Color evokes feelings! There are two general categories of colors
• cool (blue and green)
• warm (orange and red)
Use cool for backgrounds because cool colors recede from us into the background and use warm colors for objects in the foreground, like text because warm colors move objects towards us.

While not strictly color related, you want to consider the following advice: If presenting in a dark room, use a dark background with white text; but if presenting with lights on, use a white background with black text.

You can learn more about colors at CreativePro.com which provides an introduction to color use for Website, but the information is good for presentations as well. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest you visit the Color Matters which even explains why school buses are yellow.

You should use one visual theme throughout your presentation because you want to surprise your audience with the content and not with the layout. Do NOT use a PowerPoint template—your audience expects a unique presentation, they can browse these templates on their own and don’t need you for that. One way to use PowerPoint templates without using the Microsoft provided ones, is to create your own PowerPoint file as a Design Template (.pot), or pay a professional to do it for you! The other option is obviously to use Photoshop to create your template and then use layer comps for each slide which will be exported as PDF. See this example of the visualization of research streams at the Center for Dental Informatics where I am working which uses a consistent theme. Research at CDI.

Here it comes to the question of how can you undermine your professionalism as a presenter most efficiently. There are three ways to do this well: (1) use many PowerPoint clip arts; (2) download logos and low resolution images from the Internet; and (3) integrate cartoonish line into every slide.
If you want to create good slides, take your own images of real people. Why of real people? People connect to your audience emotionally—a cartoon doesn’t. So, what can you do if you have no time to take pictures of your own? You can easily buy stock photography for $3 at iStockphoto.com in suitable resolution. If you do not want to spend $3, cancel the presentation. Compare below Figure 1 with Figure 2-5—no explanation necessary!

Now, lets see how we can visualize the same content:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication (Leonardo da Vinci). The best slides may have no text at all. Show slides and NOT speaker notes! Slides are visual aids, not “text aids”! If your slides show what you say, the issue is: Why are you there? Here we come back to John Sweller and his Cognitive Load Theory: “If the information on the screen is the same as that which is verbalized, Power-point presentations can backfire because the audience’s attention will split between the speaker and the screen.”
Slides need to reinforce your words, not repeat them (adapted from Seth Godin).
You often here about the “3X4 rule” which says that you should have three bullets per visual and four words to a bullet. I actually do not like this rule since it enforces using bullets which is only in some instances a good idea, but in most it is not. Think about how to create a visual slide without text.

With that tip I refer to object builds or slide transitions. Animations should be a part of your presentation, but only to convey a meaning. If you cannot explain why you used an animation, delete it. See a demo of a useful PowerPoint animation (2 minute Flash video) which I have created to visualize the relationships captured in a software application using custom animations.

I’m going to Photoshop World Boston (March 25-27, 2009 Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA) for the amazing tutorials you can attend there, but let me list my personal top-ten reasons why I will attend:

1. 1. Photoshop World Boston 2009 Schedule, see details here
2. 2. Pre-Conference Classes, like On Location Wedding Photo Shoot with David Ziser
3. 3. Class Instructors, like Julieanne Kost Graphics Evangelist, Adobe Systems
4. 4. Photoshop World Expo, latest hardware, software, cameras, printers
5. 5. Special Events, like the Guru Award
6. 6. Midnight Madness event
7. 7. Workbook, 800 pages of detailed notes
8. 8. Photoshop Hall of Fame event
9. 9. Photoshop World After-Hours Party
10. 10.Price: It’s a great deal!

In the following eight installments of the blog, I will share a compilation of media tips which I have compiled a while ago for a presentation about effective presentation techniques. They often refer to Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) for practical reasons—reflecting that most users need to use PPT for a variety of reasons; however I advocate to replace PPT by either using Photoshop in combination with layer comps or Flash if you need more animation or interactivity. Anyway, the concepts and suggestions provided in the upcoming postings apply to presentation slides (and media) in general regardless of the program you use. So, here is the first installment.

If your talk is incomprehensible without the slides, this indicates that something is wrong! The slides are not the “star of the show” (your audience is!). The audience came to see you. You could have sent the PPT via email avoiding the hassle of a physical meeting. Visual communications guru, Edward Tufte, said: “…PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content. Thus, PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play—very loud, very slow, and very simple.”
“The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.” said John Sweller, an Australian educational psychologist who is best known for formulating an influential theory of cognitive load. However, what he really means is the way PowerPoint is used should be ditched—presenting streams of information to slides with general titles, clip art, and bulleted list after bulleted list in hierarchical format. Read more about presentations from Garr Reynolds, author of the book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery.

I have seen an intriguing and emotional talk about some statistical data of US citizens. I know, how can a talk about population data be exciting, but it really was! Chris Jordan manages to make these numbers come alive using large-scale visualizations. For instance, he creates a giant poster showing the plastic cups discarded every six hours by US airlines. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), describes Chris as one who “runs the numbers on modern American life—making large-format, long-zoom artwork from the most mindblowing data about our stuff.” Here a link to his 11 minute talk. Enjoy!

The widespread use of hue or color to represent quantities in graphs (e.g. blue for 10-20%, green for 21-30% etc.) is a habit that needs restraining. Don Norman* provides a superb explanation for why hue should not be used for displaying quantities:
“… hue is a substitutive representation, and the values of interest are usually additive scales. Hence hue is inappropriate for this purpose. The use of hue often leads to interpretive difficulties. Many colorful scientific graphics, usually generated by a computer, use different hues to represent numerical values. These graphics force the viewer to continually refer to the legend for mapping between the additive scale of interest and the hues. Density, saturation, or brightness would provide a superior representation.”

*More on graphical design principles can be found in Things That Make Us Smart (page 71) by Donald A. Norman. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1993

Legends explain graphics; at least, this is what we hope for. Humans are spatial animals very much dependent upon perceptual information. Keeping this in mind, graphics should use both perceptual and spatial relationships to make efficient use of our traits. Unfortunately, graphs that use arbitrary symbols require substantial cognitive overhead that takes away mental power we would otherwise use on understanding the main facts in the graph. This diversion of “brain power” may lead to errors and misinterpretations. To keep the naturalness principle* intact, ask yourself do I need a legend or can I design my graph without a legend and its arbitrary symbols, colors or shades? If you decide a legend is necessary, make the representation as meaningful as possible.

*More on naturalness can be found in The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1990