The Rule of
Thirds is a principle used by professional photographers when taking pictures. The idea behind
it is to make photos more interesting, balanced and harmonious.
How does it work?
Imagine to
break down an image into thirds—both vertically and horizontally—so that you
have 4 intersecting points, also called Power Points (they really are called
like this).
Let’s have
a look at a few examples.
In the
above image, you can see how the tiger’s body perfectly follows two of the
dividing lines, the upper horizontal line and the vertical one on the left.
Here the
point of interest is the lighthouse. No wonder why it has been placed along a
vertical line.
This one is
my favourite. Where have the eyes of this wonderful kid been placed? Around
one of the power points.
How can you apply the Rule of Thirds to your slides?
The Rule of
Thirds is a simple but powerful principle which makes images look interesting,
professional and harmonious. Since a PowerPoint presentation should be a
visual representation of your story, why not use this “rule” to make our slides
more interesting, balanced and harmonious?
Most
presenters tend to place every element of a slide at the centre. However,
symmetry is not always pleasing to our eyes. Asymmetrical designs are
much more appealing.
For me, the
best way to apply this principle to presentation design is to combine images
and text. Remember, research shows that it is easier for the audience to remember and understand
your message when you combine images and text together.
Here is a
brief presentation I made to show you how to bring the rule of thirds into your
visuals. I have mainly collected real slides I used in previous presentations. Just imagine to see a 3x3 grid in each slide and think of what you now know about this principle. Of
course the slides alone have no or little meaning without me speaking, but (1) this
is not the purpose of the article, the purpose is to learn about the rule of
thirds, (2) if people can understand your slides without you being there, this might
be a sign of poor presentation design.
As you know,
rules are made to be broken, but you can only break what you know. Being
aware of the rule of thirds is a good step towards making your presentations more dynamic and beautiful, but you don’t have to apply it all the time. Knowing how to break the rule is as
important as the rule itself.
