Exercises on Visuals and PowerPoint
- For each slide, ask: is it visual? Is it truly an aid? Is it for my audience?
- Go through each block of text; does the audience really need this? If not, delete.
- For a cluttered slide, ask the presenter, does the audience need to see this all at once? Would it be better to spread the material across multiple slides? Will you be talking about everything on the slide? If not, eliminate unnecessary content.
- Break the bullet point model -- how can points be translated into VISUAL displays?
- Practice turning back toward the audience after referring to the visual (as opposed to reading off the visual, or staring at the visual instead of looking at the audience).
Links to Handouts
A handout of tips from Edward Tufte, including how to avoid “Death by Powerpoint”: https://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/OCTwikiupload/c/c9/Edwardtuftetips.pdf
PowerPoint How to Guide – An excellent 6-page guide created by Alya Raphael that explains how to use some of the most common PowerPoint features, like inserting and adjusting images and video, and basic animation tools.
Recommended Links
CTL Lecture: Communicating Science to Non-Scientists by Jean-Luc Doumont: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFu3jaLmse0
Hans Rosling's TED Talks
- Use of data/statistics: http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_good_news_of_the_decade.html | http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html
- Use of props: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.html
Ken Robinson - Changing education paradigms: video using RSA Animate visuals: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html
John Bohannon's TED talk - using dance instead of PowerPoint to illustrate science: http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal.html
Eli Pariser TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html Shows custom designed images for filter bubbles, gate keepers, etc.
Steve Jobs unveils iPhone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftf4riVJyqw (Watch for effective use of simple slides and interaction with PowerPoint)
Gettysburg address as PowerPoint: http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/ (Shows that PowerPoint is NOT always effective)
Nancy Duarte's books:
- Slideology: https://www.duarte.com/books/slideology/
- Resonate: https://www.duarte.com/resonate/
Garr Reynolds' blog: https://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html
Visual expression of scientific data: http://bang.clearscience.info/
Data visualization: http://blogs.nature.com/methagora/2013/07/data-visualization-points-of-view.html/
Arguments against PowerPoint
Dumb-Dumb Bullets - An argument by T.X. Hammes that PowerPoint is a poor decision-making tool: http://armedforcesjournal.com/essay-dumb-dumb-bullets/
Recommended Texts
Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds [Available via searchworks.stanford.edu]
Slideology and Resonate by Nancy Duarte [Available via searchworks.stanford.edu]