Faculty Development

Visual Design Guidelines

These Visual Design Guidelines apply to all visuals either presented through PowerPoint, overheads or 35 mm slides.

Text

• Limit the text on each slide to 6 lines per slide and 6 words per line
• Avoid using complete sentences
• Be consistent with lists or bullet items; start each with the same part of speech (e.g., all verbs or all nouns).
  • For verbs, use same tense and same voice (active or passive)
  • For nouns, use same case and same number (singular or plural)

Type

• Use large type (font size)
• Limit typefaces and type sizes to 1 or 2 throughout your presentation
• Use simple typefaces (Arial, Verdana)
• Type size should reflect importance of ideas (main points should be larger than supporting ideas)
• Never use of ALL CAPS (use bold or italicized instead)
• Never underline (use bold or italicized instead)
• Avoid hyphenating words onto two lines

Organization

• Use an introduction, body and summary format
• Limit each slide to one main idea
• Use bullets and numbers to organize ideas
• Leave a 1" - 1.5" margin on the document for necessary white space
• Prepare handouts for the audience prior to the presentation

Color and Graphics

• Use color sparingly; limit to 2 colors on contrasting backgrounds
• Use color for emphasis (e.g., yellow on blue)
• Black, green and blue works best on light background
• Avoid using red (it bleeds and is hard to read)
• Avoid low contrast colors (e.g., green on blue or orange on yellow)
• Avoid displaying complex or dense diagrams
• Use graphics and pictures to compliment your presentation (use minimal clipart)
• Be consistent on the placement graphics from slide to slide