How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#1

Post by kikito » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 7:35 AM UTC

This meta-presentation can help anyone making a powerpoint with diagrams and/or flowcharts. It contains a set of very simple, easy to follow guidelines that should improve their visibility and attractiveness.

I was meant to be a short presentation to help my brother with his work, but it kindof took a life of its own. It was promoted to Slideshare's front page in less than 12 hours.

How to make awesome diagrams for your slides
slideshare.net

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#2

Post by mikeleeorg » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 10:18 AM UTC

Nice. Although in slide 36, technically, he's using 4 colors: white, black, red, and orange.

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#3

Post by adulau » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 11:18 AM UTC

Maybe he should recommend the use of the "LaTeX Beamer class"[1] along with TikZ[2]. I used the duo on different scientific presentations and everything was always properly displayed especially with complex graphs or formula.

[1] https://bitbucket.org/rivanvx/beamer/wiki/Home [2] http://www.texample.net/tikz/

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#4

Post by addandsubtract » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 11:41 AM UTC

mikeleeorg wrote: post #2

Nice. Although in slide 36, technically, he's using 4 colors: white, black, red, and orange.

He doesn't count the background as a color though. I'm more confused by slides 55 and 56.

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#5

Post by teadrinker » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 12:03 PM UTC

I really liked this. Thanks! Could I get a download link to the presentation that doesn't require me to sign up?

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#6

Post by cema » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 12:41 PM UTC

Interesting way he counts the colors. Makes sense though, after some thought.

Specifics: slide 34. Formula is (each item is a number of colors):

  fill + text + lines - background

The minimal number would be 2, with text=1, background=1, and no lines and filled shapes. That is the case with pure text slides, typically B&W.

When we draw lines and fill shapes, we may introduce additional colors, or what feels as adding colors to a purely B&W picture. We could also have portions of text and/or background color-coded.

In any case, the author apparently counts the number of additional colors. He suggests the number should be small (no more than 3, see slide 35), in order for the viewer to keep the "color coding" manageable.

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#7

Post by kabdib » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 1:27 PM UTC

Two tips:

Use colors in /addition/ to other indications. Roughly ten percent of males are red-green colorblind and cannot easily distinguish colors that contain these colors (e.g., purple = blue + red = BLUE to them). Also, projectors are usually pretty crappy at colors.

"If PowerPoint ever automatically chooses a smaller font for your text, you have too much on the slide." -- somebody wise

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#8

Post by pygy_ » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 2:00 PM UTC

This slide deck was brought to you by Enrique García a.k.a. Kitito[1], who's also the author (among other things) of the excellent "middle class" library, a class-based object system for Lua, and PÄSSION library collection, an OO-layer built on top of the LÖVE game framework.

[1] https://github.com/kikito

[2] http://love2d.org

/shameless plug from a fellow löver.

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#9

Post by thomas11 » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 2:04 PM UTC

What software do HNers use to make good diagrams? We have one suggestion for TikZ so far, which looks nice, but I don't really want to get out the TeX hammer for every little diagram.

Re: How to make awesome diagrams for your slides

#10

Post by mashmac2 » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 2:25 PM UTC

If you're looking for even more depth on Powerpoint design, I highly recommend Nancy Duarte's slide:ology. All of these tips, more depth, plus the why for all of them.

Presentation Zen Design from Garr Reynolds is another solid Powerpoint design guide.