PowerPoint presentations – can anybody actually read those slides?

July 11, 2007 · Posted in accessibility, Guest Blogger, user experience  · Posted by Mark Magennis

I see a lot of PowerPoint presentations and give a few myself. I’m always trying to do it better. Sometimes I fail, like when I tried to emulate Dick Hardt’s incredible presentation style which proved to be quite difficult and not really ‘me’. But at least I think I avoid some of the worst PowerPoint nightmares that you often see. In terms of usability and accessibility a lot of presentations are just plain rubbish! You see the same problems repeated over and over and you wonder how on earth presenters don’t cop on. But they don’t. So here are a few simple pointers to designing slides that won’t destroy the user experience for your audience.

Use large text

Then make it twice as large again. Seriously! You’re sitting a foot away from a good quality monitor when you write your slides. Your audience may be viewing a poorly projected image from 20 feet or more away. And not everyone has great eyesight. So fill the screen with big letters.

Use fewer words

You’ll have to in order to have a big enough text size, but it will make your presentation better anyway. Here’s an example of one of my slides from a recent presentation:

Slide containing the text Disability Act 2005 NDA Code of Practice in very large letters

I could have done this instead:

Slide with the heading Disability Act 2005 followed by three long paragraphs of very small text

But why put all that on the slide when I’m gong to say it anyway, and say it with feeling? The people at the back will strain to read it and everyone’s attention will be split between listening to me and reading the slide. If you need something to read yourself while you present, it’s better to use cue cards. Even worse is when a presenter writes what looks like a whole bible chapter on the slide then says only a few words about it. You’re left thinking “Hey wait a minute, what did I miss there?”. Pointless and damaging.

Be careful with colours and contrast

Venues, projectors and even projection screens vary a lot – a LOT! Poor setup and bad lighting can make the image on the screen very dim and washed out. How many times have you looked at what’s on your laptop, looked at what’s on the projector screen and thought “where did all my colours go?”. Your beautiful pink has turned into muddy brown and the blue is dishwater grey. It happens all too often. Be prepared, it can end up looking like this or worse:

Presenter in a bright room turning away from the audience to read from a slide containing lots of small yellow text on a background that fades top to bottom from mid blue to light blue
Taken from Presentation Zen.

Probably okay at the top, but with the graded background it becomes more and more difficult to read as you go down. Notice how even the contrasting colours at the top are rendered useless by having too much text which is too small. And what’s he doing with his back to the audience reading it? Come on! That’s not very engaging is it!

No complicated graphs or diagrams

What is the point of this?:

Slide titled Achieving Representation and containing a vastly complicated diagram consisting of a huge number of boxes, arrows and very small text labels
From “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq” by Thomas E. Ricks.

This is an actual slide used in a US Military briefing on Iraq. Although when you think about it, it’s actually quite an accurate picture of the chaotic situation it depicts.

That’s not all

Okay, following these 4 pointers won’t make you a super presenter like Dick Hardt or some of the guys featured on Presentation Zen. But it will ensure that people can actually read the content of your slides and they don’t get in the way of your words.

If in doubt, DO NOT ask advice from the people who created PowerPoint. You might end up with something like this:

Photo of Bill Gates presenting in front of a very large and colourful slide containing lots of photos, product titles and graphics depicting the relationships between elements of the Microsoft Live platform
Photo courtesy of Niall Kennedy.

Present clearly. Present well.

Mark Magennis (IIA guest blogger)

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Comments

3 Responses to “PowerPoint presentations – can anybody actually read those slides?”

  1. Cartoons For PowerPoint Graphics on November 14th, 2008 3:26 pm

    Use darker fonts in your presentations so the audience can absorb them properly. Overhead lighting will also interfere with actual vision but if they cannot be dimmed, dark font is a must. Also largr size font for a larger crowd is very necessary. Arial is probably the best for use.

  2. Chelsea M Heffner on February 20th, 2009 11:40 pm

    I like georgia and courier new for my fonts. They are both very large and designed specifically to be read on computer screens. I agree that you want to use large fonts for the following reasons:

    1. People in the back audience will be able to see the words.
    2. People naturally will read large print versus small print; people doze off or click away if the font is too small.
    3. It looks prettier because you have less room to use words, making your presentation slides sleeker and tidier.

  3. Angela on July 28th, 2010 1:09 am

    Yes, that is right. Avoid using light colors for your fonts or they would fade when you put them on the screens. Also make sure that what you put in your slides are the important and main issues. You can just then discuss or read the details about it, making the slides clear and concise.

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