Best Practices for Showcase Navigation:

As noted earlier, navigation can take on numerous forms, known as Styles—Showcase being only one of them. Some styles work better in certain situations than others. Here are a few considerations for when Showcase style is less or more appropriate.

Probably Not:

• We use Showcase switchboards strictly for navigating to slides within the same show. If navigating to external shows, Web sites, and so forth, other styles are more versatile and effective.
• If you need to show a lot of slides in the same show, repeatedly going back and forth between switchboard and content in this manner can become annoying. Showcase style works best for reference material and collections, where only a small number of items out of a larger group is required. Quickly finding a particular view of a specific product is a prime example.

Probably:

• Showcase navigation is easy to build and modify, and should be your navigation of choice for collections of related content that see sporadic usage.
• The back-and-forth nature of the process is ideal for picture collections because images can appear full screen on content slides, without navigation elements or other slide components being visible to distract from impact.
• Understand that this style can have interesting and powerful psychological side effects, without the presenter ever saying a word. Imagine the following scenario: You create a switchboard showcasing all the projects your company has completed over the years. Perhaps this switchboard contains a hundred links, and you select one while describing a specific project. Just showing such a dramatic switchboard in the first place causes people to think, “Wow. Look at all the projects these guys have done. They must really know what they’re doing.”

Begin applying what you’ve learned in this tutorial right away. For additional development, see the comprehensive workshop sessions and textbooks available. We wish you the best of success!