Another crack at 'zen' science

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Graphics supporting a February 20 lecture at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

Scott Elias' "Taking Your Slide Deck to the Next Level"

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Scott Elias is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado, and he's put together a wonderful set of slides describing his ideas on presentation design and effective communication. To make it even better, he's provided a voiceover track so that you can listen to his presentation and watch his slides at the same time.

This presentation combines a clear purpose with great graphics and engaging content. It's extremely effective. It runs 20 minutes. Go watch it.

Don't let bad visuals sink your talk

The United States Navy is, in anyone's estimation, a serious operation. The US Navy is by far the largest in the world, with nearly 300 ships in service and more tonnage than the next 17 largest navies combined. Even outside of combat operations, the men and women of the Navy deal with challenging and dangerous situations as part of their day-to-day routine.

The US Navy also employs a lot of scientists. Its Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsors research over a broad range of scientific disciplines, and has funded the work of more than 50 winners of the Nobel Prize.

In the mid-1990s, the ONR released "Tips for Preparing Scientific Presentations', an online guide to preparing and presenting a scientific talk. Although the guide has started to show its age a bit (mainly through references to 35-mm slides), most of its advice is just as relevant to presentations using slideware.

The guide provides a wealth of constructive advice, ranging from how to prepare your talk to advice for dealing with the question-and-answer session. One of my favorite sections is the guide's 'Ten Commandments to Visual Aids'. To summarize briefly, the 'Commandments' include:

1. Each visual aide should support the material covered in your talk.
2. Information presented visually should be brief and concise.
3. Visual aids must be legible and visible to the audience.
4. Two or three facts per image are best (and in my opinion, the fewer, the better).
5. Don't cram too many visuals into your talk.
6. Use color for emphasis and clarity.
7. Don't read your slides.
8. Be aware of the 'life span' of each visual.
9. Rehearse your talk with your visual aides.
10. Tailor your visuals to suit your speaking environment.

As the guide says, "visual aids ruin more speeches than they improve". Keeping these rules in mind should help make your talk clearer, shorter and more informative.

Going 'Zen' for the first time

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I've been asked to give a presentation at a workshop to be held in Alberta in March. The workshop will revolve mainly around the use of tree rings and other natural 'proxy' records to water issues in the Canadian Prairie provinces.

I'll be presenting material drawn from the last chapter of my doctoral dissertation, and will talk about the strengths and limitations of tree-ring records as indicators of past drought. The audience will include between 50 and 100 water managers from the region, and for many of them, the workshop will be their first exposure to tree rings and other forms of paleoclimatology. I think it will be in their best interest (and mine) that the scientific presentations focus more on big-picture ideas and less on technical details and methodology.

With an eye towards getting my point across more effectively, I've worked up a set of slides in the 'Presentation Zen' style. I've included more photos than I have in previous presentations, and have also tried to swap out complex journal-style diagrams and replace them with simpler graphics.

I'm excited (and a little nervous) to see how the presentation is received - I imagine its style will be quite different from the other talks in the workshop. I've posted the slides at Slideshare.net, and would appreciate any comments or suggestions - the workshop is not for another six weeks, so I have plenty of time left to tweak or change my plans.