Designing Good Powerpoint Slides

Today, Microsoft PowerPoint have become an integral part of a majority of presentations. PowerPoint allows its user to go through a series of slides in order to present an idea, an assignment or even a plan. Due to wide accessibility of PowerPoint, it has became the staple presentation software for students, lecturers, business people, and anyone who wants to pitch an idea. With the latest upgrades to PowerPoint, users are now open to even more features such as including videos, hyperlinks, preset design fonts, and music.

To create good a PowerPoint slide, it is important to refer back to the basics of communication design. This can be referred back to Kress, G. & van Leeuwen (KvL). KvL discusses about the new ways of visual communication today, in which would suggest that communicative material should include pictures that narrate in tandem with the words written. (Kress, 2006) To apply, this means that slides should always be accompanied by pictures to facilitate salience for its viewers. (Karen, 1997)

It's good to note that today's PowerPoint slides also allow for videos and music to be included, depending on the type of presentation and the target audience, PowerPoint slides could include interesting videos (Melanie, 2013) - this will give the viewer more reason to pay attention as well as potentially make the presenters part in describing easier. Music on the other hand, should be picked carefully as it is uncommon; should be instrumental - music can be accompanied by presentations with more emotions attached to it.

Lastly, placement of materials in the slides are also important. For instance tendencies to read from left to right should be considered; in addition, the balancing of words and the margins should also be considered as to not disorient and cause miscommunication to the viewer.

P.s. This guide assumes that the presenter is understands his/her topic well and are able to apply the techniques present with relevant media alongside the presentation topic.

References

Karen A. Schriver. 1997. Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers. The interplay of words and pictures. New York. Wiley Computer Pub. Ch. 6, pp. 361-441

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 1. pg 23-34

Melanie, P. Lifehacker: How Can I Make My PowerPoint Presentations Amazing?
http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-make-my-powerpoint-presentations-amazing-507552122