Example “Good Slides” for a CHI Paper Presentation

1. Example “Good Slides” for a CHI Paper Presentation Joshua B. Gross, Penn State | jgross@ist.psu.edu

2. Straightforward Overview • Purpose/value statement • Principles of a good slide presentation • Example good slides • Conclusion - good slides are a good start to a good presentation • Acknowledgements

3. Statement of Purpose/Value • A good presentation starts with a statement of the value of the work • Why should people care? • Why should they hear your talk? • What contribution have you made? • This information is probably in your abstract, but should be distilled for the slide

4. Presenting Background Work • Don’t try to present all the background • Just one or two really crucial elements • The CHI audience is broad, so briefly describe • Examples follow • Participatory Design • The theory and practice of involving users at some or all stages of design • Semiotics • A theory of how systems of symbols (like a language) communicate ideas

5. Citing Prior Work • It may be beneficial to cite prior work • It should be important and relevant • Use this style (Simon, H. A., 1975) • Often, this is used to give your audience a perspective • “Participatory design (Nardi, B. A., 1993)” is not the same as • “Participatory design (Bodker, S., 2000)”

6. Visual Design • The pre-packaged Powerpoint slides are ugly. • A plain background is not ugly. • If you aren’t a graphic designer, don’t try to be :-) • Simple, Consistent, and Legible.

7. Good Chart Example

8. Presenting Data • Use simple charts/graphs, with (ideally) one main point per chart/graph • Don’t try to jam too much data in your graph • Labels x and y axis, and units • Use a title that clearly explains the idea you are trying to get across

9. Alpha and Beta Teams Perform Better in the Evening, Delta and Gamma in the Morning

10. Graphs and Charts, Part 2 • Don’t just accept defaults from Excel • Colors (including background) may need to be changed • Axis dimensions and scale can be changed • Make sure text is big enough • Move legend to where it is most useful • Make sure colors & background are visible on a projection display

11. Acronyms • Acronyms are dangerous • Example: ERP • Does it mean Enterprise Resources Planner • Large-scale corporate planning software • Or does it mean Event-Related Potential • Reactions measure via electroencephalograph • Always spell out acronyms at first use • E.g. Event-Related Potential (ERP) • One safe exception - HCI!

12. Slang and Colloquialisms • Avoid slang and colloquialisms if at all possible • CHI is an English-language conference • 2 billion people speak English • Lots of dialect and regionality • Make your message clear to people who speak English as a second language • Or third, or fourth…

13. Future Work • You may want to talk about future work • Work you intend to do • Work you may have already done • It’s been up to six months since you submitted your paper • What direction is the work taking • What do you see as the major next hurdle or accomplishment

14. Summary and Acknowledgements • Summarize your major contributions • Good slides are the basis of a good talk • Assume a broad audience at CHI • Make sure your content is readable • Stop on your summary slide - this is useful for your audience • Acknowledgements • Funding • People • Include your contact information

15. Answering Questions • An advanced tip is to have a few slides ready for questions you anticipate • You won’t always have one for each question asked, and you may not use them, but they can be handy • This is a useful place to put additional/supporting data, references, etc.