I sure most of us who are savvy enough to get on the internet and somehow stumble upon my blog have at some point seen or done a power point presentation. I also know that the quality of these presentations may vary a great deal. Therefore I am compelled to present to you this little presentation called, ”Designing Like We Give A Damn” done by Maria and Katrina.

First of all, power point is about information. However I understand that how easy it is to get caught up on cheesy drop shadows and letter embosses with all the things that PP had to offer. That’s why I will talk about these traps little later. A point’s function is to get the content to the viewers in a straight forward format that is easy to understand. They are like note cards, except more high-tech. that is why bullet points and charts are very widely used given that they contain a large amount of information visually and takes up little space. But the thing to avoid is to have complicated graphs and many different types of curves that take it away for the simplicity of things. This is especially true when the PP is meant to compliment you speech. It is suppose to be a visual guide, not a complete story.

Second of all, aesthetics are important. It gives your presentation a professional and finished look that keeps the viewers interested. The PP created by Maria is a good example of how a unified color scheme could do wonders to the over all feel of the presentation. I can not specifically comment on what not to use given that each case is different, however a good rule of thumbs is to follow before adding anything for pure visual effects are as follows.

• Think if the new effect is consistent with other effects in the presentation.

• Think if the new effect takes away from the information being presented. It should not be a distraction even if it is cute.

• Think if the new effect serves as a function. Efficiency is important because after all that’s the whole beauty of the tool.

• Last but not least stay focused on topic, less is more.