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90% of the information that your brain processes is visual. By breaking down large, boring reports and documents into smaller, more visual components, communication is often made simpler and more effective. Part of PowerPoint’s appeal is to help make it easy for users to create visual content, graphics, typographical elements to aid in the process of business communications.
However, it is not always obvious to people how to use the toolkit made available by presentation software like PowerPoint. It is here that the principles of vision science come into play. SlideUpLift is an industry leader in utilizing the principles of Vision Science and Storytelling to create presentations that are perfect for every professional need.
There are four major aspects within Vision Science that correspond to presentation templates –
- Color
- Proportions
- Shapes
- Fonts
1. THE SCIENCE OF COLOR
One of the most fundamental aspects of vision science is the usage of the Color Theory. Savvy communicators ensure that they use colors effectively, creating the perfect palette for marketing, sales, designs, etc. The idea of colors influencing our behaviors and thought-process has been ingrained in the way colors have been historically used in advertising, brand promotions, and communication, that modern presentation making is incomplete without an adequate focus on colors and their impact on the audience.
In general, color palettes can be divided into larger families of complementary colors that work perfectly together to communicate effectively. Some of these palettes are extremely useful in presentation design and can form the bedrock of good visual design in PowerPoint templates. These include –
a. Monochromatic
Monochromatic Color Palette schemes are built of tones, shades, and tints inherent within a hue range. These are the easiest to do since you can simply pick the ranges within the same hue.
While these schemes are easy, they can lose attractiveness if not done thoughtfully. Some creative people like putting strong neutral colors like white or black to maintain viewer interest.
As an illustration, you can see a strip below. Generally, the first color makes up the topline. The second color is used in body text. The third color is often used as a backdrop. The last two help accentuate the content.
b. Analogous
Analogous Color Palette schemes are made up of using three colors that are adjacent to the 12-spoke color wheel. Analogous schemes do not require significant expertise.
This illustration is a common scheme, and popular and interesting, it lacks contrast for an effective slide presentation.
c. Complementary
Complementary Color Palette schemes are formed by bringing together colors from opposing parts of the color wheel. Foundationally, these schemes only have two colors, but can be extended taking advantage of tones, tints, and shades.
d. Split Complementary
Split Complementary Color Palette schemes bring a lot more variations than routine complementary schemes. Instead of using opposites, the user picks colors on either portion of the hue opposing the base hue.
e. Triadic
Triadic Color Palette schemes are built from hues equidistant in the color wheel. This offers tremendous variations. This requires more technical expertise but can be very appealing to the viewers.
See below an example of a graphic made using the right color principles
You can learn more about Color Theory in presentation design on SlideUpLift’s blog which lays down the basic principles of colors in visual design.
2. THE SCIENCE OF PROPORTIONS
In understanding the fundamentals of Vision Science, it is important to understand how aesthetics and art function. Of course, a good visual design does not require an Arts degree, but a very clear sense of proportions and their importance in communicating effectively in a visual manner.
One of the most interesting methodologies to ascertain proportions in visual design is by using the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is a simple tool that is used to place the art or graphic design into the perfect, most appealing proportions possible. The ratio is derived from what is called a Fibonacci sequence, a natural ubiquitous series of numbers, and can be found in nature and even on our own faces! It has historically been the perfect way to divide proportions in visual design.
Within presentations, this sequence and ratio can be applied in the creation of the layout, by dividing the rectangle into a golden proportional rectangle, following the idea of dividing it according to the principles of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio can be used to –
- Decide layout of the slide
- Graphic Design
- Typography
- Resizing/Cropping Images
- Logo Design
Here is an example of a slide made using these principles
To get a more detailed description of how to use the Golden Ratio in your presentations, read SlideUpLift’s blog that shows the several ways to implement the Golden Ratio in your layout, images, and fonts.
3. THE SCIENCE OF SHAPES
Shapes have a significant impact on the way we perceive an idea. In fact, numerous studies have proven that shapes are almost as effective as color in communicating ideas and using subconscious associations to emphasize a larger idea.
Shapes provide a framework for our communication, and it is what makes them so effective in terms of presentations. By using the right shapes, we can influence the audience into understanding our intentions and ideas better.
In order to understand how shapes, affect our ways of thinking, let us look at some of the most common shapes found in visual design and see how they are used to communicate specific ideas.
f. Triangles:
Triangles are reminiscent of hills or mountains, an elevated terrain meant to be climbed upon, moving upwards towards the sky. The idea, thus, becomes the notion of working towards a goal or moving to the top by having a solid foundation or a broader base. It is a shape used to represent a balanced or stable idea in a presentation.
g. Squares and Rectangles:
Squares and rectangles are the most commonly found shape in today’s world consisting of man-made objects. There is also a common perception of these shapes as strong, solid, and secure. The clear angles of these shapes also lend a sense of power and support to your visual design. So, these make for amazing organizational structures within your presentations. Be it through a table, or a layered infographic, using squares or rectangles to highlight information in the right place lends to its reliability.
h. Circles:
These are the calmest shape due to their lack of edges. Thus, it’s a carefree, smooth, and free-flowing shape. It makes the information seem complete and well-rounded, smoothly transitioning from dissonant aspects to a cohesive idea. These are great to highlight processes, cycles and other interdependent processes that happen in a business and need to be showcased in a presentation.
i. Polygons
Polygons represent strength and structure. When stacked together to form a honeycomb, they create a solid framework. Users often recall bees’ use of it to build their beehives.
Shapes can be an involved feature of presentations as having incompatible shapes can take away from the experience of a presentation. To learn more about how to use various kinds of shapes (such as polygons, curves, and spirals) in your presentation, read SlideUpLift’s deep-dive into the science of shapes.
4. THE SCIENCE OF FONTS
The Fonts that you use in your presentation play a significant role in keeping your audience engaged and your message clear. Fonts are essential in creating the tone of your presentation and can provide important typographical elements that highlight, dampen, focus, or clarify main points and ideas.
However, it is also quite easy to put off your audience with the wrong choice of fonts. In order to make your audience interested in your content, and have proper engagement with your presentations, there are a few rules to keep in mind, keeping in line with the principles of Vision Science within the use of Fonts.
- Don’t overuse a font
- Don’t use cool, fancy fonts that are hard to read
- Don’t use fonts that are too obvious and boring
- Don’t use shadows or other text effects that make your fonts illegible.
- Don’t make your slides too busy.
Choosing a font is a major step in the process of making a presentation. So, in order to do justice to your material, use a font that is easily readable on multiple screens or platforms, use fonts like Verdana or Georgia that are specifically meant to ease screen-reading, stick to grayscale or legible colors for text and use optimum white space to make the reading and engagement process easier for the audience.
If you are still unsure about how Fonts play into Vision Science and making effective presentations check out the blog that provides examples, tips, and explanations for choosing the right font for your work. Try out some free PowerPoint templates to get started.
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This content is brought to you by Manglam Vashisht.
Photos provided by the author.