How to prepare and present

technical and scientific work

How to prepare a presentation

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 General concept

• What is a presentation?

• A presentation is the process of presenting a

topic to an audience
 General concept

• How to start?

First, focus on your audience

Second, think about the space

and context of your presentation

Then, think about how to design

and make your presentation
 Who are in your
audience?

How much humor

audience can take, What are their
background?
and you can
provide?

How things should What does your

be told in the audience want to
given context? hear, tolerate to hear?

1. Focus on your audience

 Big place/lots of
people vs. small
room/a few people

What space you

have to move, how Noise/other
close you can get to disturbance ?
the audience?

Your slot in the Form of room? (row,

program, time of U, team table,
day? standing)

Where are your

Control-action presentations tools,
influence on projector/remote,
audience? flip-chart, board?

2. Think of Context & Space

 Content
(what and in
what detail
level)

Design Structure
(Visual format, (order of the
materials to be content to be
used, etc.) delivered)

3. Prepare your presentation

 Content & Structure

• Intro (“tell what you are going to tell)

• Body (“tell what you want to tell”)
• Closing (“tell what you told”)
 60 Seconds Rule

• During the first ~60 seconds your

audience will decide if your
presentation is worth listening to

• During the last ~60 seconds you can

say what your audience will remember,
if they are still listening to you

• Your presentation is in between!

 Introduction

In 60 sec, tell what you are going to tell in your talk

• Introduce yourself and name the topic, context
• Use a cover slide: topic and your name, date, context/organizer – This gives
first impression

• Tell the objectives and the main content of your presentation

• Present shortly the content and each main topic
• Creates expectations

Summarize the main theme(s)

• Maps the content to the “hooks” in the mind of the audience
 Body

Then, tell what you want to tell

• The main message and the message details should be in
slides
• Excites the audience, creates feeling of learning /understanding
/agreeing
 Closing

Finally, in 60 seconds, tell what you told in your

presentation
• Prepare slides for Conclusions / summary / open issues
• Close with thanking the audience
• Take questions if time and program allows, and then
thank again
• Releases the audience, leaves the last (and strongest)
impression
 Learning material

• Now, watch some videos on how to structure and

design presentations:

• http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/films.html
 Design of Slides

• Make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them

• Text to support the communication
• Pictures to simplify complex concepts, less bullet lists
• Animations for complex relationships
• Visuals to support, not to distract
• Sounds only when absolutely necessary
• Think about the people in the back of the room when
creating slides
 Design of Slides

• Minimum amount of graphs and formulas

• More images, less text
• Cautious with transitions and animations
• Calm and comfortable (slides and presentation)
• Non-obtrusive and courteous
 Suggestions

• Use a Maximum of 15 Slides

• Make Your Titles Headlines, Not Descriptions
• “System’s Performance" is a description
• “System’s Performance Grew 44%" is a headline
• Titles should represent both introduction and
conclusions of the slide
• “System’s Performance Grew 44%" is a headline
• Titles order: Let the Titles Tell the Story
• Layout counts
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 Suggestions
• Give Your Audience a Roadmap with a framework:
• Agenda slides and divider slides can help, but they merely
order your presentation; they don't organize it.
• having a framework to your story
• Frameworks structure your narrative and help keep your
audience engaged because they will always know where
they are within your story. example of frameworks:
• Three pillars of your product's value
• 10 trends in the market
• A day in the life of your consumer
• Our product works in three environments: at home, at
work, and on the go 17
 Suggestions
• Vary Your Format and Pace:
• Humans like order, but we also crave variety.
• The change in pacing and visual rhythm will keep your
audience engaged.
• If you show a slide or two with charts, make the next
slide a big, beautiful visual.
• If you tend to have bulleted lists on the left-hand side,
switch it up and place the list on the right.
• Consistency
• Differences draw attention
• Differences may imply importance
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• Use surprises to attract not distract
 Suggestions
• Bubbles, Callouts and Takeaways will add dimension to your
story.
• If you show the chart, also point out the interesting data
point within it, the implication of the trends behind it, and
the takeaway from it
• Close With an Ask: the ask can be for commitment to a project,
for marketing dollars, or to continue the conversation.
• The ask could be for the audience to think about the
implications of what you've shared, or how it will affect the
way they approach their jobs.
• One close I often use is "Three things to do tomorrow,"
making your presentation immediately actionable.
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 Suggestions
• we tend to read left to right, top to bottom: so, the most
important information should go (Western cultures)
• in the title
• the upper left-hand position
• at the very bottom
• Try putting your slide's key takeaway in a shaded callout box in
the bottom
• color helps distinguish the information from the rest of the
slide's content
• Look at it from 2 metres away

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 Suggestions
• People’s ability to remember in 72 hours

This is a
camera !

This is a
camera !

TEXT PICTURE TEXT AND PICTURE

10% 35% 65%

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 The textual slide
• Human being read much more slowly and with difficulty on
video rather than on paper
• Screen reading 25% slower than on paper due to 15% of
overhead elements in the screen reading
• the “optimum” textual slide
• Max 50% of visible area used for content
• 5/ 6 rows with no newline (somebody says…15 words max)
• Use of screen areas (3/4 rule)
• Max number of links (Miller ‘50) 7+-2
• Upper/lowercase
• Limit bulletpoints
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 The textual slide
• Size and proportion of texts (title 36-48, body 24-36)
• Long line lengths can be difficult to read
• Text density
• On paper, density of 70-80% common
• On screen, 15 - 20% recommended
• Abbreviations must be familiar to users
• Align everything to (invisible) grids
• Proper use of typography
• 1-2 typefaces (3 max)
• 1-3 sizes max
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 The textual slide
• Serif fonts are difficult to read on screen
• Sanserif fonts are clearer
• Italics are difficult to read on screen
• Normal or bold fonts are clearer
• Underlines may signify hyperlinks
• Instead, use colours to emphasise

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Fonts

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 Text: breaking the rule (with care)

• Who was this man?

• utilize a Gradient Background
• Huge images with text
• Keep minimal
• Minimal animation.
• Minimal elements.
• Minimal message.
• no bullets
• Visual, Elegant, Impactful.

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Text: breaking the rule (with care)

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