Intro

slides from googling harvard

• examples (mostly with too much text)

On bullets

• looks like a list, it’s not a list
• don’t let ppt drive the way you present information
• multiple topics — 5 or less. (can’t count more than this in a spot)
  • make a hierarchy if you have move.
  • doesn’t promote splitting into separate slides

Details / asides

• contrast / format
  • prefer sans serif (feet) (serif has variable width, not good for contrast).
  • no funny backgrounds, new format bullets.
• no vertical text

A simple test

• if I remove the slide, can you redraw what was showing?

Creating effective slides

Foundations of communication

• Goal: get the audience to understand a message
  • pay attention (presentation it’s now or never)
  • be able to act upon your content (ask questions, start collaboration, talk to you etc).
• message is the interpretation about the information.
  • not the “what”
  • focus on the “so what”
  • is this ‘good news’ is this ‘difficult, impressive?’
• on graphs
  • disconnected legends not good. (put the labels next to the objects)
  • what do you conclude from this graph?
• maximize message for audience
  • strict selection.

Three rules

1. Adapt to your audience
   • aside: story sending photos me.jpg. be audienced focused
2. Noise
   • speaker’s way of distracting the audience
   • repetitive gestures
   • filler words
   • excess movement on slides
   • laser pointers (no laser’s for me)
   • increase the signal.
   • are the boxes necessary?
   • inconsitencies on slide — (time spent not on content)
   • parantheticals. Not necessary
3. Effective redundancy
   • compensate for zone out loss
   • Balancing text and slides
     • get message just from slide
     • get message just from audio.
     • periodically blind people (taking notes)
   • if it’s too small to read 6 a page, it’s too small
   • ask a friend if the ‘what’ is clear, and if the ‘so what’ is clear.
   • practice at least once without the slides. Otherwise you are not a speaker. You are a museum guide.
   • (Make people curious about the slide before showing it).
   • Do you know what your next slide is? without looking at laptop, good eye contact.

Common problems

• slides for speaker instead of audience. (cross out things you negate)
• slides that double up as the written report (big problem in the business world).
• copy paste from elsewhere
  • take time to do them well or don’t do them at all.
  • mismatch slides from previous presentations when in a hurry.
  • better approach: no slides.
    • First who is coming etc.
    • Fill in blanks about content (1 sheet of paper) what is the plan
    • If this is all you have, practice. –> How about matching expectations?

Presentation structure

• Higherarchy: main message, main points
• More time, don’t add more slides, add more points.
• where do you put the so what? = title. Audiences read titles.
  • title is not redundant with the slide info
  • state the so what. A recent alarming drop. Oh yes, I can see that in the graph.
  • state, then develop. Not at the bottom.
  • don’t squeeze the title into the top, don’t segregate it away with the line.
  • LEFT align title easier. Complete sentence. Two lines okay (3 not). Good line breaks.

Designing the slides

• common mistakes:
  • Noisy template
  • dump ideas randomly into slide.
• what is a template?
  • A set of rules, where the content goes, and how it’s formatted.
  • if there is no content, there is nothing on it.
  • Title of slides first (what are you trying to tell the audience).
  • where do we put the data?
    • big stuff align with title.
    • small stuff has only 1 alternative, further in.
  • more on graphs
    • add tick marks only as needed.
    • move axes if necessary (now it goes to 100% cause it hits that number).
    • annotate graph, it says something about the data.
    • This is visual, this is how we do it on the chalkboard. ‘a slide is more like a chalk board’.

Using the slides

• Timing
• Pointers? (do clear slides need pointers?)
  • laser pointers run around
• Self / stance
  • eyes don’t come back to you. They stay on the slide.
  • eye contact is the major connection of credibility. Stable, tall, look in the eyes.
  • way to convince audience in a talk is not your data, it’s the eye contact.
  • stand square to audience. Point with hand, point with your eyes. When your eyes go back to the audience, they track back to you.
  • don’t look at audience when standing infront of side. They aren’t supposed to be looking at you at this point. or reading the text on your face.
  • even sticks return to you. Though have a place where you put it down!

Three things to check

1. Does it convey a so what (ideally a full sentence in title. up to two lines).
2. Is it developed visually?
3. Did we remove all the noise?

Questions

• backgrounds — dark backgrounds for dark rooms (fluorescence images), light backgrounds for light backgrounds
• white background generally best, keep a bright room, have good eye contact?
• what about switching? (best if you switch lights). People will be disoriented for a little bit.
• posters? use the format.
  • get rid of everything people won’t read: e.g. references.
  • if you really need it have a handout. – name email website, refs etc.
  • readability should be readable on a US letter sheet.
• talk outlines?
  • okay but please don’t make it boring.
  • make it specific to your talk.
  • don’t do it too early.
  • the problem statement, the task, and then the takehome message
  • it’s just for the stuff in the middle
  • outlines help you summarize — it’s important to say it.
  • outline for 6 minute presentation, of course, just not necessarily a slide. But announce the logic of your presentation (like mapping in writing).
• acknowledgements — problem, you’re audience doesn’t usually care about these.
  • leave it up during questions and answers. Acknowedge when relevant.
  • coauthors, present at beginning, say what each author did. That’s not the same as acknowedgments.