10/05/2012

Howtomake goodpresentations
GiorgioButtazzo
g.buttazzo@sssup.it

Whyagoodpresentation?
Youwantpeopleto:
Understandyourwork BeINTERESTEDinyourwork Thinkyouaregreat!

Whathappensifyougiveabadone?
Fewpayattention Theymayfallasleep Mightthinkyourworkisnotimportant Youaretaggedasainsignificantresearcher
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Scuola Superiore SantAnna http://retis.sssup.it/~giorgio/h2d.html

Objectives
The objective of a presentation is often to explain the importance of a new idea, not to explain details
Usually y there is not enough g time to explain p details Details and proofs can be read on the paper

Howtogivegoodpresentations
PartI:Presence
Preparation Attitude Voice Mannerisms

PartII:Slidestyle
Whattodo WhatNOTtodo
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Itsyourmoment
Yourchancetoleaveasign
Preparepsychologically Focusontheevent Peopleshouldrememberyou Leverageonyourbestfeature

Part I Presence

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KnowYourLocation
Needtobringalaptop? NeedtobringaUSBpen, oremailaPPTinadvance? Howfarisaudiencefromscreen? Canyoupointwithyourhand, ordoyouneedalaserpointer?

KnowYourAudience
Dotheyhaveabackground likeyours? Whatcanyougiveforgranted? Canyoujumprightintothesubject? Howmuchmotivations? Howmuchdetails? Consider that:
People are typically sleepy You have to wake them up
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Wheretolook?

UmmmmTheAhhYeah
PracticeALOT
Havetherightwordsready Donttaketimewithahhehm

Don Dont treadyourslideslikeascript Dontuseauniformtone likea syntheticvoice Emphasize importantconcepts

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Dontrush!
Sometimesnervesmake forfasttalking Calmdown.Itsnotarace
Don Dont tswitchslidestoofast Peopleneedtimetoabsorbinformation

Attitude
AreyouINTERESTED inyourtopic?
Ifno,choseadifferentone! Ifyes,ACTLIKEIT

IfYOU arenotexcited, excited you cannotexpectOTHERpeopletobe! Donttalkdown toaudience

Youknowmorethanthemaboutyourtopic Theyknowmorethanyouaboutotherthings
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Takeabottleofwater(orwhisky)ifnecessary
Better to say few things slowly, than many things fast

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Dontbeshy
Dontlookdummyinfrontofthe audience Dontbemotionless Don Dont thidebehindthepodium Dontstare
atyouradvisor atyourlaptop atthescreen attheceiling
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Whereareyourhands?
Usehandstopointandemphasizeconcepts Makesureyoudontrepeatthesame movementstoooften Dontpointatyourlaptopscreen
Theycantseeit

Practicewithyourfriends
Makesuretheyrenottoonice Youwantrealfeedback!
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Hey,IhaveaLASER!
Pointing Underlining Emphasizing Therandomfly DONOTPOINTATEVERYTHING
Noteverythingisequallyimportant Yourvoicecanprovideemphasis too
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KnowYourTopic
Bepreparedtogetquestions! WhatifIdontknowtheanswer?
KnowWHENtosayIdontknow KnowHOWtosayI d dont know k Dontjuststandthereuncomfortably!

Beabletorecoverfrominterruptions Knowwhattoskipifyourerunninglate
Dontjusttalkfaster!
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PartII:SlideDesign
Goals
Conveythenecessaryinformation Bereadable/understandable Beinteresting g

Part II Making good slides

Avoid
Overstimulation BeingBooooring

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Logos
Weknowyouhadsupport Dontneedtolistallofthemeveryslide Ifonthefirstslide,dontobscuretitle/authors Betteronthelastslide TitleSlide Introduction Outline MyWork Results Conclusions

Outline

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OutlineSlides
Previousslidedidnthelpaudience Ifuseoutlineslide,makeitUSEFUL
Everyone(hopefully)introducestheirtopic Everyoneexplainstheirwork,givesresults WhatisspecifictoYOURtalk? TitleSlide

Outline
Contextandmotivations Problemstatement(modelandassumptions) SummarizemainS.o.t.A.results Yourcontribution Outline Mainidea Results Conclusions
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Talklengthcorrelatestooutlineneed
Talkis45minutes,maybe! Talkis5minutesprobablynot

Iprefertheoutlineafterintroducingthetopic
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README.TXT
Donotattempttoputallthetext,code,orexplanationofwhatyouaretalking aboutdirectlyontotheslide,especiallyifitconsistsoffull,longsentencesor paragraphs.Theresnoplaceforparagraphsonslides.Ifyouhavecomplete sentences,youcanprobablytakesomethingout. Ifyoudothat,youwillhavetoomuchstufftoreadontheslide,whichisnot good. Peopledonotreallyreadallthestuffontheslides.Readingaslideisannoying.
Thats Th why h i its called ll da presentation i and dnota reading di of fyourwork k

FontSize
Youareclosetoyourmonitor Youraudienceisfarfromthescreen
Tahoma

Practicemakesyoumoreconfidentaboutwhatyouaregoingtosayandhelps youremovingmanynotesfromtheslides. UsetheNotesfunction ofPowerPointforyourreference.

Theaudience doesnotneedtohearthesamethingsyouwroteontheslides. Thebulletpointsshouldjustsummarizethebigideasthatyouaretryingtoconvey.

32 pt t
28 pt
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TNR

Courier

32 pt
28 pt
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Comic

Lucida Sans

32 pt
28 pt
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10 pt

Ifyouhaveusedtextwithlessthan18pointfont,then:
Perhapsyouaretryingtodotoomuchinoneslide Removesomeofthetext Splitupthetextandputitonseparateslides

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Thisisareallylongtitleforthis slide,youprobablyhavetofinda shorterone

Hardtoread Many M people l dont d tread dthe th title titl anyway Titlesshouldstayinasingleline

SlideBoundaries
Peoplecantreadtextthatrunsoffthesideoft

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Bulletsandhierarchy
Howmany
Levelsof
Hierarchydo
Youthink Youneed *Toexpress Yourpoint?

Spellchecking
Howsamrt willpoeple thikn yuo are? Watchfor:
there/their/theyre too/to/two its/its

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PictureshelpaLOT
Donthaveonlytextonmostofyourslides Trytodrawdiagramswhereverapplicable Picturesareeasiertounderstand
System Architecture
Theres a CPU, a RAM and an FPGA and theyre all connected - The FPGA connects to the CPUs data cache - The bus is 32 bits wide - Blah blah blah blah You have to visualize it yourself

PictureshelpaLOT
Picturesarealsohelpfultoemphasize concepts,soputthemwheneverpossible.

System Architecture

data cache

CPU 32 FPGA

32

main memory

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Putsomeeffort
Thisisabaddrawing
FPGA

YouarenotPixarStudios
Animation Can Be Very Distracting Use it sparingly (it can be annoying)

UseonlywhereitisUSEFUL Checkwhetherthepresentationsystemhandles
CPU

DifferentversionsofPowerPoint,Macs,etc.

Orusemultipleslidestosafelyanimate
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YouarenotPixarStudios
Dontusesoundeffects
Itmayseemfunnytohaveapplauseatthe endofaslide,orascreechingsoundforanew bulletpoint point,butitirritatestheaudience

Hey,myeyesareburning!
Can you look at this for 45 minutes?
ColorslookdifferentoneveryLCDprojector p Colorslookdifferentbetweentransparencies andprojector

Ifyouhavetoshowamovie
Rememberthatwhencopyingyourpresentationto anothercomputerorUSBpen,thereferencepath willchangeandclipsmaynotbefound.
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Sidenote:ifprintingslides,maywantto choosewhitebackgroundtosaveink!
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ISeeAGhost
Monitorshavemoreconstrast thanprojectors Differentprojectorsproducedifferentresults Colorstoavoidwithwhiteare:
LightGreen LightBlue PaleYellow
Usually cant read this

Equations

Yourslidesshouldhavegoodcontrast
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Uhmmmmaybe
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KeepItSimple
Doyoureallyneedallthoseequations?
Thisisveryinstancedependent! Dependsonwhatyourediscussing Dependsonyouraudience

UseSimpleExamples
Thisisnotagoodexample.Itdoesnthelp.
BB A GG NN CC LL M d b
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a DD h L C MM z

h F

D B E K H R

N q p Y O Q P

l FF V YY KK TT VV JJ QQ PP RR SS w s e UU j XX WW v ZZ x II OO EE HH n o m k

g c

Sometimesyoumayneedthem
Explain thevariablesandwhattheymean Giveaplaintextdescriptionofit

t f

X Z u

Ifyoudontneedthem,dontusethem!

y S AA

T G W U

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Results
A B 0.87677244 0.79708654 0.46901063 0.52657506 0.0774365 0.70884867 0.39906447 0.4181197 0.17894389 0.71470398 0.46534556 0.17509894 0.03235362 0.21094811 0.3665743 0.63509032 0.14878634 0.75212293 0.31602317 0.89039838 0.34635186 0.11473455 0.80195173 0.41696749 0.65322119 0.3010126 0.84418604 0.08979734 0.85518113 0.53105474 0.73755246 0.39036871 C 0.99348605 0.39825661 0.36471191 0.70503426 0.71517444 0.81407539 0.42344939 0.56488165 0.61926672 0.31906988 0.3701164 0.85801024 0.95622299 0.93272287 0.33754918 0.43333321 0.44201417 0.81061259 0.87489249 0.81380512 0.73292414 0.01934078 0.1792961 0.24905812 0.49666074 0.45604195 0.96241158 0.11100042 0.94522781 0.69991523 0.71402806 0.02247591 D 0.23781547 0.4894876 0.04697233 0.35280176 0.9394662 0.24571711 0.90776976 0.91405841 0.02978346 0.79658426 0.12452538 0.72984635 0.27726297 0.48265505 0.28178635 0.97677807 0.23251612 0.23756284 0.5304632 0.59139955 0.25933239 0.15717245 0.07832254 0.2111233 0.91641276 0.99935168 0.05548096 0.34646613 0.29368901 0.07876247 0.68090612 0.94725973 E 0.24437526 0.22079456 0.63468059 0.40935313 0.46843638 0.72497819 0.22209006 0.3578349 0.50789172 0.21587647 0.33415497 0.94731238 0.76619879 0.04960646 0.39637009 0.96198172 0.83375154 0.48518996 0.26191565 0.48488759 0.29230491 0.93780676 0.41154579 0.00256536 0.40573275 0.91271048 0.94093154 0.09994533 0.77444161 0.0023978 0.76015636 0.70692042

GraphsCanAlsoBeTheEnemy
1.2

Youhavelots ofcoolresults,but
noonecanreadthis noonecan understandthem

Graphsare yourfriend

0.78799174 0.24910355 0.65729261 0.48205396 0.46328137 0.09762717 0.00773315 0.15857663 0.59242455 0.41285757 0.8855586 0.28231467 0.82370951 0.86245578 0.38953201 0.80522838 0.35928212 0.72099806 0.13329065 0.2588109 0.99314419 0.88041055 0.72332226 0.95925002 0.00580885 0.26004883 0.1508427 0.63750743 0.17176871 0.15186964 0.72306385 0.42140074

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Series1 Series2 Series3 Series4 Series5

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PickALine,AnyLine
1.2

Conclusion
If your talk lasts more than 10 minutes, its nice to summarize the results
Bringpeoplebacktothemainpoint Remindthemabouty yourmaincontribution
Series1 Series2

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Givesellingpointshere
Theproposedalgorithmallowsincreasing processorutilizationupto50%savingmore than80%energy.

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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Howmanyslides
Itdependsonyourstile:
Averagetimeis1minutesperslide Denseslidesrequire2/3minutes Sparseslidesrequire30seconds Examples (for30mintalk) 40slidesiftherearemanyfigures 30slidesinnormalstyle 20slidesifformatisdense
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BadPresentations
Audiencewillnotseeyourworkisgreat Butwillmakefunofyoufromback
Those are NASTY colors Please turn him OFF Hey it matches my tie. zzz What does that slide say? Please STOP

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GoodPresentations
Topicexplainedataudienceslevel Slidesareunderstandableandeasytosee Goodpresentationsreflectwellonspeaker!
I wonder if this technique would work for my problem
Hey, I never thought of that!

Aknowledgments
Agreatthankgoesto
Katherine Compton Dept. of ECE UW-Madison Mark L. Chang Dept. of ECE Olin College of Eng.

I will invite him in my lab

Lets talk to him at the break

I understood this one!

whomadetheirpresentationguideavailableat
www.ece.wisc.edu/~kati/PresentationGuide.ppt Mostofthematerialincludedinthepresentslideshasbeen takenfromthere.

Interesting

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