Effective Communication with Power Point Presentations Steve Lanigan

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Effective Communication with Power Point
PresentationsSteve Lanigan
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Effective Communication with Power Point
Presentations
Make slides easy to read. Using color and
graphics. Respect your audience.
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Make Text Big

• This is comic sans MS 8
• This is comic sans MS 12
• This is comic sans MS 20
• This is comic sans MS 28
• This is comic sans MS 32
• This is comic sans MS 44
• This is comic sans MS 54

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Make it easy to read
Serif Times Palatino
Sans serif Comic Sans MS Arial Tahoma Franklin
Gothic
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Make it easy to read

• ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ARE DIFFICULT TO READ.
• Upper and lower case letters are easier to read.

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Make it easy to read

• Italics are difficult to read on screen.
• Normal or bold fonts are clearer.
• Underlines are difficult to read.
• Use colors for emphasis.

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Using color

• 1 in 12 males (8) and 1 in 200 females (0.5) is
  red-green color blind.

• Difficult (or impossible) to distinguish between
  certain colors.
• BLUE vs. VIOLET
• RED vs. ORANGE
• People will fail to see some objects.

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Using color

• Dont rely solely on using color to differentiate
  between data on a graph.
• Use patterns and tones to tell your story.
• Xerox test

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Place logos on the first page.
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Using graphics

• Use as a tool to get your
• audiences
• attention.

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Use graphics to simplify complex data or concepts
Christchurch Dunedin Wellington
January 11,532,234 14,123,654 3,034,564
February 1,078,456 12,345,567 16,128,234
March 17,234,778 6,567,123 16,034,786
April 16,098,897 10,870,954 7,940,096
May 8,036,897 10,345,394 14,856,456
June 16,184,345 678,095 4,123,656
July 8,890,345 15,347,934 18,885,786
August 8,674,234 18,107,110 17,230,095
September 4,032,045 18,923,239 9,950,498
October 2,608,096 9,945,890 5,596,096
November 5,864,034 478,023 6,678,125
December 12,234,123 9,532,111 3,045,654
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Falling Leaves in Millions
Christchurch Dunedin Wellington
January 11,532,234 14,123,654 3,034,564
February 1,078,456 12,345,567 16,128,234
March 17,234,778 6,567,123 16,034,786
April 16,098,897 10,870,954 7,940,096
May 8,036,897 10,345,394 14,856,456
June 16,184,345 678,095 4,123,656
July 8,890,345 15,347,934 18,885,786
August 8,674,234 18,107,110 17,230,095
September 4,032,045 18,923,239 9,950,498
October 2,608,096 9,945,890 5,596,096
November 5,864,034 478,023 6,678,125
December 12,234,123 9,532,111 3,045,654
Too detailed !
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Falling Leaves in Millions
In 106 Christchurch Dunedin Wellington
January 11 14 3
February 1 12 16
March 17 6 16
April 16 10 7
May 8 10 14
June 16 0 4
July 8 15 18
August 8 18 17
September 4 18 9
October 2 9 5
November 5 0 6
December 12 9 3
Much Simpler
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Graphing the data shows patterns
Too detailed !
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Falling Leaves
Better
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Falling Leaves
Wellington
Dunedin
Christchurch
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PNAMP Side by Side Protocol TestFunded
Participants

• Aquatic-Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Program
• California Fish and Game
• EPA Environ. Monitoring and Assessment Program
• Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
• PacFish/Infish Biological Opinion Monitoring
  Program
• Washington Department of Ecology
• US Forest Service Region 6 Stream Survey Program
• Upper Columbia basin Monitoring Group
• US Rocky Mt Research Station (establish truth)

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Side-by-Side Protocol Test
UCB

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People pictures
Photos should direct viewers eye to the text.
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Critter photos should also direct attention to
the text.
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Before you start talking.

• Ask a colleague for a critique.

• Video tape your presentation.

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Before you start talking

• Know how to start and stop
• F5 key will start a presentation
• 3 ways to advance/retreat slides
• The B key

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Before you start talking

• Scope out your room audience ahead of time.

• Be prepared for poor lighting.

light on dark
dark on light
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Presentation basics

• Start with the lights on connect with your
  audience.
• Talk to your audience, not to the screen.
• Use a microphone when its available.

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Use your time wisely

• Sometimes a slide, by necessity, will have a lot
  of text on it.
• However, your audience can read text much faster
  than you can read it out loud to them.
• By the time you read this bullet to them, they
  are done reading the entire slide.
• Now youre wasting their time.
• Let your audience read the slides, while you
  paraphrase and expand on the written text.

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All figures/text should be readable and
understandable

• Never use slides you have to
• apologize for.

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All figures/text should be readable and
understandable

• Never use slides you have to apologize for!

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• Presentation Critique
• Were lights on at beginning?
• Were all slides easy to read and understand?
• Any slides/points that were confusing?
• Was the use of graphics effective? If not, how
  could I improve them?
• Could you hear me ok?
• Are there any speech patterns, like you know,
  that I should be aware of?

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Acknowledgements Thanks to Bruce McCammon, Jeff
Uebel, Brett Roper for slides and feedback
And thanks to you for thinking about how to
improve your PowerPoint presentations!