Every semester, I rely on PowerPoint slides in my face-to-face classroom, both as a visual aid and to keep myself on track. Every semester, I get at least one comment on a student evaluation that slides are boring and that activities are more fun. Every subsequent semester, I add more images to my slide deck and sacrifice a point or explanation for an interactive or discussion moment. Every subsequent semester, I get the same student complaint (albeit from a new student). They always want less “absorb” and more “do,” and I’m never sure whether my visual aids are actually aiding me in the most effective way. What is a teacher who is not a graphic designer to do?
This is where CARP comes in. CARP stands for contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity–these are the four fundamental principles of “good design.” Each has an important function, and by composing slides with these principles in mind, we as teachers actually do have the power to engage students with slides as visual aids rather than to bore students into resorting to passive-aggressive behaviors.
Good contrast, such as white/black or LARGE/small, helps the audience understand what important is important (the larger font!) and also facilitates readability (dark color on a light background).
Alignment also aids readability by helping the eye find an anchoring line. This post, for instance, is left-aligned–a hard left edge.
It becomes more challenging for
a reader to follow along with centered text
simply because there is
no hard line to stabilize the eye.
Repetition of key elements–such as a color, pattern, motif, image–results in a sense of consistency and coherence. While this is a reason why teachers do tend to use PowerPoint templates, repetition should be deliberate, and templates often are not chosen to leverage meaningful color theory or motifs and can often be distracting.
Proximity may actually be the most important CARP element to consider as a teacher (in a physical classroom space or in a synchronous digital teaching environment such as a webinar) because it focuses on organization of the message. When we find that our slides are too cluttered, we are not using white space effectively and are probably trying to convey too many points on one slide. Once we limit the message we are trying to communicate per slide, we are in a better position to use image, text, and white space to create a slide that does not overpower and overwhelm the student.
While these elements of CARP may be considered individually when designing, they ultimately work together for a cohesive whole. The individual elements interplay and overlap. For instance, failing to create a strong line for the eye to focus on (alignment) will typically impact how the audience struggles to understand the organization of information grouped on the page (proximity), and poor contrast inhibits the audience’s ability to discern what is important on the page.
Students need to focus on the academic concepts to meet learning objectives. So don’t make them work harder than necessary to read and grasp those concepts!
Consider the following set of slides. In this example, the students in the class are going to read a sample student paper, a personal narrative essay about caring for senior dogs. Whether in a physical space or in a synchronous webinar, the teacher wants the visual to support the reading the students are doing, which will lead to discussion.
Figure 1. Issues of alignment, proximity, contrast.
In Figure 1, the student audience will struggle to identify any strong vertical or horizontal alignment. Although there is a left edge where the first question and title align, the second stated question is following a different vertical line. This alignment issue impacts proximity. Should the two questions be read together, as related, or separately? Is the second question, which appears to be nearer to the image of the dog, meant to be read with the image? In that case, is there a separate example students will need in order to answer the first question? Contrast is also inhibiting meaning making in this example, as the black font on a saturated red background is poor contrast. Depending on lighting the room, or screen resolution in a webinar setting, students will strain their eyes to read the questions they are supposed to consider.
Figure 2. Revised alignment and proximity.
In Figure 2, we have strengthened alignment. The text is left aligned along the right side of the image. This line corresponds to the direction of the dog’s gaze. The gaze and the text converge on a hard line slightly to right of center, an anchoring point for the reader. The text is also packaged in the same meaning group as the image of the dog. Students would now have a better understanding that both questions pertain to the class example of the dog essay.
Figure 3. Revised contrast.
Contrast was a still a concern in Figure 2, as the black text on a red background is difficult to read. In Figure 3, we have improved the contrast by removing the red color fill in the background. However, this action reveals the PowerPoint template selected for the slides. Teachers often do not feel confident as designers and thus rely on the programmed templates. Using a template can result in a sense of repetition, a cohesive theme that ties the slide deck together. On the other hand, it should be apparent in Figure 3 that the template feels random and thus calls attention to itself. Red is a striking color to pair with the black of the dog’s body, but the thick and thin lines of the template are not productively shaping the text. The result actually suggests that the white space in the bottom third of the slide is not intentional.
Figure 4. Full bleed image.
When integrating image, one key suggestion is to take full advantage of the space of the slide by expanding the image to full bleed, as demonstrated in Figure 4. In the prior slide, the purpose of the white space was in question. We were also not taking full advantage of contrast in terms of size. By enlarging the photo, we have eliminated the need for a template design, we have used contrast (large/small) to suggest that the dog’s image is the most important data to consider, and we have still been able to locate white space within the composition of the image to place the text questions. The text is left aligned, consistent with the dog’s gaze, and in close proximity to the shape of the dog. This is a slide that will likely not leave students complaining that the teacher uses PowerPoint; it will simply be an effective backdrop to the essay review activity at hand.
PowerPoint slides don’t need to be reserved for conveying content that students are meant to absorb. Slides can support activities within a physical classroom or within a synchronous digital webinar environment. But the best slides do not call attention to themselves as slides. Students dread PowerPoint slides and call attention to them when ill-designed, such as when the slides carry too much information or text, or when the template selected is a poor fit for the message. The most effective slides do not carry much text and focus on the power of image to complement the teaching message. When the students are not distracted by messy alignment and confusing proximity, they can focus on the communication and connection the teacher desires to encourage.
And ultimately, students want what we as teachers want: Do the work, but then hide the work in order to deliver a standout message.