Your design instincts are right on. There is research that supports your formatting suggestions. Centred text is always more difficult to read (as we read left to right in English). Our eyes don't have to work so hard when the text is always in the same spot on the left. And keeping titles the same size across slides is a visual cue readers use to understand the content of your presentation (which ideas are important or of same weight) so it's very important to keep fonts the same size across your slides as you rightly suggest.
I'm an illustration researcher, not graphic design (though I was a practising designer for many years), so I might not be the best resource, but I see quite a bit from Dr. Maria dos Santos Lonsdale here in the UK, two that are relevant: doi: 10.1075/idj.21.3.09san and: https://journals.uc.edu/index.php/vl/article/view/5914
I also saw this paper about graphic design for scientific writers that might be of interest, doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008458
There is a key reason to include slides in your presentation that you dont mention. 10% or more of many audiences won't even be able to hear what you're saying because of hearing issues or nearby noise sources. They'll only see the speaker's style and get the meaning from the written words. This makes it even more essential that your slide's words summarise the points you are making. This problem will be most severe with older audiences (around 1 in 7 people over 65 are deaf).
Your design instincts are right on. There is research that supports your formatting suggestions. Centred text is always more difficult to read (as we read left to right in English). Our eyes don't have to work so hard when the text is always in the same spot on the left. And keeping titles the same size across slides is a visual cue readers use to understand the content of your presentation (which ideas are important or of same weight) so it's very important to keep fonts the same size across your slides as you rightly suggest.
Thanks! If you can point me to any specific tarragon research articles about these topics I'd appreciate it.
I'm an illustration researcher, not graphic design (though I was a practising designer for many years), so I might not be the best resource, but I see quite a bit from Dr. Maria dos Santos Lonsdale here in the UK, two that are relevant: doi: 10.1075/idj.21.3.09san and: https://journals.uc.edu/index.php/vl/article/view/5914
I also saw this paper about graphic design for scientific writers that might be of interest, doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008458
Enjoy!
Yes A-E framework holds the audience brilliantly.
Amen on PowerPoint scaling font sizes to fit. That design decision is criminal. Just one more reason to write them in markdown with Quarto + RevealJS!
There is a key reason to include slides in your presentation that you dont mention. 10% or more of many audiences won't even be able to hear what you're saying because of hearing issues or nearby noise sources. They'll only see the speaker's style and get the meaning from the written words. This makes it even more essential that your slide's words summarise the points you are making. This problem will be most severe with older audiences (around 1 in 7 people over 65 are deaf).
Interesting read; I will definitely incorporate the Assertion-Evidence Framework into my slide deck. Thanks.