Thesis Orientation

Seminar

Preparing Slides and

Other Visual Aids

Why use data projection?

Immediacy
Easy to edit / merge presentations
Lower running costs
Multimedia, therefore
more interesting / interactive / vibrant

Slide elements

At the start decide on the essential

elements, title, header, logo
Sparingly, less is more, introduce the
other ingredients
Make sure they dont overwhelm the
design
Never use anything for its own sake

Basis of Design
The basis of design
is the bringing
together of various
elements into one
given area to
achieve an
interaction that will
communicate a
message within a
given context

Most frequent problems

Inappropriate fonts, lettering, layout

Inappropriate use of colour
Poor charts and graphs
Poor quality digital/digitised images
Video incompatibilities

Serif fonts

Roman
Italic
Bold
Bold Italic

Times

Garamond

Sans Serif fonts

Regular
Oblique
Condensed
Condensed Oblique
Bold
Bold Oblique

Arial
Helvetica

How many fonts?

No more than two styles of font

One for headings and sub-headings
One for text and annotation

More than this and your design

will become confusing, especially
if you have a lot of information to impart

What point size?

The point system was introduced in France by Pierre Fournier in the
early 18th century to standardise type casting

Headings and sub-headings

28pt
Text and annotation
18pt 32pt

48pt

Size matters
48-point complete
legibility

36

32-point text (and bigger) a clear choice

24

18-point strains the eyes

14-point far too small

12-point pointless

28-point acceptable

Text animation

The animation itself should not be

the point of interest

The eye reads left to right

dont force it to do otherwise

If the effect is a gimmick,

the audience switch off

Bullets

Keep each bullet to one line, two at

the most.
Limit the number of bullets in a
screen to six, four if there is a large
title, logo, picture, etc.

This is known as cueing

You want to cue the audience in on
what you are going to say.

Bullets

If you crowd too much

text, the audience will
not read it.

Too much text makes it

look busy and is hard to
read.
Our reading speed does
not match our listening
speed; hence, they
confuse instead of
reinforcing each other.

Text animation

Concentrate on one point at a time

Using a wipe down or wipe left
is a natural progression down the screen

Caps and Italics

Do not use all capital letters

Makes text hard to read

Conceals acronyms
Denies their use for EMPHASIS

Italics

Used for quotes

Used to highlight thoughts or ideas
Used for book, journal, or magazine titles

Animation and sound

Ignore sound options!

Once might be amusing

Twice or more gets irritating
and PowerPoint has plenty of other
silly options

Less is more!

Not
Not
Not
Not
Not
Not
Not
Not
Not

too
too
too
too
too
too
too
too
too

many
many
many
many
many
many
many
many
many

bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet

points!
points!
points!
points!
points!
points!
points!
points!
points!

Use of colour

To
To
To
To

group or separate
emphasise or suppress
create a mood
influence or suggest

Use of colour
Subtleties often more effective

than bold variations in colour

Backgrounds and text

Pale backgrounds saturated text
Group 1
9 male
1 female
1924 yrs

Group 2
3 male
4 female
2534 yrs

Group 3
5 male
9 female
3544 yrs

Backgrounds and text

Dark backgrounds pastel text
Group 1
9 male
1 female
1924 yrs

Group 2
3 male
4 female
2534 yrs

Group 3
5 male
9 female
3544 yrs

Saturated colours do not create

emphasis

Colour themes
Blue:

calm, professional, conservative,

soothing for long periods

Green:

off-beat, uncertain, independent

Red:

aggressive, difficult for extended concentration, use for effect

only

Colour Palettes
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette
My Colour Palette

Colour Tips

Set up a colour palette for each

presentation
Only use colours from that palette
Separate out important information
with bolder colours
Use different tones of one colour for
emphasis

The Color Wheel

Colors separated by
another color are
contrasting colors
(also known as
complementary)
Adjacent colors
(next to each other)
harmonize with one
another. e.g. Green
and Yellow

The Color Wheel

Colors that are

directly opposite
from one another
are said to clash.
These provide
readability - e.g.
yellow on blue.

Illustrations/ Graphics

Use only when needed, otherwise

they become distracters instead
of communicators
They should relate to the
message and help make a point
Ask yourself if it makes the
message clearer
Simple diagrams are great
communicators

Correct
format

Scanned from 35mm slide

Modern graphics

Excellent resolution

Charts and graphs generated

within PowerPoint or imported

Modern graphics

Clip Art

Very cute; everyone has seen

them

Clip Art

Digital / digitised images

Modern cameras are excellent

Become familiar with scanner
software
Major factors are colour fidelity, size
and image resolution
Image libraries & databases will
dominate as a teaching resource

Video

Short clips can be very effective

Format is critical
Lengthy clips take up a lot of disk
space and bloat a presentation
(consider Windows Media Player or
QuickTime or Real Player)

Five key design tips

Stick to the grid principle

Use palette colours only

Use two or fewer fonts

Use three or fewer images

Use five or fewer bullet points

YOU

Do not use the media to hide you

The audience came to see you
The media should enhance the
presentation, not BE the presentation
If all you are going to do is read from the
slides or overheads, then just send them
the slides
If your slides will just present your
documentation verbatim, forget the slides

Avoidance of Classic
Mistakes - Dos and Donts
During Defense

Dos and Donts

Demonstrate command of your material

Appear knowledgeable about what you're
saying

DO: Speak confidently; provide specific examples

DON'T: Read/memorize a prepared speech

Demonstrate interest in your audience

Care about getting your point across

DO: Keep your presentation simple, logical and wellorganized

DON'T: Exceed time constraints; better to be brief
than boring

Demonstrate effective presentation skills

Control body language, facial expressions,
and voice

Although we can choose our words

consciously, we sometimes give ourselves
away unconsciously because of non-verbal
language
Your basic eye, head and hand gestures can
signal either positive or negative impressions

Body Language
DO: Keep your body language natural; try
to relax; use gestures where appropriate

Smooth vs. Jerky movement

Constant gestures (of the right type) vs. no
gestures

DON'T: Bury your hands in your pockets;

shake visibly while pointing at audiovisual
aids; touch your face, forehead, chin, etc.

Facial Expressions
"The eyes are the mirror of the soul. The
entire face is really a mirror of your true
feelings.

Facial Expressions
DO:

Try to smile--look like you're enjoying

yourself
Maintain eye contact with your audience

DON'T:

Stare at the floor, at your presentation

materials, or off into space.
Look scared or unhappy.

Voice
DO:

Vary your voice;

pace your presentation appropriately;
speak loud enough
Use pauses occasionally, where most effective

DON'T:

Present in a monotone;
race through your talk;
speak inaudibly.
Resort to use of fillers (examples: y'know, er, um)
to keep presentation moving

Tone of voice and body language accounts

for 65 per cent of whats communicated.
Words account for 35 per cent of the message
thats communicated

Dos

Look and sound enthused

Always maintain eye contact with your
audience
Be Consistent in Thought, Word, & Deed!
Make back-up copies frequently
Speak clearly and loudly enough for all
to hear
Listen intently to comments, questions
and opinions

Dos

Demonstrate command of your material

Practice the presentation. A lot.
Prepare
Prepare
and prepare

What could go wrong

during Q & A

Only one student is answering the

questions
Conflicting answers of students
Students not knowing the answer
Students fighting in front of the
panelists

CONFIDENCE BUILDERS

With better preparation comes

decreased anxiety

Knowing your talk inside-out increases speaker

confidence
Familiarizing yourself with the presentation
environment (classroom/boardroom/auditorium)
and audiovisual equipment ahead of time
decreases stress

CONFIDENCE BUILDERS

With better preparation comes

decreased anxiety

As your public speaking frequency increases,

your anxiety decreases
Rehearsing your presentation in front of a live
audience (family/friends/professional
colleagues) increases speaker assurance