AE 440 Oral Presentations

Requirements and Tips

Oral Report Guidelines

• Length is only 5 minutes

• Slides need to be clearly legible

• Avoid overcrowding and small fonts

• In bottom right corner, put your last name and slide number

PowerPoint: Overview

• Purpose

• Text

• Images

• Color

• Design

• Tools

Purpose

• What PowerPoint is:– Organizational tool– Support structure– Visual aid

• What PowerPoint is not:– Repository for entire talk– Outline of talk

Text

• Use legible, large fonts– Sans serif fonts

• Arial• Helvetica• Verdana

• Use consistent font type• Avoid “fancy” fonts• No underlining

– Use bold, color, or italics for emphasis

Images

• Images should be clear[1,2]

• Remember to cite images

Images

• Images should be pertinent to subject matter and section [4]

Color

• Use complementary colors

• Color schemes should use no more than 3 colors

• Be sure that foreground and background are contrasting

Readers’ Familiarity with Subject, Expectations, and Education

Readers Familiarity Expectations EducationExperts(Scientists/Engineers)

Most know theories as well as practical applications, abbreviations, jargon, and complex abstractions in their own fields.

Most prefer straight forward presentations; want to know purpose; do not want explanations of what they already know.

Undergraduate or graduate degree, or equivalent experience in specialized fields.

Professional Non-Experts(Executives/Managers)

Most know general concepts of the field in which they are working.

Most prefer definitions and explanations of concepts and procedures; prefer information that help make decisions.

Undergraduate or graduate degrees, or equivalent experience, often in areas peripheral to the technical areas for which they are responsible.

Technicians(Engineers)

Most know specialized area in which they are working.

Most prefer straight-forward definitions and explanations.

2 year or undergraduate degree.

Students Often know generalizations in field.

Most prefer information that helps them assess and/or learn in theory as well as practice.

Specialized training from internships or course work.

General Readers Often know generalizations in a field.

Most prefer information that helps them assess and do.

May be highly educated.

Color

• Use complementary colors

• Color schemes should use no more than 3 colors

• Be sure that foreground and background are contrasting

• Some color don’ts

Black text on blue background.

Bright yellow or green (except for emphasis).

Multiple colors in one line.

Design: Proximity

• Similar items should be grouped together[3]

Design: Alignment

• Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily[3]

– Line things up on x and y axis

Design: White Space

• Include “white space” on slides– Crowded slides are confusing and difficult to

read

Medieval Rhetoric:Exploring the Visual

“The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34).

“Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged”.

“We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG

• Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint

• Animation– Animation can be used to solve over crowding

issues

Medieval Rhetoric:Exploring the Visual

“The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34).

“Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged” (110).

“We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG

• Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint

• Animation– Animation can be used to solve over crowding

issues– But too much is distracting

medieval rhetoric:exploring the visual

“The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34).

“Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged” (110).

“We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG

• Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint

• Animation– Animation can be used to solve over crowding

issues– But too much is distracting

• Sound– Sound is cool, but does it serve a purpose?

Tools

• Speaker Notes

Works Cited

• 1Space shuttle image. http://shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/images/shuttle-flame.gif Modified by D. Van Renen, 9/25/2007.

• 2Space shuttle image. http://shemesh.larc.nasa.gov/images/shuttle-flame.gif

• 3Williams, Robin. The Non-Designers Design Book. Peachpit Press, 1994.

Works Cited

• 4Mission Operations image. http://lasp.colorado.edu/mission_ops/index.htm Modified by D. Van Renen, 9/25/2007.

Questions?