What makes a PowerPoint presentation, a good PowerPoint presentation?

   A PowerPoint presentation, being a document genre on its own, can be developed and made effective in its process of conveying information by applying the design principles that encompass genre and determine the quality of the document.

   In addition to making a document more aesthetically pleasing, good document design enables efficient reading, proper emphasis, as well as a heightened sense of confidence regarding the overall communication between the reader and the document (Anderson as cited by Putnis and Petelin, 1996, p.254).

   In regards to these quality-defining principles, the PowerPoint slides my group designed and used for a previous presentation assignment could have been improved in several ways.

   First among these improvements would be to ensure consistency throughout the entire presentation, namely the typeface. Among the various determinants of good document design, Reep (2006, p.136) states consistency as an essential tool for emphasizing recurring or similar types of information. 

Fig. 1a

Fig. 1b

   Upon observation, it can be seen that the fonts used in both the slides shown in figures 1a and 1b are different (fig. 1a uses Bell MT, while fig. 1b uses Verdana). Therefore, either one of these two fonts should have been chosen and used throughout to maintain consistency and ultimately improve the overall quality of the PowerPoint presentation.

   Apart from consistency, I would suggest that the font (namely, Bell MT as seen in fig. 1a) be made bolder, or switched to a more distinct one. This is to further enable the audience to read the information better and improve the process of conveying information (Marquez, 2011).

   Therefore, by having changed these few parts of this PowerPoint presentation, the overall process of presenting our findings and resultant knowledge from the analyzed readings would have been more effective, without being obscured by possible faults caused by typeface discrepancies and font unreadability, among others. 

__________________________________________

References:

Bear, J. H. 2011, 'Before you create a PowerPoint presentation', viewed 8 April 2011, <http://desktoppub.about.com/od/microsoft/bb/powerpointrules.htm>.

Marquez, Z. L. 2011, 'How to make a good PowerPoint presentation', viewed 8 April 2011, <http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178>. 

Putnis, P & Petelin, R. 1996, 'Writing to communicate', chapter 7 from Professional communication: Principles and applications, p.254, (UniSA online library), viewed 7 April 2011, <http://p8080-130.220.236.155.ezlibproxy3.unisa.edu.au/fedora/get/changeme:554412/CONTENT>. 

Reep, D. 2006, 'Document design', chapter 6 from Technical writing (sixth edition), p.136, (UniSA online library), viewed 7 April 2011, <http://p8080-130.220.236.155.ezlibproxy3.unisa.edu.au/fedora/get/changeme:931547/CONTENT>.

Reynolds, G. 2005, 'What is good PowerPoint design?', viewed 8 April 2011, <http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html>.