Day 5 Readings - Designing Multimedia Presentations

I think the article said it best, “The most important thing to keep in mind when designing any multimedia presentation is to keep it simple."

I think we become overwhelmed with the vast variety of interesting fonts available to us, that we get carried away with trying to effectively incorporate them into the design of our projects. I can appreciate the author’s suggestion to stick with softer fonts like Helvetica and Arial.

The tip for using appropriate font sizes with presentations was new to me….”using the 24 karat rule… don't use fonts smaller than 24 points…make sure you stick with 18 points and above.”

With regard to incorporating graphics/clipart/images, video and/or sound into presentations, we must remember to use them sparingly, as well as only use those that directly relate to the content.

And, of course the advice to preview your presentation before presenting has also been discussed in class, as we have learned colors and fonts can sometimes appear differently from what we had originally planned. Paying attention to spelling and grammar is also important. I remember defending my dissertation proposal and not catching a spelling error….not good! In hindsight I would have had somebody else review/read my presentation, as our eyes can sometimes become immune to the content and formatting of the presentation in which we created.

I think all of the tips mentioned in these articles are highly essential for creating presentations. However, I believe the content and actual delivery of the presentation is the most important piece of a presentation. Nothing is more frustrating than sitting through a presentation where the presenter relies solely on the PowerPoint presentation (reading from slides) to deliver his/her content.