Making your slides

The following is my brief summary of the article: Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides, which was authored by Kristen Naegle (Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at University of Virginia) and appeared in the scientific journal PLoS Computational Biology.

  1. Include only 1 major idea per slide, and spend no more than 1-minute per slide
    • These should be self-explanatory
  2. Use headings strategically and only include essential points
    • The first thing your audience will do on a new slide is read the heading/first line. The next thing they’ll do is read the rest of the slide. You don’t want reading the slide to take them very long or they’ll prioritize it over listening to you speak.
  3. Use graphics and images
    • For a short presentation you should try to avoid slides containing only text to help keep the audience interested and help convey your main points more clearly.
  4. Avoid cognitive overload
    • Keep your slides simple in terms of volume of information, font, background colors, etc.
    • Try to design each slide so that a distracted person could still get the main takeaway.

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Preparing to present

The following is a list of tips and advice drawn from personal experiences (mostly hearing, but also delivering) and published tips (such as these tips from the University of Washington)

  1. Prepare - You should expect to practice your presentation several times before “getting it right”. You should also prepare a set of slides to keep yourself organized and give your audience something to look at.
  2. Start strong - Most audiences will make up their mind within 30-60 seconds on whether they want to listen to you. The first minute of your presentation should clearly explain the main thrust of your presentation in plain terms (free of technical jargon), and you might consider building in something designed to grab additional attention (a joke, an icebreaker question, a funny anecdote, etc.)
  3. Know your audience - Tailor your material to the knowledge level of your audience and be prepared to adjust your pace and level of detail depending upon how well they seem to be understanding.
  4. Engage with your audience -Avoid reading directly off of your slides. Use gestures and changes in voice inflection to emphasize the things you find important. Maintain eye contact with the audience, as this conveys confidence and openness.