People can’t
listen to your presentation and read loads of text at the same time. This is an
unquestionable truth! So your job is to design visuals that can be understood
within a few seconds. In her book, Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, Nancy Duarte—a world’s leading
expert in the field—suggests that audiences should be able to understand
your slides in about three seconds. They should be able to very quickly grasp
the message of your slides and then come back to you and listen to what you
have to say. Slides are there to complement your message, not to substitute it.
Research
shows that people better understand slides (and multimedia messages in general)
when these don’t contain too much text and information. When those elements are
present, they become a distraction and you don’t want to distract your
audience, do you?
One of the
best ways to avoid distracting your audience is to use a lot of White Space in
your visuals.
What is White Space?
White space
is the area of the slide which is empty. White space doesn’t have to
be white, it can be any colour as long as it is empty space. White space is
also called negative pace.
The
main benefit of using white space is that it improves visual clarity, which in
turn helps direct your audience’s focus on what is really important.
Are you not
convinced? Look at the optical illusion below.
Do you see a vase or
two faces? If you see two faces it means that for you the white area is acting
as negative space while the black area is acting as positive space. If you see
the vase the opposite is the case. This example
tells you that it is the negative space that makes the positive elements of
your visuals stand out. Negative space doesn’t have to be seen as something to
be filled in; something that's wasted unless it is occupied with more
elements. Rather, it augments the positive elements of your message.
Perhaps the biggest mistake inexperienced presenters make is that they
fill in their slides with loads of text and information which don’t add value
to their message. Remember, if everything is important, nothing is important.
If everything stands out, nothing stands out. Still not
convinced? Ok, then look at the Google’s homepage below and compare it to the
homepage of its competitor Yahoo! Google is one of the brands which understands
this point very well.
Why does white space matter?
So far I
have shown examples which apparently have nothing to do with Presentation Design. However, design is everywhere and we can apply many design lessons to the
world of presentations. White space matters because it brings many benefits to
our visuals, such as:
The enemy of white space
The reason
why most people include too much text in their slides is
because they lack the confidence for being different. "Normal" slides—the ones we are used to—are all
about conformity. People want to feel secure and designing slides like
everybody else is a way of feeling safe. By putting loads of information in your
slides you want to show your audience that you have done your homework. However,
this approach is not effective at all! It takes courage to be different, I
know. But there is no doubt that “different” visuals—visuals that are
designed with the audience in mind—can make your presentation remarkable.
Now it’s up
to you, do you want to be boring or remarkable?
