How to make Awesome Diagrams for your slides
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The document provides guidelines for creating effective diagrams for presentations, emphasizing clear design principles such as consistent line widths, appropriate use of colors, and proper nesting of information. It suggests using shapes instead of lines, limiting color count to three, and ensuring text is large enough to be readable from a distance. Overall, the document aims to help improve the presentation quality through better diagram design.
How to make Awesome Diagrams for your slides
- 1. How To Make Awesome Diagrams u r F o r yo slides
- 2. Me Enrique García Cota I do software at Splendeo @otikik
- 3. © http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrimperial/121370739/ Disclaimer ● I'm not a designer. ● I've just done lots of diagrams in presentations. ● These guidelines work for me. ● “Right” and “Wrong” are used in that context. Don't take them personally.
- 4. 1. Lines © http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinysam/4988273864/
- 5. Never use 0pt line width Wrong Right Visible from the far end of the room
- 6. Have consistent line width Wrong 0.06'' 0.32'' 0.10'' Right 0.06'' 0.06'' 0.32'' Maybe two very different widths; not more
- 7. Use only one line ending Wrong Right People at the far end won't see the difference
- 8. Use one dashed style Wrong Right Guess
- 9. Arrows instead of lines vs. When? See example on next slide
- 10. Use connectors, not straight lines With lines With connectors
- 11. Shapes instead of lines (sometimes) Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 vs. Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 They look better on simple workflows
- 12. Colors instead of outlines (sometimes) vs. Useful to reduce the number of colors
- 13. 2. Shapes © http://www.flickr.com/photos/alessandropinna/1423128740/
- 14. Use a grid Wrong Right
- 15. Align when possible Wrong Right
- 16. Size means Importance Wrong Right Not Very Not Very Important Important Important Important
- 17. Size means Hierarchy Wrong Right Face Face Eyes Nose Mouth Eyes Nose Mouth
- 18. Size means Relative Size Wrong Right Elephant Duck Elephant Duck
- 19. Size doesn't mean “long name” Wrong A Long Name Right A B* A A ... * Long Name Long Name Long Name
- 20. Different Shape = Different Type OK Better ? ? Yes No Yes No
- 21. Maximum number types: 4
- 22. If you need more, use images OK Better A B C Warning! Finding appropriate images takes time
- 23. Transparencies, Shadows & Gradients Don't They take a lot of time to get right, and most projectors won't show them anyway
- 25. One nesting level per slide Wrong Unique slide
- 26. One nesting level per slide Right Slide 1
- 27. One nesting level per slide Right Slide 2
- 28. One nesting level per slide Right Slide 3
- 29. One nesting level per slide Right Slide 4? Is this level really needed?
- 30. But, won't adding slides increase the presentation complexity? Yes, it will. But less than nested shapes.
- 31. Complexity → → ting Nes Sli d es → 1 slide / 1 nesting level
- 32. If you need everything in one place You are not making a presentation Consider other formats
- 34. Color count Fill + Text + Lines - Background Fill = Green + Red = 2 Hi Text = White = 1 Lines = Black = 1 Background = White = -1 Bye! 2+1+1–1=3
- 35. Color count should be ≤ 3
- 36. The magic of combinatory I'm only using three still but here colors combi- can make many nations
- 37. When in doubt, use Primary colors Red Yellow Green Blue #c5000b #ffd320 #008000 #0084d1 In LibreOffice: Chart 11, Chart 3, Green, Chart12 These are awesome for diagrams
- 38. Color is great for Stress or Status Wrong Right OK OK Alert OK OK Alert Alert Alert OK OK Alert Alert OK OK OK Alert OK OK Alert Alert OK
- 39. Color is not great for lines Wrong Right More easily seen from far away
- 40. Use bright background colors Wrong Right Some projectors don't handle dark slides well
- 41. Don't use pale colors in foreground Wrong Right Gray 10% Gray >20% To projectors, any pale color = white
- 42. Printing: Black and White OK OK Alert OK OK Alert Alert OK OK Alert OK OK OK Alert OK OK Alert OK Black and White = information loss
- 43. Printing: Graceful Degradation OK OK Alert Alert OK OK Alert Alert Alert Alert OK OK Alert Alert OK OK OK Alert Alert OK OK Alert Alert OK Use contrast and borders to compensate
- 44. 5. ext © http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahulchhiber/5177233766/
- 45. First and foremost: Are you an optometrist?
- 46. us feel like this. Then don't make ©http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveinhal/2182773789/
- 47. Smallest font size: 20px Otherwise it's impossibly difficult to read from far away
- 48. Only one font Wrong a a a a Right a a a a
- 49. Exception: Typographic diagrams Nice Yuck
- 50. Bigger shape ⇒ Bigger or equal text Wrong Right Letters Letters A A Otherwise text size contradicts shape size
- 51. Italics: Don't bother Wrong Right a a No one will notice the difference
- 52. Bold: Don't mix it Wrong Right a a a a a a Again, the difference is hard to notice
- 53. a hard to re d, n te of esp is ec iall Oblique text when y Use horizontal text up font. sid l al d e ow sm n and with a © http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/1156232979/
- 54. That was it! © Enrique García Cota
- 55. Go Now And Make Some Awesome Diagrams!
- 56. Now Go Make Some Awesome Diagrams!
- 57. © Enrique García Cota Thank you!