Text & Fonts
Visual Clutter and the Loss of Intent
October 29, 2007
Over at Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds writes about Lewis Black going
off at TV executives during the Emmys regarding
the sheer amount of clutter on the screen these
days. Here's a quote from the rant:
(Head over to Presentation Zen for a video of the whole thing.) This reminds of when the wife and I went out to see The Simpsons Movie. At one point during the movie, a mock ad for FOX programming appeared along the bottom of the screen. It recieved knowing laughter from the audience, but I remember hearing some other audience members expressing moments of bafflement – wondering if the studio had in fact resorted to plugging itself during its movies.
Mr. Reynolds goes on to speculate that this visual bombardment reinforces much of the bad PowerPoint design we see in presentations today.
The same is true of several websites. The main content seems to take a back seat to the self-referencing links and advertisements splattered across the page. I took these screenshots of a couple popular websites and blacked out everything that wasn't article content.
x
The noise ratio on these pages is very high. Contrast this to a couple of (in my opinion) good blogs: Daring Fireball and Cabel's Blog.
x
On both of these pages, there is much more signal than noise. Daring Fireball has two ads and a simple menu while Cabel's Blog has no ads. Both sites feature very clean layouts and priority is given to content – a practice that I think respects the reader more than those corporate sites.
As Mr. Reynolds points out, these same principles apply to our slides. We can follow a traditional corporate approach to our visuals that contains a lot of clutter that overwhelms our audience with graphics and information, or we can take a simpler, more basic approach. Here are a couple of mockups based off Apple's recent fourth-quarter quarter financial results.
The first slide indeed has more information on it, but is that information presented effectively? It is conventional, but does it respect your audience? It took me a lot longer to create that first mockup, but I think the second is actually the better slide. It presents the most important fact clearly and succinctly. The touch of humor adds a human element without detracting from the overall package or insulting the audience's intelligence. It allows your audience to focus on you after the snapshot of information rather than forcing them to concentrate on deciphering small text among competing visuals.
Whatever your medium of communication, simpler is almost always better. Reduce the clutter. Eliminate visual noise, and allow the main focus of your content to shine through.
"Your job is to tell stories, it's not to tell us in the middle of the story what show is coming on next or which one is premiering two weeks from now! What do you want me to do, stop and get a pencil and write it down? Do you want me to stop watching and prepare myself for the next show?"
(Head over to Presentation Zen for a video of the whole thing.) This reminds of when the wife and I went out to see The Simpsons Movie. At one point during the movie, a mock ad for FOX programming appeared along the bottom of the screen. It recieved knowing laughter from the audience, but I remember hearing some other audience members expressing moments of bafflement – wondering if the studio had in fact resorted to plugging itself during its movies.
Mr. Reynolds goes on to speculate that this visual bombardment reinforces much of the bad PowerPoint design we see in presentations today.
When possible, put more "stuff" in there--more glitter, more boxes of info, more colors, more, more, more. Is this where "bad PowerPoint" comes from? Do we say to ourselves "Well, if CNN (FOX, MSNBC, etc.) does it I guess more text and lines and boxes, more logos and 3-D graphics in assorted colors must be how it's done. That's how serious presenters with serious tools do it," we say.
The same is true of several websites. The main content seems to take a back seat to the self-referencing links and advertisements splattered across the page. I took these screenshots of a couple popular websites and blacked out everything that wasn't article content.
x
The noise ratio on these pages is very high. Contrast this to a couple of (in my opinion) good blogs: Daring Fireball and Cabel's Blog.
x
On both of these pages, there is much more signal than noise. Daring Fireball has two ads and a simple menu while Cabel's Blog has no ads. Both sites feature very clean layouts and priority is given to content – a practice that I think respects the reader more than those corporate sites.
As Mr. Reynolds points out, these same principles apply to our slides. We can follow a traditional corporate approach to our visuals that contains a lot of clutter that overwhelms our audience with graphics and information, or we can take a simpler, more basic approach. Here are a couple of mockups based off Apple's recent fourth-quarter quarter financial results.
The first slide indeed has more information on it, but is that information presented effectively? It is conventional, but does it respect your audience? It took me a lot longer to create that first mockup, but I think the second is actually the better slide. It presents the most important fact clearly and succinctly. The touch of humor adds a human element without detracting from the overall package or insulting the audience's intelligence. It allows your audience to focus on you after the snapshot of information rather than forcing them to concentrate on deciphering small text among competing visuals.
Whatever your medium of communication, simpler is almost always better. Reduce the clutter. Eliminate visual noise, and allow the main focus of your content to shine through.
Frighteningly Friendly Fonts
August 06, 2007
Have you seen any of Hewlett-Packard's recent print
or web advertisements? These have been around for a
while, but I hadn't really paid too much attention to
them until two things happened: we got new HP's at
work, and I received one of their catalogues in the
mail.
In both cases, I kept getting distracted by their font selection. Here are a couple shots of their web ads to illustrate:
x
Why do I feel a sudden urge to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas?
We're in the heat of summer, and this whole campaign looks like Halloween. Even the colors reinforce that feeling. I don't know what feel they intended for this marketing, but "slightly creepy" was probably not the goal. ("They're creepy and they're cooky, the HP family...")
Font and color use contribute to the overall feel of your work – even in slide presentations. Sometimes, going with a default font is okay, but in other instances, you may want to pick and choose between fonts for the best results. I whipped these alternatives up in just a couple of minutes in Keynote, so they're far from perfect. However, I think they offer an alternate feel to the ads. (I'm partial to the laptop example, personally.)
x
How would you change these ads, or do you think they're fine how they are? Remember, if you are using visuals to communicate a message, every element is important, and this includes the font you choose. The wrong font can send your audience a mixed message, so take some time to browse those many fonts available on your computer.
In both cases, I kept getting distracted by their font selection. Here are a couple shots of their web ads to illustrate:
x
Why do I feel a sudden urge to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas?
We're in the heat of summer, and this whole campaign looks like Halloween. Even the colors reinforce that feeling. I don't know what feel they intended for this marketing, but "slightly creepy" was probably not the goal. ("They're creepy and they're cooky, the HP family...")
Font and color use contribute to the overall feel of your work – even in slide presentations. Sometimes, going with a default font is okay, but in other instances, you may want to pick and choose between fonts for the best results. I whipped these alternatives up in just a couple of minutes in Keynote, so they're far from perfect. However, I think they offer an alternate feel to the ads. (I'm partial to the laptop example, personally.)
x
How would you change these ads, or do you think they're fine how they are? Remember, if you are using visuals to communicate a message, every element is important, and this includes the font you choose. The wrong font can send your audience a mixed message, so take some time to browse those many fonts available on your computer.
(Text) Size Matters
February 27, 2007
We've touched on this issue in a couple of
other posts. The size of your font is important
if you care about the readability of your slides (and
if you don't care, slides
become pointless). Your audience does not
see your slides from the same vantage point you
view them from while preparing them. Something
that looks perfectly readable sitting right in
front of your display may be difficult for
others to see sitting several feet away – even
with an enlarged canvas.
In this slide, the title font is 48 points. The bullet text is 26 points. I don't think anyone would be particularly annoyed at me for creating a slide like this. In fact, it may just be ignored because it will be hard to read from a distance. Insisting on thought-mapping in complete sentences will almost always create a cramped slide. If I were to increase the font size of my bullet points here, the text at the bottom would completely disappear.
Consider this approach instead.
x
On these slides, the text is between 74 and 144 points. All of this can potentially be contained on one slide by building text out as you are finished and in as you get there, or you can split these into separate slides, and the visual flow will remain just as seamless. Instead of complete sentences, key words and facts are highlighted, and very few words are on each slide – allowing the audience to focus on what's most important and allowing you room to place the text and avoid clutter.
Clear and concise text creates a better experience for your audience. Don't feel obligated to load your slides with text. Pick out important words or figures and let your narration fill in the context. After all, your slides are supposed to be supplementing what you say rather than supplanting you. Guy Kawasaki suggests always using 30-point fonts of bigger in your presentation. If you find yourself dropping below 30 points in order to fit more text, stop. Reevaluate what you have on the slide. Reduce the quantity of words and focus on what is most important, allowing for larger and more readable text.
Larger, more direct text will create a better impact and will therefore better reinforce your message. Bullets and sentences are bland and predictable. Text can be a powerful tool, so use it effectively. You might find your presentations the better for it.
In this slide, the title font is 48 points. The bullet text is 26 points. I don't think anyone would be particularly annoyed at me for creating a slide like this. In fact, it may just be ignored because it will be hard to read from a distance. Insisting on thought-mapping in complete sentences will almost always create a cramped slide. If I were to increase the font size of my bullet points here, the text at the bottom would completely disappear.
Consider this approach instead.
x
On these slides, the text is between 74 and 144 points. All of this can potentially be contained on one slide by building text out as you are finished and in as you get there, or you can split these into separate slides, and the visual flow will remain just as seamless. Instead of complete sentences, key words and facts are highlighted, and very few words are on each slide – allowing the audience to focus on what's most important and allowing you room to place the text and avoid clutter.
Clear and concise text creates a better experience for your audience. Don't feel obligated to load your slides with text. Pick out important words or figures and let your narration fill in the context. After all, your slides are supposed to be supplementing what you say rather than supplanting you. Guy Kawasaki suggests always using 30-point fonts of bigger in your presentation. If you find yourself dropping below 30 points in order to fit more text, stop. Reevaluate what you have on the slide. Reduce the quantity of words and focus on what is most important, allowing for larger and more readable text.
Larger, more direct text will create a better impact and will therefore better reinforce your message. Bullets and sentences are bland and predictable. Text can be a powerful tool, so use it effectively. You might find your presentations the better for it.
What Does Your Font Say?
July 27, 2006
When you make a document or a presentation, the font
you choose is a form of communication. Unfortunately,
I have seen many examples of a chosen font
communicating a very different mood or feeling than
the material is intended to generate.
x
In the two slides above, the first is displaying its information in Chalkboard, a font very similar to the overused Comic Sans. The second slide is using Copperplate. Which font communicates the mood of the material more precisely? Chalkboard has friendly rounded letters and looks very casual and easy-going. Copperplate is a much more formal looking font.
These slides present material about a very serious topic. Therefore, a serious font should be used. Next time you are creating a presentation, take note of what font you are using. As mentioned in prior posts, make sure you are using an easy-to-read font, but, along with this, be sure that your font does not detract from the larger message of your presentation.
x
In the two slides above, the first is displaying its information in Chalkboard, a font very similar to the overused Comic Sans. The second slide is using Copperplate. Which font communicates the mood of the material more precisely? Chalkboard has friendly rounded letters and looks very casual and easy-going. Copperplate is a much more formal looking font.
These slides present material about a very serious topic. Therefore, a serious font should be used. Next time you are creating a presentation, take note of what font you are using. As mentioned in prior posts, make sure you are using an easy-to-read font, but, along with this, be sure that your font does not detract from the larger message of your presentation.
Simple As Black & White
July 16, 2006
Text color can be a tricky thing in presentations. We
want to be somewhat color-coordinated when we
assemble our slides, but sometimes we create text
that blends in with those slides as a result. It's
not unusual to see, for example, darker blue text on
a light blue background. In the images below, the
first picture is the theme default for text color in
Apple Keynote's Watercolor theme. In the second
image, I've merely changed the text to black.
Sitting at your computer, the first example picture is not so bad, but imagine trying to read it in the back of a 400-seat auditorium or even the back of a standard classroom. See, contrast is important.
Unfortunately, we can sometimes make grievous errors in regards to contrast. Take a look at the next two examples:
The background is darker in these examples, and the text definitely contrasts the background in our first picture. I don't know about you, but that hurts my eyes, though. I've seen this more in PowerPoint than in Keynote, but it can be fixed by simply changing the text to a neutral color – white in this case.
In general, black and white are the best choices when putting text on slides. Yes, color is nice on occasion. My slides on attachment use colored text in small doses as do two of my sermon presentations. However, when playing with color, it can be easy to make your slides harder to read. When in doubt, use black on light backgrounds and white on dark, plain and simple.
Sitting at your computer, the first example picture is not so bad, but imagine trying to read it in the back of a 400-seat auditorium or even the back of a standard classroom. See, contrast is important.
Unfortunately, we can sometimes make grievous errors in regards to contrast. Take a look at the next two examples:
The background is darker in these examples, and the text definitely contrasts the background in our first picture. I don't know about you, but that hurts my eyes, though. I've seen this more in PowerPoint than in Keynote, but it can be fixed by simply changing the text to a neutral color – white in this case.
In general, black and white are the best choices when putting text on slides. Yes, color is nice on occasion. My slides on attachment use colored text in small doses as do two of my sermon presentations. However, when playing with color, it can be easy to make your slides harder to read. When in doubt, use black on light backgrounds and white on dark, plain and simple.