Improve your slides using icons

Last week I briefly mentioned the Icon Representation Principle. Let's dig in a bit further. According to Lidwell, Holden and Butler (LHB) the use of pictorial images makes easier to learn and remember concepts.  They list  4 classes of iconic representation:
  • Similar icons. Images that are visually analogous to an action, object or concept. They are most efficient to represent a simple concept. 
  • Example icons. Images that exemplify or are commonly associated with a concept. They are useful to represent complex concepts. 
  • Symbolic icons. Images that represent a concept at a high level of abstraction. Mostly efficient when involved concept involves well-established and easily recognizable objects. 
  •  Arbitrary Icons
 So much for the theory, let's go to the example. If you are interested in more check out their book Universal Principle of Design.

The prime idea of the slide is to show the  4 dimensions that constitute the argumentation competence according to Grundler. First I was shown only text based slides with very few text (good), but poorly aligned (ugly). My idea of using the icons was to help the audience to remember the concepts by associating them with a family image. I based the design following my own post. The icons were taken from The Noun Project (see my last post).












 Here is a different version of the slides above.



 

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