Make Engaging Presentations | Hacker News Reader

Make Engaging Presentations

dtsironis.net

14 pointstsironakos10 comments

>For example, if you’re presenting about a cutting-edge technology, you don’t want to use neither a serif font nor a curly/hipster font.

I really don't understand why a serif font is not for "cutting-edge" projects, can someone explain this to me?

I actually like using serif fonts in my presentations...

Concept association. Most books, academic papers, and other printed materials use serif fonts; a serif font thus tends to convey a more authoritative, dignified, academic look, more strongly associated with traditional publishing and all that implies. That's what you want in many contexts, but not if you want to give an impression of "so cutting-edge it isn't in print or other traditional media yet".

It isn't a rational reason, but it's a very real one. See also the studies on the perceived authority of various fonts (Computer Modern and similar near the top, Times and similar in the middle, Comic Sans at the bottom).

I couldn't have said it better :)

As a guy who struggles with design -- which entirely my own hangup -- I was exited when I clicked on this article. However, I've got to say, reading about design doesn't do much for me -- and I feel like I'm the posts target demographic!

If we're talking about design, I'd argue that "show" is a few orders of magnitude better than "tell." This goes double for when the article begins talking about color usage.

> 3. Colours is the single most important thing of design

The most important thing!? Then why does this section sum up to

A) Use good colors B) Don't not use good colors.

This is a section ripe for a couple of visual examples, man! Are certain color combinations the equivalent of Comic Sans?

>Just a tip here: not all palettes work well for a presentation. Firstly, some palettes have too much contrast.

I have no idea what that means. Is Black on White out? That's about as high contrast as you can get -- and that was my go-to. Could a guy get an example of too much contrast? Too low contrast?

Help a guy out! :)

Hey, thanks for commenting. Lemme try to answer some of your questions.

> 3. Colours is the single most important thing of design

Colors are indeed the important aspect of design, but they're also hard to choose and understand. In general, you have to know some things about colour theory when choosing a palette. I'd recommend to you to choose a popular palette from the sites I referred to in the article. Another option is to find a nice presentation and copy its palette. Speaker Deck is definitely your go-to choice for this.

>Just a tip here: not all palettes work well for a presentation. Firstly, some palettes have too much contrast.

Contrast is (simply put) the difference between two colors. It is often used to create vivid and colorful images, example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/louisgely/4409863711/in/photost.... That might work great for art and photography, but it's not easy for our eyes. In fact, when you're having a too contrasty palette it might look great on your computer but it will be difficult for viewers to read it comfortably. Also, consider that the projectors usually have different color profiles and not having enough contrast could become an even bigger problem. Generally you need a nice balanced palette eg. https://speakerdeck.com/geeforr/whats-new-in-ruby-2-dot-0. Finally, when you're using only black and white in your palette, everything looks plain and emotionless, at least to me.

To conclude, colors are hard but there are ways to find good palettes around.

P.S.: I should edit my original post and clarify these things, add some examples as well.

One simple thing to make presentations visually appealing is to ensure a consistent style. If you are using outlined shapes, stick with outlined shapes. If you are using semi-transparent boxes stick with them. So often I see presentations with multiple type faces (where it isn't warranted) and different styles of diagrams. It can be distracting and give the sense that the presentation was just hastily assembled from various other presentations (whether true or not).

So true. That includes font sizes as well. I tend to use max. 3 font sizes

It's ironic that the typography of the website is totally broken on mobile.

I have plans on adding support for mobile and to make it responsive in the near future.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi, please consider making your text less giant. E.g. compare the typography of http://screencast.com/t/lvyIZqbUExW

http://screencast.com/t/7RcJcMPNff

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