Scientific Presentation Design using Xara

[pmouse]

Hi Guys,
I'm really new to Xara, actually, I'm new to the vector graphics world. But after my first look at Xara (Xara LX actually), I couldn't stay away for it anymore :P My first work in Xara was the Logo that i'm using now, completed about a week ago.
After feeling more comfortable playing around with Xara, I've decided to use it to design the layout of my upcoming presentation...and It really worked out well! So I'd like to share it with you guys, and of course, ask for tips and suggestions in the public
Don't bash me too hard :P

Regards,

Peter

[pauland]

Welcome aboard!

I can see that your doing really good work already. You've demonstrated how good Xara can be in building strong graphics and how well you're progessing with it.

Your presentation graphics did really make me think about your approach and what I like and don't like about presentation graphics.

Your graphics reminds me of some flash software training interfaces with the panel styling and effectively the menu on the left.

For me it's a bit too bold, and I'd worry about your content being lost amongst the strong panel layout. With everything that you have in place before the subject content, you don't have much room for the content left. I also tend to think "where will my attention be drawn when I look at this?" and with the heading and outline text, I don't think I will naturally head straight to the message.

That's my personal take on presentation graphics (and it's not an authoritative take). Love to hear others opinions.

Paul

[pmouse]

I agree on the header part...maybe it is too big/bold.

For the content part, they are just of the right size (designed this way) - meaning just enough to put the outline of the presentation in.

For the most part I want the audiance to listen to what I have to say, instead of trying to read paragraphs on the screen

p.s., Thanks for the comment!

[gnurf]

I like the color palette and light burst. But I agree with that other Paul's comments on leaving (not) enough room for the content, and also the similarity to flash graphics.

[pmouse]

I've never used Flash before, so I don't really know how similar the design is to the flash tutorials. Why is it bad if it resembles Flash graphics??

Base on the comments, I've decided to shrink the header, and then make the menu text smaller. Hopefully this will put more emphasis on the main content.

[pauland]

snip

[pauland]

BTW, the fact that you aren't using powerpoint with loads of silly effects gives you a head start in my opinion!

If you really want to learn how to make effective presentations, check out lynda.com. There is a superb course there and I wish the presentation used in the course was publicly available because it has an important message for us all.

Paul

[pmouse]

After considering all the comments, I've modified the slide design, the new design is shown below.

Some key modifications:
- Header text is smaller, and Header area has been adjusted accordingly.
- Menu panel are now smaller
- Removed the purple glow of the "OUTLINE" text
- Menu font changed to a smaller version

[Egg Bramhill]

pmouse,

That looks a lot better except IMHO for the mixing of the serif, sans serif fonts. It works okay with the header text but not the menu text.

[pmouse]

pmouse,

That looks a lot better except IMHO for the mixing of the serif, sans serif fonts. It works okay with the header text but not the menu text.

Hmm...That's so true :/

Back to modification...