Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The important thing to know is that if you use images of people—whether or not you
intend for the image to be a focal point—you must know that this is where people are
going to look first. If other elements are of greater importance, then make sure you place
those elements so that the viewer's eye will naturally flow from the image to those
elements.
In the first slide, you probably find yourself continually drawn to the woman's face, even though the speaker's
key points appear in the upper-left corner. In the slide on the right, the image also gets your attention first, but it
is easy for your eyes to flow off the image and up to the key point of the slide. The image is pointing in the
direction of the data and we are not continually drawn to the image (unless you are really hungry, I suppose).
The burger and the face get your attention, but the text is nearly impossible to read in the first slide. Even if you
could read the text better, you may still find your eyes drawn to the face. The second version here is a slight
improvement, but I'm not crazy about covering up faces in this way and the burger is still a bit distracting and
doesn't lead the eyes.
Simple slides that guide the eyes
Take a look at a few before-and-after slides. The “after” slides are the kind used in
support of live talks where all of the words are coming from the speaker. The slides on
the left show a rather arbitrary placement of elements and have poor hierarchy and
dominance. While the slides at left have contrast, it is not clear why some things stand
out and others do not. What are we supposed to look at first, second, third? The eye
tends to wander.
The slides on the right have better design priority or focal point. First, removing