Research-based PowerPoint design

Richard Mayer, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, conducted research leading to the following principles that improve learning when using PowerPoints or other multimedia presentations:

• The coherence principle is that learning is improved when multimedia is free from extraneous information--like tangential stories or sounds.
• The signaling principle is that learning is improved when attention is focus on important parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.
• The redundancy principle is that learning is reduced when information presented is redundant--such as reading text verbatim from slides.
• The spatial contiguity principle is that learning improves when words are placed near relevant pictures and the temporal contiguity principle is that learning improves when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant pictures.

Communication coach Jennifer Kammeyer summarizes some of her research regarding PowerPoint design:

• Follow multimedia learning principles
• Use full-sentence declarative headlines
• Don’t add irrelevant pictures
• Use Gill Sans or Souvenir Lt font
• Use 2D graphs with cool colors and high contrast
• Keep the design interference-free with high-contrast, easy-to-read text & graphs