Yet there is an issue where I am quite black and white and adverse to technicolour solutions (the rainbow coalition?!): power point slides.
Recently I sat through a talk where the speakers slides had every dot point in a different colour.
I really find this hard to read and distracting.
Yet this is not unusual.
What is wrong with plain old black and white and traditional fonts?
Below is a random choice of one of my slides. It is not very creative or glamorous but it is easy on the eyes and brain.
Fonts: you're not alone.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it makes sense though to have statements colored with the same colors as the datapoints (measured under different conditions/different samples/...) to create a coherently "labeled" presentation.
I.e. labeling does not only have to pertain to figures. I would limit this to individual words, or bullet colors. OTherwise it's a circus that distracts.
Background: this depends on your eyes; it can be quite a load on the eyes to have to look at a very white slide (like yours) - depending on the brightness of the projector.
Having a uniform darker colored background may therefore be justifiable.
On a basic level the goal is to convey information.
If the formatting distracts some people from the contents, one has to ask the question: do I really need this formatting to make things clear, or can I do it in a simpler way without a colored circus.
In the end, also that will be a subjective thing.
One has to answer the basic question: how do you reach the largest fraction of the audience?
No, I strongly agree. I also find complicated slides really challenging - several graphs, everything in small font, bits that pop up as we go. Let just have a few key things per slide please. Turn that complicated slide into five.
ReplyDeleteI guess then you can't skip through it in one minute expecting everyone followed you.
Plain, simpel, minimalistic. Apple style. I think you even have too much text on that slide. But it depends on how you present it.
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