DRS2008 » Presenting

Presenting your Paper

Here are some guidance notes to help you think about your presentation.

Overview

In my view a good presentation should tell the audience about the main points of your research and get them interested enough to read the full paper. If your work has real depth and detail you cannot hope to explain it completely in 20 minutes so don't try.

In addition this audience is concerned with design and whether your design experience is directly in visual or communication design or not, I think we all have a responsibility to take a "designerly" approach to planning and crafting our presentation. That includes the content and form of visual aids, your use of language and your own performance as a presenter. That may sound very daunting but it is not meant to be, we cannot all be great public speakers or visual communicators but we can all take care over how we prepare and doing so will give us confidence.

I expect quite a lot of you have seen Kun-Pyo Lee make a conference presentation. He always takes care to prepare informative and visually pleasing diagrams, he is charming and sometimes humourous and he makes his points very clearly.That is the result of good preparation and experience. You cannot get that experience quickly but you can make a big difference by rehearsing your presentation and reflecting on your performance.

Here are some practical ideas:

1. Less is more
Do not try to pack too much into the presentation, you will not have time and your audience will not be able to to follow it. Start by making a list of the main points you need to explain. I suggest that these should include the reasons for doing the research, methodological problems, what you discovered and the consequences of the research, for example how you or others might develop it further, or who might find it interesting or useful.

2. Please don't read out your full paper.
Some people do this but it asks too much of your audience.

3. Avoid reading a script if you can
Some people are very good at speaking without notes and if you can learn your presentation well enough you may be able to do that. It really adds to the communication if you can concentrate on talking to your audience rather than reading your script. Experienced presenters use their slides as prompts to remind them what they need to say at each stage of the presentation.
However you may feel that you need to rely on having notes to help you, especially if English is not your first language. Even so rehearsing your presentation is a great way to become more confident and relaxed and able to speak to the audience instead of always looking down at your notes.

4. Please don't put your whole presentation on your slides
Nothing gets more complaints from audiences than presenters who put the whole text of their talk on the screen and then read it. Use your visual aids to reinforce the key points of your talk and provide diagrams and images that help to explain your work.

5. Keep your slides simple
Don't be afraid to have just one statement, quotation, image or diagram on screen at one time. if you have more than 5 or 6 things up there it will be too cluttered

6. Use visual methods if you can.
A diagram can help you explain how complex material fits together, an image can set the scene for the research or make clear the qualities of the materials you are working with.

7. Remember that you are a designer
And for those researchers who are not that kind of designer, why not talk to somebody with good visual design and communication skills about how to make the most of this opportunity

- chrisrust Jun 27, 2008 11:40 pm