An interesting article in the NYT the other day: the Portuguese newspaper “i” that’s breaking the rules of newspaper design. An example of a front page that I found on the “What’s next: innovation in newspapers” blog.
Some interesting lessons that could also apply to presentation design:
- Big images draw the attention of the reader
- Interestingly, the newspaper abandoned the typical grouping of newspaper articles around specific categories. Research showed that people just scan for interesting headlines and do not need the structure of a detailed content categorization. Newspaper design does not need to resemble the organization structure of the editorial staff.
With regard to the second point: more and more I start to abandon the use of formal structures in presentation design. Simple use the structure or slide sequence that supports the way you want to tell the story. The brain is capable of dealing with a more creative story structure, as long as it is not bored. Novel writers are the ultimate masters in story line design creativity, but I agree that might be overdoing it a bit when designing your next pitch deck.