IT Managers Need To Learn How To Use A Color Wheel
So I’m just a little bit off the beaten path with this discussion, but I’ve recently had to sit through so many bad presentations that I’m feeling an overwhelming need to try to make the world a better place for Powerpoint slides to live in.
We all live and die by Powerpoint. I can’t begin to tell you how many bosses that I’ve had that insisted that I provide them with status updates in Powerpoint form. What part of my hero Edward Tuff’s write up after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (“Powerpoint Does Rocket Science“) did they not read?
Well no matter, we have to do what we have to do. However, at the very least we should be able to do it to the best of our ability. One of the greatest errors that I’ve been seeing as of late is the criminal use of colors that in no way should ever be used together. Look, I realize that for most of us (guys) getting dressed in the morning can be a challenge (what goes with what), but we should have the same level of concern when it comes to creating slides.
So how should an IT manger pick colors for his/her Powerpoint slides? Simple – use a color wheel. Using a color wheel and just a bit of color theory, a product manger can start to produce professional looking slides. It turns out that using analogous colors (colors that are next to each other on the color wheel) or complementary colors (colors are across from each other on the color wheel) are easy ways to get your colors right.
Thanks to the Internet, there are now free sites that if you need to start with one color (company color, department color) will allow you to find out what colors work with that color. If this all seems to be too much for you, then you can visit the Colors On The Web site and press the button in order to get a random color scheme that has matching colors created for you.
How do you select what colors to use in your presentations today? Have you ever seen a really bad set of colors used in a presentation? Have you ever used a color wheel before? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
