Presentations

Whether you’re giving a speech with a visual aid, a flash talk, or a full-length conference presentation, you’ll most likely want a visual aid to support your presentation. Often these visual aids are in the shape of a slideshow or “PowerPoint.” Many people think…

…but DesignLab can help you develop your visual aid to engage with your audience and have a dynamic presentation!

There are two main ways of creating a presentation:

1. Linear presentations are a series of numbered slides that often contain bullet-pointed text, pictures, and clipart, and may include some minor animations. This is the standard way of developing presentations and may be organized with an outline or narrative story structure.
2. Non-Linear presentations, sometimes called “spatial presentations,” are intended to situate information in different contexts and to represent processes and relationships in compelling ways. Non-linear presentations may have a logical flow or plan, but are intended to have a less strict structure, so the speaker can change course as the audience moves them.

There are also many reasons why someone may need to create a presentation:

Seminar/Class Presentation

These presentations are typically linear and vary in length, usually about 5-15 minutes, though they can be as long as 30 minutes. These types of presentations are intended to do one or both of the following: 1) Show your instructor you understand the material and can distill it into a shorter and different medium than a paper and/or 2) Facilitate a discussion among your classmates/colleagues regarding your research/ideas. Either way, a well-designed visual aid will benefit your audience! Keep your text short and your visuals clear and easy to understand.

Conference Presentation

Typically presenting new research or updating colleagues on project progress, these presentations can vary significantly in length. One of the most important things to remember about conference presentations is not to overwhelm your audience with too much text or overly complicated visuals. Keep the slides simple and the visuals accessible. If you’ve never given a conference presentation before, talk to a colleague, mentor, or advisor for their recommendations and/or to see an example of their past slideshows. Your organization may also have its own template, colors, or logos. For example, UW–Madison has an entire website for its brand that includes UW templates for presentations, as well as recommended colors and fonts.

Instruction / Teaching

Unlike Conference or Seminar/Class presentations, when making slides to teach a class, it is common to include lots of text and visuals. These slides are likely the basis for student notes, so having a more full/complete slide will benefit the audience. Still, don’t be afraid to use simple appear animations so as not to overwhelm your students.

Flash Talks

Flash talks are shorter, linear presentations that focus on distilling information quickly for an audience. These are a common type of class presentation. Typically, flash talks are 5 minutes or less, and use a limited number of slides. Below are some unique flash talk styles:

• PechaKucha-style Flash Talks: Officially, PechaKucha is a trademarked linear presentation format consisting of 20 slides, mostly images, each shown automatically for 20 seconds, accompanied by spoken text and sound effects. At 6 min 40 sec total, presentations present ideas in a clear, engaging, and efficient manner. Pecha-Kucha presentations are usually delivered live but can also be recorded. Some PechaKucha-style variants include fewer slides.
• Ignite-style Flash Talks: Another trademarked form of auto-advancing flash talks, like PechaKucha, these presentations also have 20 slides, but with 15-second intervals, making them slightly shorter. Some Ignite-style variants include fewer slides.

Voiced-Over Slideshow

These presentations are meant to be entirely visual, with little to no text on a slide. They are often pre-recorded, but can be performed live. The audience’s focus is meant to be entirely on the visuals, not the speaker.