Friday, December 29, 2006
The Top 6 PowerPoint Fashion Trends for 2007
The Web 2.0 "look and feel" includes design elements that are crossing over into corporate PowerPoint presentations. What are the top Web 2.0 design elements that you will see (and see abused) in 2007?
I channeled my inner corporate psychic hippie to find out what will happen with PowerPoint design next year. Here is what I saw as the top six Web 2.0-Inspired PowerPoint fashion trends you will see in 2007.
2. Everything is central. Five years ago, just about everything you saw on the web was left-justified. Now take a gander. The Web 2.0 "look" is mostly centered on the page. PowerPoint fashion translation: you'll see less "left-justified" slide content as well. As far as trends go, this could be worse.
3. Bling is big. Gaudy alert! Web 2.0 layouts may show restraint, but not graphics! Colors will be swimmingly "Laugh-In" bright. Gradients, reflections, and 3D effects will be everywhere and outrageous! It'll be unnecessary and nauseating, I promise! And now that PowerPoint is integrating these hippies-on-acid graphic features into PowerPoint 2007 (coming in January), expect to see tons of gradient, reflection, and bright-color abuse next year! New features means new users will show zero restraint for years to come! (For a preview of coming horrors, see the Web 2.0 logo remake page.)
4. Plump is pleasing. Forget about heroin chic. The Web 2.0 look has few sharp edges. Just about everything is rounded. It wasn't just that PowerPoint slides with rounded corners were all the Rubinesque rage in 2005/2006. Icons, fonts, images, and logos were noticeably plumper, as well. Why? Well, round things (the NY Times reported earlier this year) are cute. And from baby pandas to baby Shiloh, cute is comforting and oh-so hip.
5. Headlines are huge. At last! A trend I treasure! The Web 2.0 look seems to favor larger text! Hurray! It's easier for an aging population to read than ever before! But be careful: not every word on PowerPoint slides will be monster-huge. No, the trend is for BIG HEADLINES to accompany compelling graphics. The headline text (and perhaps a slightly smaller subhead) will contain the most important written information on the slide.
6. Bullet point backlash. Bullet points will be less prominent than ever, thanks in part to the PowerPoint 2007 Smart Art feature. "Smart Art" can easily convert bullet points into "cute widdle wounded wectangles" of formerly sharply-bullet pointed content. (barf.) You know what that means....you can expect to see tons of Smart Art abuse in 2007! I'm predicting that one evil (bullet points) will be replaced by another (Smart Art). "Death by Bullet Point" blog pundits will quickly find PowerPoint SmartArt to be just as loathsome as the much-hated bullet point.
The Web 2.0 "look and feel" includes design elements that are crossing over into corporate PowerPoint presentations. What are the top Web 2.0 design elements that you will see (and see abused) in 2007?I channeled my inner corporate psychic hippie to find out what will happen with PowerPoint design next year. Here is what I saw as the top six Web 2.0-Inspired PowerPoint fashion trends you will see in 2007.
Top Six PowerPoint Trends for 2007
1. Slim and simple layouts. One, two, or three columns is about all you see in Web 2.0 design. You also see lots of refreshing white space and much less clutter. This slim and simple look will be mimicked in PowerPoint presentations. Easy on the eyes, easy to print. What's not to like about this Zen-like trend?2. Everything is central. Five years ago, just about everything you saw on the web was left-justified. Now take a gander. The Web 2.0 "look" is mostly centered on the page. PowerPoint fashion translation: you'll see less "left-justified" slide content as well. As far as trends go, this could be worse.
3. Bling is big. Gaudy alert! Web 2.0 layouts may show restraint, but not graphics! Colors will be swimmingly "Laugh-In" bright. Gradients, reflections, and 3D effects will be everywhere and outrageous! It'll be unnecessary and nauseating, I promise! And now that PowerPoint is integrating these hippies-on-acid graphic features into PowerPoint 2007 (coming in January), expect to see tons of gradient, reflection, and bright-color abuse next year! New features means new users will show zero restraint for years to come! (For a preview of coming horrors, see the Web 2.0 logo remake page.)
4. Plump is pleasing. Forget about heroin chic. The Web 2.0 look has few sharp edges. Just about everything is rounded. It wasn't just that PowerPoint slides with rounded corners were all the Rubinesque rage in 2005/2006. Icons, fonts, images, and logos were noticeably plumper, as well. Why? Well, round things (the NY Times reported earlier this year) are cute. And from baby pandas to baby Shiloh, cute is comforting and oh-so hip.
5. Headlines are huge. At last! A trend I treasure! The Web 2.0 look seems to favor larger text! Hurray! It's easier for an aging population to read than ever before! But be careful: not every word on PowerPoint slides will be monster-huge. No, the trend is for BIG HEADLINES to accompany compelling graphics. The headline text (and perhaps a slightly smaller subhead) will contain the most important written information on the slide.
6. Bullet point backlash. Bullet points will be less prominent than ever, thanks in part to the PowerPoint 2007 Smart Art feature. "Smart Art" can easily convert bullet points into "cute widdle wounded wectangles" of formerly sharply-bullet pointed content. (barf.) You know what that means....you can expect to see tons of Smart Art abuse in 2007! I'm predicting that one evil (bullet points) will be replaced by another (Smart Art). "Death by Bullet Point" blog pundits will quickly find PowerPoint SmartArt to be just as loathsome as the much-hated bullet point.
So what do you think? Which Web 2.0 inspired trends do you see leaking into corporate PowerPoint presentations next year?
Sock it to me...
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ps -- and yes, you can download the free, rounded-corner Crystal Ball PowerPoint background that you see above, as well!
Happy New Year!
¶ 12/29/2006 03:26:00 PM
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I still always hope for the day when businesses will smart up and realize that if they need professional designers to make their flyers, signs, magazines, websites, videos, and other marketing material, then they also need designers who know the field to design their presentations.
How is it that digital presentations are always left to templates? Thankfully, PowerPoint 2007 finally includes some nicely designed templates. But what will people probably do? "We've always done it this way." And they'll stick with the ugly.
If a presentation is done properly, the text will be too large to have multiple columns, at least for paragraph text like quotations. For concise points, I can see it happening.
And centered text does not read well. Studies have shown that the eye needs an "absolute" place to return for reading the next line. Left-justified text gives this, but centered will force the eye to jump around looking for the next starting place. But centered does work good for one- or two-line slides.
Big headlines? YES! And let's bump the font size above 18, please.
But you have some interesting, and good points. Thanks for sharing!
(I found your blog through Google's Blogsearch for "PowerPoint.")
How is it that digital presentations are always left to templates? Thankfully, PowerPoint 2007 finally includes some nicely designed templates. But what will people probably do? "We've always done it this way." And they'll stick with the ugly.
If a presentation is done properly, the text will be too large to have multiple columns, at least for paragraph text like quotations. For concise points, I can see it happening.
And centered text does not read well. Studies have shown that the eye needs an "absolute" place to return for reading the next line. Left-justified text gives this, but centered will force the eye to jump around looking for the next starting place. But centered does work good for one- or two-line slides.
Big headlines? YES! And let's bump the font size above 18, please.
But you have some interesting, and good points. Thanks for sharing!
(I found your blog through Google's Blogsearch for "PowerPoint.")
too much design intereferes with the message
P.S. I still like the balls you made!
P.S. I still like the balls you made!
# posted by 
: 6:28 PM, January 01, 2007
: 6:28 PM, January 01, 2007
Lovely article. Some good points.
Reminded me very much of Scott Harvey's article on 123PPT.com.
Do we really need PowerPoint templates?.
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Reminded me very much of Scott Harvey's article on 123PPT.com.
Do we really need PowerPoint templates?.
# posted by : 8:58 AM, September 06, 2007
: 8:58 AM, September 06, 2007Links to this post:
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