Professional Documents
Culture Documents
B Y F R A N C I S T. D U R S O , V L A D L . P O P, J O H N S . B U R N E T T, & E R I C J . S T E A R M A N
Tips for improving comprehensibility of slide presentations are drawn from human
factors/ergonomics research.
F
We have all experienced the presenta- empirical studies have investigated the
or 30 years, Microsoft PowerPoint tion that falls short of clarity because of HF/E of hard copy and computer displays,
has been available to aid in the poor choices in the design of the far fewer studies directly assess the HF/E of
transfer of ideas in virtually every PowerPoint slides. There are many reasons projected presentations. In this article, we
professional and pedagogical that a presentation may be unclear or use principles developed for nonprojected
venue. Although important work uninteresting. Indeed, experienced present- text and cautiously generalize to
is being done to investigate other means of ers know that the PowerPoint slides are projections.
idea transfer (e.g., Miller et al., 2008), only a supplement to the presentation, not In an effort to make this report easy to
PowerPoint is the primary medium and is the presentation itself. In addition to expe- use, we report advice in boldface type, with
likely to remain so for some time to come. rience, other sources (e.g., Toastmasters, relevant points to the discussion made
The Microsoft program gives the rhetoric analysis) are available to aid the afterward in plain text. On occasion, we
speaker a large number of options along a orator in improving public speaking skills. depart from our lean format to offer an
variety of dimensions, from font type and In the current work, we restrict our guide- explanatory paragraph. Also, we depart
size to text color and background. The lines to the perceptual and cognitive prin- from the standard style guide by reporting
options provided by PowerPoint permit ciples relevant to designing good page numbers in brackets when we cite
Copyright 2011 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1177/1064804611416583
virtually boundless flexibility. However, if PowerPoint slides. support for a particular guideline to allow
the objective is to be clear and informative, In lieu of guidelines based on empiri- interested readers to explore further the
many of the options available would be cal comparisons or basic principles, a num- evidence underlying the guideline.
contraindicated by basic human factors/ ber of documents on the Web offer advice, The goal of supplying a clear, easy-to-
ergonomics (HF/E) principles. In this presumably on the basis of personal, and use set of guidelines also required that we
article, we apply a number of HF/E perhaps professional, experience. These
principles to help you increase the impact documents offer, at best, arbitrary sugges-
of your presentation and to help avoid tions and, at worst, guidelines than can
common missteps. compromise idea transfer. AT A GLANCE: For decades, the vehi-
Instead, we take advantage of scientific cle of choice for idea transfer has been
Adding Human Factors Power to and engineering sources, such as Sanders Microsoft’s PowerPoint. PowerPoint
PowerPoint and McCormick (1993) and the gives the orator a plethora of options
Much of the information needed to Department of Defense (1999) design cri- in the design of a presentation. Choos-
design effective PowerPoint slides already teria standard. Some of the criteria were ing configurations for the most effec-
exists in the arsenal of empirical research, intended for printed text, but we find them tive presentation can prove daunting,
standards, and principles of HF/E profes- to be applicable to presentations, given the and even professional presentations
sionals. Indeed, the issue of translation high resolution of modern projectors. We bear witness to the difficulty of choos-
from existing data and first principles is a also apply basic display principles (e.g., ing wisely. Guidelines based on a col-
characteristic of much of human factors Lehto & Buck, 2008; Wickens, Lee, Liu, & lection of basic human factors/ergo-
engineering and engineering psychology Becker, 2004) to the PowerPoint presenta- nomics principles and a few empirical
that allows for the fast and effective modi- tion. When more recent empirical work is studies are presented for effective
fication of design. The translation problem available, we note the findings, although PowerPoint presentations.
we address here is one of applying already there is not always sufficient research to KEYWORDS: text, font, display,
existing facts and principles from HF/E to warrant sweeping claims. Surprisingly, graphics, PowerPoint, visual aids
the PowerPoint presentation. although a considerable number of
idea per slide with bullets related to that Charts, Graphs, and Tables visual angle as feasible. Search time for
idea. Avoid the 3-D graph option. The 3-D information is a function of the number of
Use bullets (not multiline graphs appear to give two estimates for the groups, so minimize the number of groups
paragraphs). For a variety of reasons, both y-axis and can make it difficult to discern by keeping each group as close to 5° of
ergonomic and rhetorical, the slide should values. They can also give the false illusion visual angle as feasible (Sanders &
be a collection of short bullets that assist of volume (Sanders & McCormick, 1993 McCormick, 1993 [p. 116]).
you in making the presentation. This [p. 118]). Less is more as long as it is enough.
recommendation will also help you avoid Do not use more than five or six colors Search time and errors increase as the
the urge to read the slides as your or shapes. When using colors to label amount of information increases, so keep
presentation. categories in graphs or charts, do not use density low but make sure you include the
Bullets should be affirmative and in more than five or six colors. People will crucial information (Sanders &
active voice. People have difficulty have difficulty making the necessary McCormick, 1993 [p. 114]). Targets in
processing negatives or marked nouns distinctions (Wickens et al., 2004 [p. 187]). sparse groups are searched earlier, found
(e.g., short is more difficult than tall; This recommendation also applies to the faster, and less likely to be missed
Clark, 1969). They also more easily shapes used to designate data points. (Halverson & Hornof, 2004). See Figure 3.
understand active rather than passive Adding redundancy (e.g., texture, patterns) Position the legend to minimize
statements. to the graphs will enable viewers to information access costs (Wickens et al.,
Use no more than 4 ± 1 bullets on a discriminate among more objects and will 2004 [p. 189]). PowerPoint’s default
slide. The bullets on a slide are meant to be also aid those with color deficiencies. (See presentation of a marginal legend might
integrated to support the main idea of the Figure 2.) be improved by either explicitly labeling
slide. This requires people to process the Preview the color graphs. Although it curves with the use of the text box feature
bullets in working memory, which seems is advisable to preview all aspects of your or, in more complicated graphs, by
limited to three to five pieces of presentation, this guideline is especially moving the legend closer to the data. (See
information (e.g., Cowan, 2001). true for colors. Projectors will not faithfully Figure 2.)
Avoid distracting elements. If render the colors you choose. Colors that
attention is moved to an irrelevant part of look obviously different on your computer Conclusion
a situation or divided between the may look less discriminable when The guidelines presented here have
distraction and the situation, projected. In fact, it may be possible to find received support from cognitive and HF/E
comprehension will suffer (Lehto & Buck, out precisely the projector that will be used research, standards, and basic principles.
2008 [p. 97]). This general principle warns and plan accordingly. A call to the Red Like any technology, the effective use of
against the use of animation and other Rock Hotel revealed that a 5,000-lumen PowerPoint requires that it be integrated
features that will distract from the Sony PLC XP56 would be a best guess for effectively into the human-technical
expository point. It allows, however, for most speakers at the Human Factors and system. A variety of HF/E principles with a
ancillary materials, such as photographs or Ergonomics Society’s 2011 Annual long history can be used to improve the
images, that will emphasize the main Meeting. PowerPoint presentation, just as such
points or make the main point more Organize tabular data into groups principles can improve any display used by
memorable. and keep these groups as close to 5° of humans to accomplish a task.
Figure 3. A sample layout from a mixed-density trial that Halverson and Hornof (2004)
used in their research of local density on visual search. Their study found that targets in sparse groups are
searched earlier, found faster, and less likely to be missed.
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