Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations: Guidelines and Feedback

1. Giving Feedback onStudents’ PowerPoints The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication WORKSHOP SERIES

2. What rules should we teach students about PowerPoint? x

3. Teach Students How to Decide • As new technologies emerge • As audiences change • Academia/ industry/ public • Disciplines • Diverse cultures (globalization) • As their purposes change By emphasizing processes and criteria

4. Shifting the focus of feedback This title is too short. What will the audience expect to be on the slide from this title? There are aren’t enough labels here. If you point to this image during your talk and someone misses it, will they be able to understand? This doesn’t seem to be related to the previous slide. How does this slide work in the series of slides so far? PRODUCT PROCESS

5. Ask Questions Related to Criteria • Is it accessible? • Is it comprehensible? Understandable? • Is the information usable? • Is the slide interculturally or interpersonally appropriate and compelling?

6. Accessibility Questions • Is information organized logically? • Are whole to part relationships obvious? • Are cues consistent, noticeable without being overwhelming? • Are images legible, familiar, and interpretable? • Is text easy to read?

7. Accessibility Cues • Headings and titles • Hierarchy • Indentions • Point size, point size • Layout in space • Legibility (contrast, font, color) • Conciseness

8. Common Errors in Accessibility

9. Slide Template Errors • Busy/complicated: can audience get what they need? • Wrong for room: are the slides easy to read? • Well-lit room: use light background / dark text and visuals • Dimly-lit room: use dark background / light text and visuals

10. Good for print E Serif (“tail”) Such as Times New Roman Good for projecting E Sans Serif (uniform shaft width) Such as Arial Errors in Choosing Fonts

11. Errors in Choosing Fonts • Contrast between background and text • Size of font • Type treatment of font Drop Shadows Reduce Legibility

12. The ideal anesthetic should quickly make the patient unconscious but allow a quick return to consciousness, have few side effects, and be safe to handle. Too Much Text! • Ideal anesthetics • Quick sedation • Quick recovery • Few side effects • Safe to handle

13. Lack of Hierarchy • Bullets help your audience • to skim the slide • to see relationships between information • organize information in a logical way • For example, this is Main Point 1, which leads to… • Subpoint 1 • Further subordinated point 1 • Further subordinated point 2 • Subpoint 2

14. Content-Poor Titles Titles should give the message of the slide, for example… “Results” suggests the topic for a slide “Substance X upregulates gene Y” (with data shown below) shows the audience what is observed

15. Errors in Lists For easy accessibility, lists should be in same grammatical form Parallel: Use keywords Avoid wordiness Opt for bullets Not Parallel: Use keywords Wordiness is bad You should opt for bullets

16. Revise for Grammatical Parallelism • Not Parallel: Criteria to Assess Alarm System • Price • Effectiveness • How easily the alarm could be installed • Parallel: Criteria to Assess Alarm System • Price • Effectiveness • Ease of installation

17. Use of Intense Colors Together

18. Graphics That Can’t Be Read Small image stretched to graininess Large image reduced to illegibility

19. Overused, General Clip Art

20. Errors in Slide Show Effects • Slow effects • Fancy animation • Animation used without purpose • Inconsistent use of animations or transitions

21. Comprehensibility Questions • What helps the audience understandthe argument of the presentation? • What connects one slide to the rest of the presentation? • What evidence is presented? Is the evidence adequate, appropriate?

22. Comprehensibility Cues • Relation of title to bullet items • Repetition of key words • Logic of headings • Labels on figures, diagrams, photos • Relation of each slide to main point • Quality of evidence/ support

23. Usability Questions • Are sources indicated? • Is contact information supplied? • Is anything lacking that the reader needs to take action? • Is the sequence complete? Are steps missing? • Are warnings provided, if necessary?

24. Usability cues • Citations and bibliography • Speaker’s name, affiliation, contact information • Symbols to indicate cautions, warnings • Handouts

25. Interpersonal / Intercultural Questions • Do the slides reflect the character & expertise of speaker? • Are the slides consistent with the culture and values of audience? (for example, values tradition or values innovation)

26. Cultural, Interpersonal Cues • Slide design • Familiarity of genre system • Appeals to the values of audience

27. Examples: Before and After

28. Directional Hypercomplex Wavelets for Multi-dimensional Signal Analysis and Processing Wai Lam Chan Hyeokho Choi Richard Baraniuk

29. Directional Hypercomplex Wavelets for Multi-dimensional Signal Analysis and Processing Wai Lam Chan, Hyeokho Choi, Richard Baraniuk Electrical and Computer Engineering Rice University, Houston, TX April 17, 2004

30. New Technical Committees • Therapeutic Systems and Technologies – • Dorin Panescu, Refractec Inc., Irvine , CA, Chair, Cardiac Catheter Ablation • Jean-Yves Chapelon Ph.D., INSERM, Lyon, France, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Prostate Tumor Ablation • Rahul Mehra , Ph.D., Medtronic, Inc. Minneapolis, MN, Cardioverter-defibrillators, Tachyarrhythmia Research • Tim McIntyre M.S.,Manager, St. Jude Medical, St Paul, MN, Medical Device Industry R&D and Management • John Pearce, Ph.D., ECE Department, University of Texas, Austin, TX, Electromagnetics and Acoustics Applied to Medical Devices • Kouros Azar M.D., B.S.BME, Thousand Oaks, CA, Reconstructive Surgeon • Reese Terry M.S., Co-founder/Board Member Cyberonics, Inc., Houston, TX, Neurostimulation Devices

31. Therapeutic Systems & Technologies Dorin Panescu, Chair Refractec Inc., Irvine, CA Cardiac Catheter Ablation Jean-Yves Chapelon, Ph.D. INSERM, Lyon, France High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Prostate Tumor Ablation John Pearce, Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin, TX Electromagnetics and Acoustics Applied to Medical Devices Rahul Mehra, Ph.D. Medtronic, Inc. Minneapolis, MN Cardioverter-defibrillators Tachyarrhythmia Research Kouros Azar, M.D., B.S. BME, Thousand Oaks, CA Reconstructive Surgeon Tim McIntyre, M.S. St. Jude Medical, St Paul, MN, Medical Device Industry R&D and Management Reese Terry, M.S. Co-founder/Board Member Cyberonics, Houston, TX Neurostimulation Devices

32. Motorcycle Characteristics • Wheelbase p = 1.4 m • Distance from the center of gravity to the rear wheel b = 0.7 • Sprung mass m = 200 kg • Pitch moment of inertia IyG = 38 kg m2 • Reduced stiffness of the front suspension kf = 15 000 N/m • Reduced stiffness of the rear suspension kr = 24 000 N/m • Reduced damping of the front suspension cf = 500 Ns/m • Reduced damping of the rear suspension cr = 750 Ns/m • Speed 28 m/s • Natural bounce frequency of vibration: • Natural pitch frequency of vibration:

33. Motorcycle Characteristics

34. What is Telemedicine? • Telemedicine utilizes communication technology in order to move medical information rather than patients, and it is being used as a tool to bridge inequalities in access to medical care between rural and urban areas in the U.S • It is most commonly used in the visually-oriented fields such as radiology and dermatology

35. What is Telemedicine? • Distributes medical information and expertise • Used primarily to transmit visual medical data • radiology • dermatology • Targets populations with limited access to medical care • rural areas • remote areas • Bridges inequalities

36. Next Steps • Finalize design (Oct) • Begin CAD work (Oct) • Submit revised budget (Oct) • Construct drive-train (Nov) • Select material for armor (Nov) • Test drive-train prototype (Dec) • Train driver (Dec) • Report progress to mgmt (Dec)

37. Next Steps October November December • Finalize design • Begin CAD work • Submit revised budget Construct drive-train Select material for armor Test drive-train prototype Train driver Report progress to mgmt

38. Title

39. Health Benefits of Green Tea • Polyphenols • Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) • Reduces angiogenesis, tumor progression • Reduces risk of coronary artery disease • Encourages growth of acidophilus http://www.green-tea.us

40. Redundant chart title Border retained from Excel No conclusion in title of slide Background shading Gridlines No error bars Small axis labels Figure 2. Rate of seedling growth at three different temperatures: 25oC, 25oC, and  30oC. Redundant legend

41. Seedlings grew most rapidly at 30oC 30oC 25oC 20oC

42. Deaths due to accidents, by type of accident, selected countries, 2006 (Rate per 100,000 population) Long title No cues to important figures Alphabetical order Many gridlines

43. Deaths due to accidents in 2006 (Rate per 100,000 population)

44. What feedback would you give to the authors of the following slides?

45. Title

47. Title

48. Title

49. Title

50. Title