Science Communications Tips

Your Slides Are Not Your Speaking Notes
Mary Anne Moser 

PowerPoints used in scientific talks are often described as “brutal” for public talks for three reasons. 


They: 

  1. Play the role of speaking notes 
  2. Are primarily text and graphs 
  3. Use visual collages or insets  

Do your presentation decks sound like this? If so, and you are asked to present to a non-expert audience, you will want to make sure your slide deck is not a deck of notes.

Here’s a litmus test. If your slide deck would be a reasonable substitute for lecture notes (that is, worth sharing afterwards as a summary of key points or findings), then it is not an appropriate slide deck for an effective in-person presentation.

Why? A set of slides that serve as notes can play havoc with your goal to communicate effectively. It is not that any of the information in your deck is incorrect or insufficient, it is that the way it is shared actually interferes with the audience’s ability to take in what you are trying to say.

So, here are 18 points to improve the effectiveness of your presentations to lay audiences.

The focus should be on you.

  1. Think about whether you need a slide deck at all. The audience did not come to see your slides, they came to see and listen to you. The most powerful presenters don't use a slide deck at all, maybe just a background slide and a handful of surprise or key images. 
  2. Don’t talk to your deck. It is very tempting to face toward it, especially if you are pointing to it and referring to it. I have seen presenters who look like they are more interested in their slides than the audience. Please face the room (and monitor that you continue to face the audience as the talk progresses).  
  3. Lighting is a quandary. PPT was initially created as a medium for slides, and slides are best viewed in a darkened room.  As soon as you darken the room, you lose eye contact with your audience. And they have come to see and listen to you, not look at your slide deck (the exception here might be National Geographic photographers). Make sure your slides can be seen with the lights on, and/or that you are well lit on stage.  

Compose your slides to enrich and compliment.

  1. Think about how you can use slides to bring to life what you are saying. Photos, illustrations, video, animations or stats can augment and illustrate your points.  
  2. Do not use your slides as speaking notes. If you have text on your slides, people will read the slides and not listen to you. This is called cross-scripting -- when the sound track is not synchronous with the visuals. Here’s a hack to prevent your slide deck from turning into your speaking notes. It is human habit to open up PPT when you sit down to prepare for a talk. That’s fine. Go ahead and build out your talk using PPT to think through the flow. After you build your deck and are happy with the structure, go back and replace all of the text-based slides with pictures or illustrations, and simply move the text into your speaking notes. Try to add beauty, intrigue, originality, or ways of deepening the comprehension of what you are saying out loud. 
  3. The only text-based sides you need are for signposting, for example: welcome, section headings, quotes, emphasis, contact info. 
  4. Try to mix up the pace, lingering on some slides for a while, or having a period of rapid fire examples. It adds dynamism. 

Design your slides to look professional and easy on the eye.

  1. PPT is designed for projection, not printing. So slides are best viewed when there is a plain dark background with white or very light text. If white backgrounds are needed in some cases, mix it up with dark backgrounds. 
  2. As a general rule, minimize animated transitions, sound transitions or use of the slide timer in your presentation. 

Images

  1. One slide, one image. Collages put the responsibility onto the viewer to figure out where to look, and their eyes often bounce around trying to make sense of the options. They get distracted from what you are saying. Believe it or not, one image is better than four. Another way to say this, “Kill your darlings.” They all might be amazing images but you need to think about the audience. 
  2. Use the whole screen. Bleed images right off the page on all sides – it looks strong and great. Check for gaps or uneven edges around the margins, which can look unprofessional.  

Graphs and graphics 

  1. When using graphs and charts, ensure the title and legend are large enough to read.  
  2. Avoid graphs and charts that are uniform and/or dense – viewers won’t know where to look. You want to guide the viewer’s eye.  
  3. A complicated graphic can be much improved by unpacking the “layers” so that you can walk through the relevance, stage-by-stage, to elucidate your point. 
  4. Use bold colours so the audience can differentiate between parts.  

A word about that rare bit of text

  1. Fonts should be large. Do not mix different sizes of text (one is good, two is okay). There should only be a handful of words on signpost slides.  
  2. Avoid ALL CAPS for more than a word or two at a time (it is the equivalent of shouting).  
  3. Proof-read your slides or have someone else check them for you.  It is hard to see errors in your own work, and they’ll be glaring once projected in big type for all to see.