Bear, Jacci, H. (2010) stated thatThe main purpose of PowerPoint slides is to deliver your purpose to the audience. Match the design with your purpose will be necessary for the designer. is it to persuade? entertain? inform? or sell? the using of colours, clip art and template must always be consistent with your purpose.
Reep,Diana,C. (2006) also stressed that every document design always refers to the physical appearance. the written text must work together with its presentation in order to deliver informations for audience.
figure 1.0
figure 2.0
Balance, in every design, having comparable visual 'weight'. design for the PowerPoint slide should not too pack and not too empty. "the most relevant law is that of equilibrium, or pragnanz, which suggests that items in a visual field strive for balance or equilibrium with other items in the field" (Bernhardt, A. 1986).
Look at figure 1.0 and 2.0 above, the structure of the element is balance including the color of the background. using colorful design on the left side will able to draw attention, and freshing the mind of the reader. as well as i am using white color background to balance up all the elements in the slide. providing white space in order to create balance and proportion for the slides.
providing enough white space for reader in order to help them to process the text efficiently as well as rests readers' eyes and direct them to the important information (Reep, 2006).
Proportion, its all about the size and placement of the element in a design. compare both figure 2.0 and figure 3.0, the size of text in 3.0 is not as much as 2.0. it is design so in order to avoid monotonous for reader (reep, 2006). The heading size will be so much bigger than the text. that is created in order to emphasize more on it. in figure 3.0, there is 2 columns table. the amount of space for the column must be balance up as well.
Sequence, the arrangement of the design must be in correct order. people always tend to read from top left and end up in bottom right. both figure 1.0 and 2.0 have good sequence arrangement in it. starting from the top with the most important element (heading) and continue with detail explanation on the heading/ topic.
Consistency, similar feature in a similar style (reep, 2006) included: margin, typeface, indentations. A fourth law of gestalt, the law of similarity, suggests that units which resemble each other in shape, size, color,or direction will be seen together as a homogenous grouping. (Bernhardt, A. 1986). in my slides, i only use 2 color text (purple and black). and 1 typeface (Constantia). same type of bullet, as well as same size of the margin.
Bernhard, A, S (1986), Seeing the Text, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Feb., 1986), pp. 66-78, National Council of teachers of English.
Reep, D. C.( 2006), ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed., Pearson-Longman, New York.
About.com. 2010. Before You create a PowerPoint Presentation. retrieved on 15th April 2010, at
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/microsoft/bb/powerpointrules.htm
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