
designing a newspaper ad, a website (inside pages), a
brochure or a newsletter.
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22. Example #2
There can be a repetition within the slide as well. Look at
this newspaper ad and find out what is being repeated
here and how is it affecting the audience?
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23. The element that is being repeated is the colour green.
This adds to our definition of element in the first post. An
element on a slide is a text, an image, a combination
of text and image or colour of image or text. The green
colour which comes at the top and bottom is making sure
your eye stays on the slide for more time and it alternates
between the top and bottom. This way we spend more
time reading the ad.
By now you have understood that these design principles
apply as much to slide design as to a newspaper
advertisement. We are using newspaper ads as examples
only to illustrate the principle. It does not mean our slides
should be as full of text as the paper ad above. An ad and
a slide are two different forms of communication and have
different purpose.
Example #3
Another example of repetition can be seen in the following
newspaper ad.
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24. The first three images are similar and the font style is also
similar. This is a repetition. This repetition ties these three
elements together and brings about unity in design. Had
these three images been totally different the unity would
have been lost.
I don't find this paper ad very nice but have still used it just
to give examples of 'repetition'. In the end, a design will
only look good when all the four principles of design come
together; contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.
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25. What more?
Break the rule in the interest of design. You need not
follow this principle to such an extent that it gets boring.
Break it when you feel so. Take the risk. Breaking this
repetition (if done once or twice) will get a lot of attention
which can be used to one's advantage.
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26. 5
Design Principle #4: Contrast
What does it mean?
Contrast means difference. The difference between two
elements on the slide. The difference can be of colour,
size, font type, bold and not bold, vertical and horizontal
text, etc. A simple example of contrast is the headline. See
the image below.
The two headline texts are in bold and they are bigger in
font. This is the contrast here. It makes it easy for us to
read the text.
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27. What is the Contrast Principle?
Contrast adds visual interest in the design and makes it
interesting. In order to be effective, the contrast HAS TO
BE strong. Example, font 18 and 20 is not a strong
contrast. A strong contrast would be 18 and 30. Contrast
also helps organise a document, so readers can skim
through the material.
In the image above which slide looks better? Which is
more catchy? The one on the right, and the reason is
'contrast'. A strong contrast gets attention. If the highlight
colour is made light grey the contrast will become poor
and lose it power.
The contrast principle states that we should find one
important thing on the slide and highlight it. If there are
two important things, bring them together physically and
highlight them as one element (unit).
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28. Our eyes always get drawn to contrast. This is a natural
tendency. Hence, we should decide the most important
point on a slide and use contrast to draw attention.
How to apply this principle?
Look at the ads below. Where does your eye fall first? Is it
the most important message?
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29. The contrast is poor. Whenever there is so much text in a
design, you need a strong contrast to focus the eyes on
the main point. There are many elements which get our
attention and nothing stands out well. The eye movement
is haphazard here.
Contrast this to another text heavy ad which we saw
earlier as well.
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30. The eye movements are well planned here. After we have
looked at the product, our eyes move to the brand name
(because of its larger bolder font), then to the header text
(larger font size and blue colour) and then to the bunch of
text above Neutrogena. This contrast helps readers
navigate better. It also focuses the readers on the brand
name.
Remember to have strong contrast on your slide. This will
enhance the visual appeal of the slide and make 'eye
navigation' easier.
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31. 6
Conclusion
In the last four chapters we have covered the four
principles of good design; Contrast, Repetition, Alignment
and Proximity.. In this post, we will learn a few simple
tricks.
1. Have a lot of white space on the slide
2. Avoid all capital letters in the text. It make the design
very busy and uncomfortable to read. The same rule
applies to emails as well.
3. Break all the rules.
White Space
The invisible element of any design is the amount of blank
space that is there in it. It is our tendency to fill the slide
completely with either text or image. Example, open a
newspaper and look for an advertisement by a small
company. You will see no blank space at all. After all, the
owner has paid for it and hence has to write as much as
he can.
The problem is, the less the white space (blank space) the
more the clutter. The more the white space the more
catchy the design becomes. Don't think so? Have a look
at these examples.
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32. This ad is by Apollo Munich Insurance and it is extremely
catchy. The moment there is so much white space, the
eyes gets draw, like a magnet, into the image in the
middle. Now look at the next ad.
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33. This ad is so full of text and hence so poor in catching our
attention. The only good part is the box above which is
catchy because of its contrast.
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34. This ad, in trying to be creative, commits the mistake of
being too busy. We should avoid having slides like that as
well.
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35. To conclude, remember that a good design happens
because of six things:
1. Contrast
2. Repetition
3. Alignment
4. Proximity
5. White Space, and
6. The guts to break all the rules (if need be)
Do not get bogged down by the rules and kill your
creativity. Know which rule you are breaking and for the
betterment of the design, break it!
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36. Image Credits
1. Cover Page: Rawich
2. All newspaper ads from: www.afaqs.com
Buy the Book (Highly Recommended)
The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams is
highly recommended. It is available on flipkart for Rs. 315
& also on Amazon. You can also buy the e-book from the
publisher's website. Read more about Robin Williams
here.
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37. By
Vivek Singh
www.allaboutpresentations.com
February 2011 37