8 ms·

Making Slides

114 points by benbreen 9y ago

kyberias 9y ago
"If you must show a table, do it properly." Then shows a table of numbers that are not aligned to the right with the same number of digits. 25.5 19 78.2 Yeah, that's not how to "do it properly". I wonder if any of the advice are proper.
- Techonomicon 9y ago
  Well, first I think you missed the point. Second, I think it looks much more pleasurable to read in this format with the columns centered vs being left / right aligned. Column alignment is pretty subjective (and again, I think the chosen one looks more pleasant than what you're proposing), what the writer was getting at was making sure that the point you'd like to get across is being highlighted in someway, hence the red column amongst the black.
  - y4mi 9y ago
    19.0 wouldve looked better and centering were still possible.
  - kyberias 9y ago
    > "it looks much more pleasurable to read" > Column alignment is pretty subjective No, there's absolutely nothing subjective about this topic. It's objectively easier to compare numbers and see differences when they all have the same number of digits AND are aligned to the right. 9 90 8,0 2 89 9 90 8 2 89
  - hammock 9y ago
    The numbers absolutely have to be aligned along the decimal point. You can still "center" them in the column by indenting it
- dahart 9y ago
  I'd agree it's better to right-align, and keep the same precision, for a column of numbers. That's a bit more subtle than the point that was being made about whitespace, but still a great point IMO. Better still to avoid tables, and use charts instead, which the author mentions a couple different ways. But there's lots of good advice here, it's not really fair to question the validity of the entire article just because it left out one minor thing that you care about.
jimhefferon 9y ago
Vermont and New Hampshire are swapped.
- tejtm 9y ago
  When I was in Vermont an ancient geezer explained to me that there is nothing wrong New Hampshire, except its upside down.
philip1209 9y ago
This is very similar to Kevin Hale's post "How to Design a Better Pitch Deck": https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-design-a-better-pitch-deck/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-design-a-better-pitch-de...
IanCal 9y ago
I'm not sure if all the slides in this are supposed to be examples of what to do but some issues: 1. Tiny text. If your audience can't read it - don't include it. This seems to be everywhere. My most hated phrase in a talk is "you can't see this but". See here: https://imgur.com/a/1B8j6 https://imgur.com/a/1B8j6 I can barely read this close up on a high quality screen. Are your audience really going to be able to read https://imgur.com/a/2YtMF https://imgur.com/a/2YtMF on a projector? I always feel if I'm at a talk and someone shows me something I'm not supposed to be able to see that they don't care enough about the talk. 2. Colourblindness. There's a colouring on clustering: https://imgur.com/a/d0P6T https://imgur.com/a/d0P6T And here it is if you're red/green colourblind: https://imgur.com/a/1g8vc https://imgur.com/a/1g8vc An easy way to work with this is see if your slides work when black and white. 3. Tables https://imgur.com/a/KLNtQ https://imgur.com/a/KLNtQ Are you really trying to get across 40 pieces of information? If not, why have so much stuff here? Even if so, please don't centre all your columns!
- jamessb 9y ago
  The coloring isn't intended to convey meaning, but simply to subdivide that dendrogram: the viewer doesn't need to recognise the colors or match them to a scale, just see that they're different, and the colors used are distinguishable even when converted to black and white so they satisfy this requirement. This colored shading is arguably more attractive than simply using a range of grays.
discussedbefore 9y ago
There are a truckload of tools that pop up in past discussions; reveal.js serves as a good search anchor: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reveal.js&type=comment&sort=byDate https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reveal.js&type=comment&sort=by... Many of the same discussions and others contain helpful advice for presentation content as well: Ask HN: How do I learn to use Powerpoint well? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13078654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13078654
Cyranix 9y ago
I see some overlap with Zach Holman's guidance on talks and (in particular) slide decks. His opinions/advice made a strong impact on my approach to presentations. * https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/ https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/ * https://speakerdeck.com/holman/the-talk-on-talks https://speakerdeck.com/holman/the-talk-on-talks

114 points by benbreen 9y ago

"If you must show a table, do it properly." Then shows a table of numbers that are not aligned to the right with the same number of digits. 25.5 19 78.2 Yeah, that's not how to "do it properly". I wonder if any of the advice are proper.

Techonomicon 9y ago
Well, first I think you missed the point. Second, I think it looks much more pleasurable to read in this format with the columns centered vs being left / right aligned. Column alignment is pretty subjective (and again, I think the chosen one looks more pleasant than what you're proposing), what the writer was getting at was making sure that the point you'd like to get across is being highlighted in someway, hence the red column amongst the black.
- y4mi 9y ago
  19.0 wouldve looked better and centering were still possible.
- kyberias 9y ago
  > "it looks much more pleasurable to read" > Column alignment is pretty subjective No, there's absolutely nothing subjective about this topic. It's objectively easier to compare numbers and see differences when they all have the same number of digits AND are aligned to the right. 9 90 8,0 2 89 9 90 8 2 89
- hammock 9y ago
  The numbers absolutely have to be aligned along the decimal point. You can still "center" them in the column by indenting it
dahart 9y ago
I'd agree it's better to right-align, and keep the same precision, for a column of numbers. That's a bit more subtle than the point that was being made about whitespace, but still a great point IMO. Better still to avoid tables, and use charts instead, which the author mentions a couple different ways. But there's lots of good advice here, it's not really fair to question the validity of the entire article just because it left out one minor thing that you care about.

jimhefferon 9y ago

Vermont and New Hampshire are swapped.

tejtm 9y ago
When I was in Vermont an ancient geezer explained to me that there is nothing wrong New Hampshire, except its upside down.

philip1209 9y ago

This is very similar to Kevin Hale's post "How to Design a Better Pitch Deck": https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-design-a-better-pitch-deck/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-design-a-better-pitch-de...

IanCal 9y ago

I'm not sure if all the slides in this are supposed to be examples of what to do but some issues: 1. Tiny text. If your audience can't read it - don't include it. This seems to be everywhere. My most hated phrase in a talk is "you can't see this but". See here: https://imgur.com/a/1B8j6 https://imgur.com/a/1B8j6 I can barely read this close up on a high quality screen. Are your audience really going to be able to read https://imgur.com/a/2YtMF https://imgur.com/a/2YtMF on a projector? I always feel if I'm at a talk and someone shows me something I'm not supposed to be able to see that they don't care enough about the talk. 2. Colourblindness. There's a colouring on clustering: https://imgur.com/a/d0P6T https://imgur.com/a/d0P6T And here it is if you're red/green colourblind: https://imgur.com/a/1g8vc https://imgur.com/a/1g8vc An easy way to work with this is see if your slides work when black and white. 3. Tables https://imgur.com/a/KLNtQ https://imgur.com/a/KLNtQ Are you really trying to get across 40 pieces of information? If not, why have so much stuff here? Even if so, please don't centre all your columns!

jamessb 9y ago
The coloring isn't intended to convey meaning, but simply to subdivide that dendrogram: the viewer doesn't need to recognise the colors or match them to a scale, just see that they're different, and the colors used are distinguishable even when converted to black and white so they satisfy this requirement. This colored shading is arguably more attractive than simply using a range of grays.

discussedbefore 9y ago

There are a truckload of tools that pop up in past discussions; reveal.js serves as a good search anchor: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reveal.js&type=comment&sort=byDate https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reveal.js&type=comment&sort=by... Many of the same discussions and others contain helpful advice for presentation content as well: Ask HN: How do I learn to use Powerpoint well? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13078654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13078654

Cyranix 9y ago

I see some overlap with Zach Holman's guidance on talks and (in particular) slide decks. His opinions/advice made a strong impact on my approach to presentations. * https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/ https://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/ * https://speakerdeck.com/holman/the-talk-on-talks https://speakerdeck.com/holman/the-talk-on-talks