How to Make Your PowerPoint Powerful: CARP

The first time I was introduced to CARP principle is a year ago when I took Creative Dsgn Instr Materials class with Joni Dunlap. It has impacted me tremendously since. Whenever I am making a slide presentation to my class, I am thinking of CARP, a design principle given by Robin Patricia Williams, stands for Contrast,Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.

Contrast

Contrast is all about making distinct elements stand out. Contrast is used to drive a user’s attention to specific elements in a design.

Besides differentiated colors, contrast can be established using different element types, shape, size, and more.

Repetition

Repetition is how you maintain consistency in a design. It helps users familiarize with the way information is presented to them.For instance, bullet lists use repetition of circular dots to present information. The repetition of dots help readers scan and read the list quickly.

Repetition can be practiced with the color, shape, texture, size, and other attributes of the elements in a design.

Alignment

Alignment dictates the way every element is placed in a design.

Alignment is a concept that advocates organizing information to create order.

With alignment, no element in a design is positioned arbitrarily. Each element visually connects to other elements, leading to cohesiveness in a design.

The two basic kinds of alignment are edge alignment and center alignment.

Proximity

The principle of proximity states that elements that are associated with each other should be placed closely (grouped together), and vice versa.

The application of proximity, especially in web design, can lead to better user experience.

An amateur designer might try to utilize the complete real estate of a design, trying to spread elements evenly throughout. Such a design will make it difficult for users to determine elements that are related to each other (and those which are not), resulting in poor user experience.

Here is a simple example: