Between the grid and composition: Layout in PowerPoint's design and use
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Emilia Djonov
Emilia Djonov (b. 1975) is a lecturer at Macquarie University and an honorary research fellow at the University of Technology 〈emilia.djonov@mq.edu.au 〉. Her research interests include multimodal and hypermedia discourse analysis, visual communication, social semiotics, and systemic functional theory. Her publications include “Children's website structure and navigation” (2008); andCritical Multimodal Studies of Popular Discourse (co-edited with S. Zhao, 2014).
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Theo Van Leeuwen
Theo Van Leeuwen (b. 1947) is a professor of language and communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and emeritus professor at the University of Technology 〈theo.vanleeuwen@uts.edu.au 〉. His research interests include social semiotics, critical discourse analysis, multimodality, and visual communication. His publications includeDiscourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis (2008);The language of new media design (with R. Martinec, 2009); andThe language of color (2011).
Abstract
Ubiquitous software such as PowerPoint has contributed to making layout an important semiotic resource in everyday professional communication. Drawing on developments in the visual arts, graphic design, and social semiotics, this paper presents two central and complementary principles for layout design and analysis: the grid and composition. These principles are then applied in a conceptualization of the template as an interface between the grid and composition, which provides a basis for comparing default layout templates in PowerPoint for Windows 2003 and 2007. The comparison reveals that options in PowerPoint 2007 are less explicit from the perspectives of both grid-based design and composition, and considerably limit users' freedom in layout design. We then consider the implications of the limited guidance that PowerPoint, through its default layout options and help menu, offers its users on how to use layout effectively with reference to a survey of twenty-seven slideshow presentations from corporate and higher education settings and three case studies selected from this data. The survey and case studies suggest that PowerPoint users can benefit from explicit advice about both grid-based design and composition as well as a stronger awareness of the limitations and advantages of using templates.
About the authors
Emilia Djonov (b. 1975) is a lecturer at Macquarie University and an honorary research fellow at the University of Technology 〈emilia.djonov@mq.edu.au〉. Her research interests include multimodal and hypermedia discourse analysis, visual communication, social semiotics, and systemic functional theory. Her publications include “Children's website structure and navigation” (2008); and Critical Multimodal Studies of Popular Discourse (co-edited with S. Zhao, 2014).
Theo Van Leeuwen (b. 1947) is a professor of language and communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and emeritus professor at the University of Technology 〈theo.vanleeuwen@uts.edu.au〉. His research interests include social semiotics, critical discourse analysis, multimodality, and visual communication. His publications include Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis (2008); The language of new media design (with R. Martinec, 2009); and The language of color (2011).
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Between the grid and composition: Layout in PowerPoint's design and use
- Beyond speech balloons and thought bubbles: The integration of text and image
- Abstraction as a limit to semiosis
- The multimodal representation of emotion in film: Integrating cognitive and semiotic approaches
- Hearing a shakkei: The semiotics of the audible in a Japanese stroll garden
- Towards a social semiotics of rhythm in popular music
- A carnival pilgrimage: Cultural semiotics in China
- Photography and intermediality: Analytical perspectives on notions referred to by the term “photography”
- An exploration of possible unconscious ethnic biases in higher education: The role of implicit attitudes on selection for university posts
- New insights into the medium hand: Discovering recurrent structures in gestures
- The multimodal construal of the experiential domain of recipes in Japanese and Chinese
- Cyberterrorist messages: A semiotic perspective
- A necessary condition for proof of abiotic semiosis
- Review of From First to Third Via Cybersemiotics
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Between the grid and composition: Layout in PowerPoint's design and use
- Beyond speech balloons and thought bubbles: The integration of text and image
- Abstraction as a limit to semiosis
- The multimodal representation of emotion in film: Integrating cognitive and semiotic approaches
- Hearing a shakkei: The semiotics of the audible in a Japanese stroll garden
- Towards a social semiotics of rhythm in popular music
- A carnival pilgrimage: Cultural semiotics in China
- Photography and intermediality: Analytical perspectives on notions referred to by the term “photography”
- An exploration of possible unconscious ethnic biases in higher education: The role of implicit attitudes on selection for university posts
- New insights into the medium hand: Discovering recurrent structures in gestures
- The multimodal construal of the experiential domain of recipes in Japanese and Chinese
- Cyberterrorist messages: A semiotic perspective
- A necessary condition for proof of abiotic semiosis
- Review of From First to Third Via Cybersemiotics
