Effective Communication with Power Point Presentations Steve Lanigan

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

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 Minimum size !

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

Make it easy to read  ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ARE DIFFICULT TO READ.  Upper and lower case letters are easier to read.

 Italics are difficult to read on screen.  Normal or bold fonts are clearer.  Underlines are difficult to read.  Use colors for emphasis. Make it easy to read

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. Dark red or magenta symbols and thin lines over black or dark blue backgrounds

Just say “no” to red!

 Don’t rely solely on using color to differentiate between data on a graph.  Use patterns and tones to tell your story.  “Xerox test” Using color

Place logos on the first page.

Using graphics Use as a tool to get your audiences attention.

ChristchurchDunedinWellington January11,532,23414,123,6543,034,564 February1,078,45612,345,56716,128,234 March17,234,7786,567,12316,034,786 April16,098,89710,870,9547,940,096 May8,036,89710,345,39414,856,456 June16,184,345678,0954,123,656 July8,890,34515,347,93418,885,786 August8,674,23418,107,11017,230,095 September4,032,04518,923,2399,950,498 October2,608,0969,945,8905,596,096 November5,864,034478,0236,678,125 December12,234,1239,532,1113,045,654 Use graphics to simplify complex data or concepts

ChristchurchDunedinWellington January11,532,23414,123,6543,034,564 February1,078,45612,345,56716,128,234 March17,234,7786,567,12316,034,786 April16,098,89710,870,9547,940,096 May8,036,89710,345,39414,856,456 June16,184,345678,0954,123,656 July8,890,34515,347,93418,885,786 August8,674,23418,107,11017,230,095 September4,032,04518,923,2399,950,498 October2,608,0969,945,8905,596,096 November5,864,034478,0236,678,125 December12,234,1239,532,1113,045,654 Too detailed ! Falling Leaves in Millions

In 10 6 ChristchurchDunedinWellington January11143 February11216 March17616 April16107 May81014 June1604 July81518 August81817 September4189 October295 November506 December1293 Much Simpler

Graphing the data shows patterns Too detailed !

Falling Leaves Better

Falling Leaves Wellington Dunedin Christchurch

PNAMP Side by Side Protocol Test Funded 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”)

Side-by-Side Protocol Test $$ = CA F&G

People pictures Photos should direct viewers eye to the text.

Critter photos should also direct attention to the text.

Before you start talking….  Video tape your presentation.  Ask a colleague for a critique. How we see ourselves How others see us ???

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

 Be prepared for poor lighting.  Scope out your room & audience ahead of time. dark on light light on dark Before you start talking

Presentation basics  Start with the lights on – “connect” with your audience.  Talk to your audience, not to the screen.  Use a microphone when it’s available.

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 you’re wasting their time.  Let your audience read the slides, while you paraphrase and expand on the written text.

All figures/text should be readable and understandable Never use slides you have to apologize for. ?

All figures/text should be readable and understandable Never use slides you have to apologize for!

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? Fisheries vol 30 no 5 Pg 34-38

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!