Designing Document & Powerpoint

DESIGNING DOCUMENT & POWERPOINT

Introduction

Good document design focuses on the reader. Good design saves money by preventing errors and reducing the number of phone calls from customers who don’t understand what they are supposed to do. Employees can be freed up to do other work-including providing better customer service. Good design can ensure that important messages get heard. Good design shows customers that you care about their time and want to make tasks easier for them.

The importance of Effective Design

When document design is poor, both organizations and society suffer. The nuclear accident at Three Mile Island could have been prevented if safety guidelines recommended 17 months before the accident had been implemented. But none of the 12 people who received the memo responded. The memo was ignored because the subject line was vague, the writing was ineffective, and the recommendations were on the second page. The challenger space shuttle blew up because its O-rings failed in the excessive cold. Poor communication – including charts that hid, rather than emphasized, the data contributed to the decision to launch.

Guidelines for page design

1. using white space to separate and emphasis points

2. use headings to group points and lead the reader through the document

3. limit the use of words set in all capital letters

4. use no more than two fronts in a single document

5. decide whether to justify margins based on the situation and the audience

6. put important elements in the top left and lower right quadrants of the page

7. use a grid of imaginary columns to unify visuals and other elements in a document

8. use highlight, decorative devices, and color in moderation

Designing Brochures

To design brochures and newsletters, first think about audience and purpose. An ‘image’ brochure designed to promote awareness of your company will have a different look than an ‘information’ brochure telling people how to do something and persuading them to do it. Use this process to create effective brochures:

1. Determine your objectives

2. identify your target audience

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3. identify a central selling point: one overarching reader benefit the audience will get

4. chose the image you want to project

5. identify objections and brainstorm ways to deal with them

6. when text is important, draft text to see how much room you need

7. Experiment with different sizes of paper and layout.

8. make every choice – color, font, layout, paper – conscious one

9. polish the prose and graphics, use you-attitude and positive emphasis

Design Presentation Slides

As you design slides for PowerPoint and other presentation programs, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• use a big font: 44-or50-point for titles, 32-point for subheads, and 28-point for examples.

• Use bullet-point phrases rather than complete sentences.

• Use clear, concise language

• Make only three to five points on each slide. If you have more, consider using two slides.

• Customize your slides with the company logo, charts, downloaded Web pages, and scanned-in photos and drawings.

Using Visuals

Visuals help make numbers meaningful and thus help communicate your points in telecasts, oral presentations, memos, letters, reports, and meetings. Data can be turn into graphs and other visuals. Visual can present numbers dramatically. The consumer federation of America crystallized discontent with high interest rates on consumer loans by issuing a simple three-page study with a graph showing that while the prime rate was going down, interest on consumer loans was going up.

• use visuals to see that ideas are presented completely. A table, for example, can show you whether you’ve included all the items in a comparison.

• To find relationship. For example, charting sales on a map may show that the sales representatives who made quota all have territories on the East or the West Coast.

• To Make points vivid. Readers skim memos and reports; a visual catches the eye. The brain processes visuals immediately. Understanding words written or oral – takes more time.

• To emphasize material that might be skipped if it were buried in a paragraph.

• To present material more compactly and with less repetition than words alone would require.

Designing Visuals: using the following steps to create good visuals:

1. check the source of the data

2. determine the story you want to tell

3. choose the right visual for the story

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4. Follow the conventions for designing typical visuals (tables, pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, photographs, drawings, sketches, maps, and Gantt charts).

5. Use color and decoration with restraint.

6. Be sure the visual is accurate and ethical.