30. PowerPoint Template: Combined Picture and Text: The Best Positions for Pictures and Text

The Microsoft Office Online site offers PowerPoint users a variety of graphical templates for download. One involves combining picture and text in one frame, as in Figure 30.1.

Figure 30.1. PowerPoint template: text on left, picture on right

In Figure 30.2, the position of the picture and the text are reversed.

Figure 30.2. Now picture is on left and text on right

Now let’s up the ante in Figure 30.3 by increasing the amount of text in each picture/text combination and adding four short bullets, as is often done in presentations.^F30.1

Figure 30.3. Adding bullets to the slide

Do you feel the difference?

Most people in Western cultures find it’s easier to process the arrangement where the picture is on the left and the text is on the right. Do you? In Western cultures, people are accustomed to reading from left to right. Therefore, when the picture is on the left, your eyes start by taking in the image with one swift scan; then your eyes continue to the right to take in the text by traveling back and forth across each bullet line. In the reverse arrangement, with the text on the left, your eyes start by making all those back-and-forth moves through the text, while aware that there is still another image (the picture on the right) for you to scan.

This juxtaposition, although seemingly slight, makes your audience work harder to take in the images and can accumulate into a negative effect when combined with other thoughtlessly designed or crowded slides. In the previous chapter, you read about the scientific research of Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, of Harvard University, whose advice is worth repeating: “Showing people meaningful, content-based visuals, as opposed to text, lessens their cognitive exertion and improves overall experience.”

Follow the doctor’s orders. Make it easy on your audience, and they will make it easy for you.