Category Archives: Design

Tips on Designing Your Powerpoint Presentation

If there’s one thing I dread about office work, it would have to be creating Microsoft Office Powerpoint presentations. It’s not really about how to use Powerpoint since it’s a very user-friendly software, but I always find myself spending more time than usual on a presentation because I want to make sure I get my message across clearly and with a significant impact.

Don't bore your audience

Even for a designer and technically knowledgeable person like me, designing your own Powerpoint presentations can be a daunting task. Thankfully, there are a ton of resources out there that you can use to improve what you’ve already done, or even give you ideas to start from scratch! I decided to come up with these tips to hopefully help you conquer that Powerpoint presentation, may it be for the office, at school or even at your next get-together! πŸ˜‰

 

Come up with an outline of your contents.

This is crucial. It is better that you already have an outline or draft of what you want to include in your presentation. This also allows you to come up with the flow of ideas so your audience won’t get lost. Plus, planning ahead helps you memorize or even get you in the mood to work on your Powerpoint presentation.

 

Keep It Simple.

Yes, keep it simple, unless your presentation or the event where you’re using it requires you to go all out. Otherwise, stick to the basics and let your images and words get your message across. This way, your audience won’t be distracted by all the animations, adornment or unnecessary stuff you put in there.

 

Search for inspiration.

There are many places where you can get inspiration. It can be from the people around you or your surroundings. It can also come from your topic itself.

I have bookmarked a couple of websites where I get inspiration from for designs I make, even for presentations. It’s great to find an idea that can spark your creativity, so it’s okay to look at what others have done so far.

 

Use Powerpoint templates.

There are built-in templates that you can use from within Powerpoint, and there are also many that you can download online.

Microsoft Powerpoint templates

 

Hire designers!

If you have not enough time to work on your presentation, I would also recommend you hire someone to do it for you. You can find Powerpoint presentation designers online and you’d be amazed by the quality of work they can provide. This doesn’t just save you time, but you also get to focus more on how you’ll deliver the presentation.

Whatever you do, good luck with that presentation! πŸ™‚

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

Adobe Photoshop is probably my most used software program on my computer. I use it for work, for editing photos for my blogs, and for images I design for my social media posts. Since I spend a lot of my time using it, like in any other computer programs I use, I want to make sure I’m as efficient as possible, especially when I’m working on my laptop. This is why it’s important for me to know the keyboard shortcuts to various functions and features of Adobe Photoshop CS6 (version I’m using), as shown below.

Photoshop CS6 Shortcut CheatSheet - Tags

I hope you find this list useful. These shortcuts have saved me a ton of time! In fact, I no longer navigate through Adobe Photoshop CS6 with a mouse and I feel so efficient. πŸ˜‰

The Impact of Images in Social Media

With the growing number of internet users every day, plus the fact that most have access to a digital camera or a smartphone that has a camera, the power of visual communication has continued to increase and evolve. This is why in social media, using quality images in your posts is highly important for you to make an impact in a somehow noisy world online.

Working as a social media manager and handling my blogs’ presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+, I have seen how effective images are versus text only messages. As a social media user, I can also attest to how people now prefer to read texts in an image.

Design quote

Studies, surveys and insight reports reveal that social media posts using images perform better than any other kind of content. On Facebook alone, photo posts get 50% more interaction over links, videos or text-based updates. On Twitter, tweets with image links (Twitpic or Instagram – and Twitter also now shows expanded photos on the timeline!) get more engagement too.

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A Brief History of Web Design

Website design was a simple endeavor when the first websites started to show up on the Internet. The webmaster only needed to understand how to write a few lines of code that the browsers could pick up and read in order to get their message out to readers. The biggest challenge was trying to decide how to write the code for different browsers. It seems outdated now, but the browser wars of the 1990s made it hard to write a website for both browsers.

One browser could read advanced text attributes, which made for colorful designs, and the other browser could not see the font changes at all. This was frustrating and unnecessary, but until the programmers at Microsoft and the programmers at Macintosh stopped fighting, the designers had to use very limited code.

Once a truce was called in the browser wars, those with programming knowledge began to cooperate with one another to determine a universal language for all web design and code. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) went through several revisions and updates until it was recognized by all the browsers that were on the market.

Browser compatibility

In cyberspace, time travels quickly, and it was not long before other types of coding and graphics were introduced in websites. Not all the changes were good, but people wanted more graphics, movies, design options and 3D formats. These things were complex and consumed a lot of bandwidth. While a small number of people were on either DSL or cable, most of the people were still struggling with dialup Internet. This meant that many websites were rendered useless due to the inability to load on slower machines with spotty service.

Like those days, the change in the way that people view websites has drastically changed. There are now tablets and cellphones that are designed to view pages of websites. Not all sites are optimized for these smaller screens.

If someone wants to get into the field of web design and graphics, they need to consider a digital media degree that will get them hands-on experience in the current technology. While the technology will continue to change rapidly, someone with a degree will also have the ability to catch up rather quickly because they will have the foundation to anticipate changes and work towards staying ahead of those changes.

The Web will continue to grow as technology develops. There will always be a need for someone who understands how to grow with it.

Facebook Photos : Bigger, Better and a Slideshow!

To most of us who are on Facebook, this social networking site is no longer just a place where we connect with people. It has developed into a more diverse website. One of the many functions of Facebook now is it serves as our modern day photo album, where we chronicle important events in our lives by sharing photos ranging from what we’re eating, your baby’s cute photos, or anything you feel like sharing. There are even people who post photos for their own consumption or for safe-keeping (I personally have albums that are only visible to me).

Facebook Photos

This is why Facebook is continually improving our photo viewing experience. And I think the latest updates on Facebook photos are just amazing, and I believe that businesses with a Facebook page will greatly benefit from this too. πŸ™‚

 

Bigger Album and Photo Thumbnails

THIS is what I love most about this update – bigger album and photo thumbnails. ‘Nuff said. πŸ™‚

If you check the contents of the album or if you go to the middle tab, you’ll see how tightly the images are now arranged. I love it! And I bet you already know about the fullscreen view, right? πŸ™‚

Tighter photos, larger thumbnails on Facebook

 

Photo Slideshow on Hover

I am a very visual person and when I view photo albums, especially when I’m “stalking” someone, I quickly browse the cover images for each photo album. If they look interesting enough, I click through.

This time, you can view the first 5 photos of the album just by hovering or placing your mouse cursor on the cover image. It’ll be shown to you through a slideshow. Cool, eh?

 

 

Like or Comment on Photo Tabs Directly

You can now like or comment, or see those who have, on the photos without having to click on each image individually.

Like or comment directly on the Facebook photo tab page

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