Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of information, especially detail of any kind, that the audience must remember from
previous slides.
Use a font of reasonable size and have plenty of white space. Huge or small fonts
look ridiculous. In particular, slides should not be crowded with text. If there is too
much text, it is likely to be unreadable and will be a distraction from what you are
trying to say. Never display a page from a paper: even a well-designed page is almost
certainly unreadable in the context of a presentation. Don't break words between
lines; instead, have an uneven right margin. Keep the layout simple—minimize clutter
such as frames, shading, cross-hatching, shadows, and artwork.
Explore the available fonts, but don't worry too much: while to some people sans
serif may look cleaner than the alternatives, for example, any reasonable font is fine.
Be consistent, however; one talk needs no more than three fonts and a couple of
font sizes.
Strings of exclamation marks and text in uppercase do not add a sense of excite-
ment. They add a sense of ineptitude.
Figures
Good figures and graphs can make ideas much easier to understand. As a general
rule, if a picture adds value to a slide, then use it. Even a simple picture can make
a big difference to both the appearance of a slide and the way in which the material
might be delivered. Figures should be simple, illustrating a concept or result with
minimum fuss; messy or crowded figures have no impact. Tables should only be
included when necessary—they can be hard to digest.
An illustration from a paper may not be appropriate for a talk. In a paper, the
reader can consider the figure at leisure, but in a talk it is only shown for a limited
time, and the freedom of the presenter to point to the parts of a figure and to add
to it incrementally means that it may be appropriate to organize the figure rather
differently. Perhaps most significantly, in a talk a figure can be dynamically coloured
in a variety of ways. For example, text can be in different colours to show an ordering
of events; different kinds of entities can have different colours; or colouring can be
used to show how routes through a process relate to outcomes.
Figures in slides, as in papers, should focus on the technical content. Distracting
elements should be removed. Present the bars of a histograms in three dimensions
only if the third dimension carries some information. Keep all objects to a reasonable
size—why include a gigantic block-coloured arrow when a simple line will do?
Include an image or movie only if there is a need to do so. Animate only if necessary,
such as when explaining a data structure.
Clip art, especially of stylised people, can look silly and is often ugly. It does
not add class. Use it only when necessary, and select the simplest picture that suits
the need.
