technical presentations: how to prepare and present · technical presentations: part i: how to...

KTU DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING 1

Technical Presentations:How to Prepare and Present

Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet ÖZTÜRK

Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareTopics

◦ Part 1: Planning Your Presentation

◦ Part 2: Preparing the Media


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to Prepare

◦ Planning your presentation

◦ What are you trying to accomplish with your presentation?

◦ Know your audience

◦ What is the time and place of the presentation?

◦ How long will the presentation be?

◦ How will you get your message across?

◦ What media will you use to present your ideas?

◦ Slides must be readable. Don't flout the laws of optics

◦ Slides must be comprehensible. Say only what's important

◦ Producing the audio-visual materials


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareWhat Are You Trying To Accomplish With Your Presentation?

◦ If you need to motivate your audience or change their attitudes (or get a job),

start with information and concepts they will agree with, then show how these

relate to what you are presenting.

◦ We have all had the experience of seeing good (and bad) presentations and

invariably an enthusiastic speaker gives and gets more from the presentation.

◦ Concentrate on common interests and avoid long, dry sequences of facts.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareKnow Your Audience

◦ What is your audience interested in and what are their key measures?

◦ The audience likes a pay-off too; they may be there because they have to be,

but you don't have to make it even more onerous for them.

◦ Pitching the talk too high or too low means it's all a waste of time.

◦ What do the audience expect? Asking yourself this kind of question will

organize your thoughts more coherently and help you to avoid the common

errors.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareWhat Is The Time And Place Of The Presentation?

◦ What time of day will it be? People tend to be more alert in the morning and

early afternoon - though there isn't very much you can do about this.

◦ What are the physical characteristics of the presentation room? Will you be

able to use slides? Overheads? Handouts?

◦ Familiarizing yourself with the surroundings will help to ease your anxieties

and maybe give you an opening friendly line (e.g. Beautiful view of the slag

heap from this room but now it's time to get down to business).


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareHow Long Will The Presentation Be?

◦ If there's a strict time limit ensure you stick to it; otherwise people may start

to get fidgety, or even worse, you may (will!!) get cut off before your most

important point.

◦ Will you be the only presenter, or will you need to compete for attention? It's

a jungle out there and being the loudest speaker is not necessarily the best

way to gain attention.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareHow Will You Get Your Message Across?

◦ Saying the same thing in a variety of ways is often a good idea, using

analogies, metaphors etc., but not necessarily anything too wacky which

would obscure your main message.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareWhat Media Will You Use To Present Your Ideas?

◦ Try to employ the most appropriate media to illustrate what you are talking

about.

◦ It can be very difficult to try to understand a very complex experiment just by

listening to a prose description when you know that a simple piece of video

footage would make it all clear.

◦ Will you be able to pass visual aids around to individuals?


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareSlides Must Be Readable. Don't Flout The Laws Of Optics

◦ If you're trying to put too much information onto a slide, probably all of the slide

will be full of text. Summarize! Present qualitative conclusions.

◦ Be sure to use readable font size! Do NOT use the moment of the presentation as

your time to do the font resizing

◦ Be sure to use readable font size!

◦ Be sure to use readable font size!

◦ Lucida Console, 14 to 18pt, Bold can be considered as the most readable, mono-

spaced font for code demonstrations. Courier of any flavor or Arial (or any other

proportionally spaced font) is NOT appropriate for code demonstrations, period,

full stop.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareSlides Must Be Readable. Don't Flout The Laws Of Optics

◦ Use text on slides to highlight points, stress important concepts and underpin

what you are saying.

◦ Don't recreate your script word-for-word on overheads or slides as

◦ (a) it's a waste of time, and

◦ (b) people just switch off listening!

◦ Use key words and phrases as visual stimulation and reinforcement.

◦ Order your points by order of importance – the most important should come

first.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareGeneral Guidelines for Text Slides

◦ Use "Initial Capitals" or "Upper lower" rather than ALL CAPITALS. ALL CAPITAL

LETTERS are hard to read, and ALL CAPS is the written equivalent of shouting.

◦ Keep text sizes 24pt (24 point) or above for on-screen shows. Anything smaller, and your

audience may not be able to read it, preferably above 16pt for overheads.

◦ Avoid rotated and curved text for on-screen shows. While this is often a nice touch with

slides and presentations, the computer projector or screen is a fairly low resolution device

compared to a film recorder or a printer. The text may break up and be unreadable when used

in an on-screen show.

◦ Use build sequences for complex topics. By adding one item at a time, you control the pace

of the presentation. This will better give your audience time to absorb the information.

◦ Use key phrases where possible. Eliminate words such as verbs (action words) and articles (a,

an, the) that are not essential to the message.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareTransparencies Must Be Comprehensible. Say Only What's Important

◦ A slide can be optically readable, but still be incomprehensible.

◦ Complicated mathematical formulae can be too difficult to be absorbed in the

1-2 minute interval in which a slide is shown. It is much better to say:

◦ A closed-form solution for problems of type X, first determined by Jones in 1970, can be

implemented as a simple subroutine in most languages, allowing us to easily compute the needed

values.

◦ than to display complicated formula and say:

◦ Here we see the well-known closed-form solution due to Jones.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareProducing the Audio-Visual Materials

◦ There is no excuse for poorly made audiovisual materials.

◦ Computer technology allows you to easily make appropriate graphs etc.,

which not only look good but are also more effective at conveying that crucial

information you have put together.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareGeneral Guidelines for Charts and Graphs

◦ Keep graphs simple. The audience should be able to absorb the point at a

glance.

◦ If you show too many bars, slices, or lines, the audience will be forced to

spend excess time deciphering data. This is time spent not listening to you.

◦ Make your point in the title. Eliminate graph elements such as grids and

decimal values except where absolutely necessary.

◦ Keep line weights fairly heavy and text as large as possible. Round off

numbers in titles, graph labels, and axis labels.



◦ Start all axis values at 0 to avoid confusion -- if this is not practicable then

make sure that in your presentation you make a big thing of pointing this out.

◦ Keep axis labeling as simple as possible--do not overdo the number of tick

marks.

◦ Be prudent with 3D charts and graphs, especially line plots. Yes, they look

nice, but if they confuse your audience, they may not be a good idea.

◦ Choose vertical axis values carefully. Decreasing the scale can decrease the

impact of an otherwise dramatic change in data. Likewise, increasing the

scale can increase the impact of an insignificant change.



◦ For an experimental talk, you usually don't need or want to communicate raw

data but you do want to show relationships.

◦ Tables, charts and graphs give you an opportunity to show these relationships

graphically which easier to describe and comprehend.

◦ Decide which chart types to use based upon the data you need to present -

they don't have to look lovely (although that helps) but they do have to be

accurate and comprehensible.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PreparePresentation Media

◦ Slides and Transparencies

◦ When designing your graphics, keep all information on slides within the "safe

area." The safe area compensates for the overlap from a slide/overhead

mount.

◦ As a rule of thumb keep all graphics about 1/2" in from the edge of the image.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareBackgrounds

◦ Use bright colors on a dark background.

◦ Enhance your slides with a graduated background (i.e. from blue to black) for

added impact.

◦ Avoid large light colored areas, as they tend to be annoyingly bright when

projected.

◦ If you're not familiar with the room you'll be presenting in, it's best to assume

there will be a lot of ambient light.

◦ For on-screen presentations, follow the same guidelines. This combination

will allow for high ambient light situations.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareUsing Color in Presentations

◦ While the use of color can increase the impact of your presentation, too much

color can be distracting.

◦ Use color as a communications tool, keeping the following guidelines in

mind:

◦ Limit the variety of colors you use. Five colors is the maximum for graphs and charts. For word

charts, limit yourself to two main colors with a third for highlighting.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to Prepare

Using Color in Presentations

◦ Use color as a communications tool, keeping the following guidelines in mind:

◦ Use color to show relationships between the elements on the visuals.

◦ Keep colors consistent throughout the presentation. If you used blue for 1996 and

green for 1997, don't switch them halfway through your presentation.

◦ Warm colors advance to the foreground. Use bright, warm colors like orange and

yellow to emphasize information. Do not use these colors for backgrounds.

◦ Cool colors recede to the background.



◦ Use colors like blue and green for less important elements (subdues) or large

areas. Since these colors are considered more conservative, they are ideal for

backgrounds.

◦ Dark blues and blacks are safe background colors because they do not detract

from text or data in the foreground.

◦ On a dark background, yellow and white make text, bullets and numbers easy

to read.



◦ Select colors that have distinct differences, rather than colors that have subtle

differences.

◦ Keep color contrast high. This helps your audience differentiate between the

elements in your visuals.

◦ Establish a background and a set of colors, and use them consistently. This

will serve to unify your presentation and give it a professional look.

◦ Avoid red and green combinations: 4% of males are red-green color blind and

cannot distinguish between the two colors.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareDesign Considerations (Rules of thumb)

◦ Strive for simplicity.

◦ Simplify text, charts and concepts.

◦ Break up complex charts and concepts into smaller, more digestible segments.

◦ Keep the number of visual elements and special effects to a minimum to

avoid distracting your audience.

◦ Focus on one point with each visual.

◦ Do not mix topics.

◦ Keep colors to a minimum--too many will distract the viewer from the

message.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareLegibility

◦ There's no excuse for slides that can't be read.

◦ Be sure to select background and foreground colors with enough contrast to

make charts easily readable.

◦ Avoid white or light backgrounds. Also avoid using shades of the same color

for background and foreground.

◦ Be sure the text and graphics are large enough to be visible in the situation in

which you will make your presentation.

◦ Spacing between lines of text should be open to enhance readability. Use

traditional orientation--make visuals read from left to right, top to bottom.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareConsistency and Harmony

◦ Use a consistent background and color scheme throughout the presentation.

◦ If you wish to use some variety, simply vary color combinations to create "modules."

◦ Use modules to segment the presentation much as chapters or sections divide a book.

◦ Use common graphic and color symbolism to avoid confusion or distraction. To make the

presentation hold together, keep all major graphic elements, such as placement of title and

logos consistent.

◦ Use only one font family (i.e. Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, Italic and Bold Italic) throughout

your presentation. Also keep the number of sizes you use to three or less. Any more will

simply confuse your audience.


Technical Presentations:Part I: How to PrepareRehearsal

◦ DO NOT give a presentation that you haven't run through out loud! Yes, it

feels odd talking out loud to an empty room (although preferably you should

have some friends there) but it is the only accurate way to work out the timing

and to ensure you don't stumble over your words.

◦ Preview your visuals, speaking the verbal presentation as you go. This will

ensure that all elements work together

◦ Have someone critique one, if possible.

◦ Create speaking notes in outline form, or on cards if you like.


technical presentations: how to prepare and present · technical presentations: part i: how to...

Documents