Problem Solving, Communication & Innovation: Presentations

1. Problem Solving, Communication & Innovation:Presentations

2. Contents • In today's lecture we’ll discuss giving good presentations • Presentation PMI • Edward Tufte’s Tips • Death by PowerPoint? • How to use PowerPoint well • Other presentation tips • Presentation assignment

3. Presentation PMI • Let’s do a quick PMI on presentations that you have been at • P: What things have people done in presentations that have worked well? • M: What things have people done in presentations that have worked badly? • I: What interesting things have you seen people do in presentations?

4. Edward Tufte’s Presentation Tips • Edward Tufte makes the following suggestions for giving presentations: • Show up early • Have a strong opening • What's the problem? • Who cares? • What's your solution? • On every subtopic move from the particular to the general and back to the particular • Give everyone at least one piece of paper • Know your audience

5. Edward Tufte’s Presentation Tips (cont…) • Rethink the overhead • The audience is sacred • Humour is good • Avoid masculine (or even feminine!) pronouns as universals • They has been accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary for years • Take care with questions • Let people know you believe your material • Finish early • Drink lots of water

6. Edward Tufte’s Presentation Tips (cont…) • Have a strong conclusion • Think about all presentation possibilities • Practice, practice, practice • Film your presentation • Play it back and watch yourself • Watch it without the sound • Listen to it without the picture • Watch it at twice the normal speed • Have your first couple of lines rehearsed

7. Rethinking The Overhead “PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play – very loud, very slow, and very simple” -Edward Tufte • “The Cognitive Style Of Power-Point: Pitching Out Corrupts Within”, Edward Tufte, 2006 • Edward Tufte is an analytical design (who would rail against being on this slide!)

8. NASA & PowerPoint • After the Columbia space shuttle crashed in 2003 the Columbia Accident Investigation Board fingered PowerPoint as a culprit • NASA, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint New York Times Article: PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

10. Should We Abandon PowerPoint? • ?

11. Let’s Assume We Don’t! • Tips for good PowerPoint presentations • Include only necessary information • Avoid long paragraphs of text • Don’t overcrowd the presentation • Don’t forget to spell check • Don’t be afraid to use pictures – but be careful of overused clip-art • Be consistent with formatting • Have a backup plan • Remember slides are not the same as notes

12. PowerPoint Tips: Colours & Fonts • Colours: • Limit the number of colours • Use contrasting colours for background and text • Try to think about accessibility • Font: • Always use size 20 or bigger • Larger font may be used for emphasis Somebody who is colour blind won’t be able to read this!

13. PowerPoint Tips: Colours & Fonts (cont…) • Using too small font is impossible to read • CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY • Don’t use complicated fonts • Using a font colour that does not contrast with the background colour is hard to read • Using a different colour for each point is unnecessary • Using a different colour for secondary points is also unnecessary • Trying tobe creativecan alsobe bad

14. PowerPoint: Colours & Fonts (cont…) • Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from • Always be consistent with the background that you use

15. PowerPoint Tips: Animation • Using animation in PowerPoint is almost always a bad idea! • It just confuses people and makes your slides take forever to appear • Also you spend all of your time pressing the next slide button • So don’t do it! • Except when it adds to the clarity of your presentation

16. Oral Presentation Tips • Some tips for oral presentations: • Body language is important • Speak loudly and clearly • Try to put some feeling into your voice • Do not read from notes • Maintain eye contact with your audience • Speak to your audience • Don’t be afraid to take a pause • Don’t be afraid to correct yourself

17. Handling Questions • Questions at the end are just about the most important part of a presentation • Repeat the question to the audience • Restate or ask for clarification if necessary • Request that questions are asked during the talk or afterwards • Avoid prolonged one-to-one discussions • If you can’t answer a question, just say so • Have a dedicated questions slide

18. Conclusion • The most important things to remember when giving presentations are: • Think about your audience • Think about your objective • Think carefully about visual aides (slides) • Speak confidently, clearly and to the audience • PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

19. Questions? • ?

20. Presentation Assignment • I would like you all to give a short presentation in class • Day Course: In the penultimate week of the course – Wednesday, 6th December • Night Course: In the last week of the course – Wednesday, 13th December • Each presentation should be 10 minutes long including questions • Feel free to use any presentation tools/aides that you like

21. Presentation Assignment (cont…) • The presentation can be on any topic that you like, as long as it is related to the course • How you did your assignment • Problem solving techniques from the course that you have used at work/home • Other problem solving techniques that you have come in contact with