Giving Good Presentations

1. Giving Good Presentations “XXX, you maybe a good programmer but it don’t mean beans if you can’t tell a good story!” - Tom Moher Electronic Visualization Laboratory University of Illinois at Chicago

2. The Introduction • TELL A GOOD STORY! • Rehearse an opening • Know your audience. Give them a copy of your slides • What is the motivating problem? • Why is it important? • Sound enthusiastic • Everyone wants to hear a good presentation- the only one who can screw it up is you. Have you ever gone to a movie that you wanted to suck? • No outline slide please- everyone knows you are going to give an intro, a middle and a conclusion. • Stay on time! Rehearse! Stay on time! Rehearse!

3. The Content • Speak slowly, boldly and clearly • Choose good visible fonts, sizes and colors • Dark backgrounds, light text, consistent color scheme • Use slides as notes, not a book. Don’t read your slides • If you put up a formula you better explain it so that your audience understands. Pages of formulae will lose people • Interact with your audience • Look at your audience, all of them. Not just one person or the floor, or the screen, or your notes • Define your acronyms if audience does not know them • Test your slides on the projector - Stand where the audience are and see what they see. Can you see?

4. How Many Slides • Figure on 1 minute per slide • Really - its true • If it takes less than a minute to go through a slide maybe it isnt worth devoting a slide to it • If it takes more than a minute then the slide is probably too dense

5. White background, Black Text- Agh!Tolerable if you have only Overhead Transparencies. • Dark backgrounds, light text. • Choose good visible fonts, sizes and colors. • You’re from a graphics lab, you better have pictures! • This is 40pt font • This is 32pt font • This is 24pt font - This is the limit • This is 18pt font • This is 14pt font • This is 12pt font • This is 10pt font Step back

6. Dark Background Example • Dark backgrounds, light text. • Choose good visible fonts, sizes and colors. • You’re from a graphics lab, you better have pictures! • This is 40pt font • This is 32pt font • This is 24pt font - This is the limit • This is 18pt font • This is 14pt font • This is 12pt font • This is 10pt font Step back

7. Another Dark Background Example • Dark backgrounds, light text. • Choose good visible fonts, sizes and colors. • You’re from a graphics lab, you better have pictures! • This is 40pt font • This is 32pt font • This is 24pt font - This is the limit • This is 18pt font • This is 14pt font • This is 12pt font • This is 10pt font Step back

8. Choose a good font size • This is 40pt font • This is 32pt font • This is 24pt font - This is the limit • This is 18pt font • This is 14pt font • This is 12pt font • This is 10pt font Step back

9. Choose colors that’s easy to read • This is text - good! • This is text - good! • This is text - good! • This is text - agh!!!!!!! • This is text - no!!!! • This is text - good! • This is text - borderline Step back

10. Alternate colors if you have lots of bullets (optional) • Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah • TELL A GOOD STORY! • Rehearse an opening • What is the motivating problem? • Why is it important? • Sound enthusiastic • No outline slide please- everyone knows you are going to give an intro, a middle and a conclusion • Stay on time! Stay on time! Stay on time! Stay on time!

11. Compare to all white text • Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah • TELL A GOOD STORY! • Rehearse an opening • What is the motivating problem? • Why is it important? • Sound enthusiastic • No outline slide please- everyone knows you are going to give an intro, a middle and a conclusion • Stay on time! Stay on time! Stay on time! Stay on time!

12. This is 40pt font This is 32pt font This is 24pt font - This is the limit This is 18pt font This is 14pt font This is 12pt font This is 10pt font This is 40pt font This is 32pt font This is 24pt font - This is the limit This is 18pt font This is 14pt font This is 12pt font This is 10pt font Choose a good font Arial/Helvetica Times Roman Step back

13. You’re from a graphics lab, you better have lots of pictures! • Use pictures to wake-up the presentation • But use meaningful pictures • Explain the pictures to the audience • Are the labels in the picture readable? • Make it match your slides. You match your tie to your shirt don’t you? • Show a video of your application running

14. Pictures • Remember that white background & black text is bad! • Don’t accept what Excel gives you. Fix the colors! • Everything that applies to your slides applies to your pictures & graphs • Read the text for the audience if it is unavoidably too small

15. Animations • Animation can be used to clarify diagrams, showing flows or transitions between states • More often its over-used • Be very careful using animation in serious presentations

16. The Conclusions • Don’t end with: “well uh that’s it.” • End with: “And that concludes my talk, If there are questions I’d be happy to answer them.” • Rehearse the close of your talk • Show a fast 1 slide overview of your work • Show a web site where they can get more information and your contact info - leave it on the screen so people can write it down

17. Answering Questions • Repeat the question so that everyone in the room can hear • Step outside of yourself • If you don’t know the answer, just say so • If a question will take a lot of time to answer, tell them that you’d be happy to discuss this further after the talk