Are you guilty of using the same slide deck, year after year for your teaching? Have you sat through presentations that are not only ugly, but confusing? Poorly designed slides can affect your audience’s attention as well as their ability to learn. Join Andrea Horne Denton (Head of Research and Data Services) and Kimberley R. Barker (Librarian for Digital Life)- both of UVA's Claude Moore Health Sciences Library- as they outline the basics of learner-centered design, share examples of well-designed presentations, and introduce you to tools and resources which will make creating beautiful, well-organized PowerPoint presentations as easy as clicking your mouse. You may also hear a recording of the class that was taught on June 21, 2016 at https://vimeo.com/171769495

1. Beyond Bullets
Creating presentations that engage

2. Beyond Bullets
Creating Presentations That Engage

3. Goals today
• Learn strategies related to data presentation
• Learn about resources for images
• Learn about ideas to consider while creating
presentations
• Learn basic tips for good presentation design

4. Speaking of design
• Presentation design and interior design
• Rules
• Personal expression

5. Mid-Century Modern

6. English Cottage

7. Contemporary Style

8. Bullets aren’t bad…

9. Tip 1: use bullets as talking points
• Slides aren’t documents aka “slideuments”
• Slides shouldn’t be your teleprompter
Duarte, p. 7

10. The audience will either read your
slides or listen to you.
They will not do both.
So, ask yourself this: is it more
important that they listen, or more
effective if they read?
Duarte, p. 7

11. To keep bullets brief
• No sentences
• Two lines per bullet (?)
• Four bullets per slide (?)
• It’s OK to go on to the next slide!
• Think headlines
Duarte, p. 150; Kosslyn p.

12. Learning to Ride
• Put training wheels on the bike
• Raise the training wheels so you wobble
• Wear clothing and helmet to protect yourself
• Remove the training wheels and practice falling on
the grass
• Enjoy riding your bike wherever you need to go
Duarte, p. 222

13. Learning to Ride
• Put training wheels on the bike
• Raise the training wheels so you wobble
• Wear clothing and helmet to protect yourself
• Remove the training wheels and practice falling on
the grass
• Enjoy riding your bike wherever you need to go
Duarte, p. 222

14. Learning to Ride
training wheels
wobble
helmet
grass
go!
Duarte, p. 222

15. Kosslyn
Tip 2:
Rudolph Rule

16. Rudolph in action
• A PowerPoint feature
• That’s actually helpful!
• Focuses attention
• On what and when
Kosslyn (Martians)
Use PowerPoint’s Animation feature, and Effect Options.
Choose After Animation to Hide or Dim

17. Another Rudolph
Introduction to Data Visualization: Chart Dos and Don'ts

18. Imagery & Color:
Considerations

19. Think critically about images
• Do they convey:
• concrete ideas
• relevant moods
• metaphors
• What messages do they convey?
• cultural

20. Designing with images
• One large, striking image
• Patterned backgrounds- consider the font
• Contrast & transparency scales
• Please: no cheez

21. Imagery
• Include:
• Relevant
• Striking
• Mood-setting
• Avoid:
• Poor quality
• Confusing

22. Imagery: partnership
• Realism OR metaphor
• Avoid cheesy images
Duarte, p. 160

23. Imagery: partnership

24. Imagery: partnership

25. Imagery: partnership

26. Imagery: fonts as images
Fonts create different moods,
and also evoke different feelings.
Do you see what I mean?
How does this font make you
feel?
How about this one?

27. Color
• Consider choosing a color palette
• Unifies
• Conveys mood
Duarte, p. 7

28. Other considerations for
imagery & color
• Subject matter
• Purpose
• Audience

29. Important consideration:
audience
• Who are they?
• Why are they attending?
• What do they need?

30. Displaying your data

31. Data slides…
• Aren’t really about the data
• They are about the meaning of the data
Duarte, p. 64

32. Tip 1: avoid chart junk

33. http://www.slideshare.net/KayBaxter1/chart-junk-how-to-spot-it-and-get-rid-of-it

35. Tip 2: choose the right chart and
design

36. 42%
20%
14%
24%
Library Visits by Season
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

37. Pie Chart: Concerns
• Don’t use special effects
• Shadowing
• 3-D
• Color choices are not pleasing (non-complimentary)
• Don’t use to display more than 2 – 3 data points
• We can’t discern relative areas well
http://www.sensoryspectrum.com/dkcms/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Presentations/Sensory%20Data%20Visualization%20poster%20Sensory%20Spectrum.pdf
42%
20%
14%
24%
Library Visits by Season
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

38. [CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
Winter Spring Summer Fall
Library Visits by Season

39. Bar Chartis Better!
• We’re still comparing parts to the whole
• We see differences in length more accurately than
differences in area
• Simple color scheme doesn’t detract
• Percentage labels on the bars

40. Tip 3: Space bars effectively
DATA VISUALIZATION 101: HOW TO DESIGN CHARTS AND GRAPHS

41. [CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
[CELLRANGE]
Winter Spring Summer Fall
Library Visits by Season

42. Tip 4: Use color effectively
DATA VISUALIZATION 101: HOW TO DESIGN CHARTS AND GRAPHS

43. DATA VISUALIZATION 101: HOW TO DESIGN CHARTS AND GRAPHS

44. Hues vs. spectrum
Anthony Robinson shows how spectral colors make it much harder to tell the difference in
volume of tweets (which is quantitative data) during the 2012 presidential elections:

45. 42%
visits occur during winter

46. Other considerations
• Online vs. in person
• Animation
• Examples

47. In conclusion…
•Know your audience and its needs
•Maintain consistency; use inconsistency
for emphasis
•Edit, edit, edit

48. Kimberley Barker
Kimberley@virginia.edu
Andrea Denton
Andrea@virginia.edu
Ask Us

49. Resources
• Data Visualization 101: how to design charts and graphs
https://visage.co/content/data-visualization-101/
• Duarte, Nancy. Slide:ology : the art and science of creating great
presentations. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2008.
http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/u4824098
• Kosslyn SM, Kievit RA, Russell AG, Shephard JM. PowerPoint(®)
Presentation Flaws and Failures: A Psychological Analysis. Front
Psychol. 2012 Jul 17;3:230. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00230.
eCollection 2012.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22822402
• Kosslyn, SM. PowerPoint for Martians?
http://blog.oup.com/2007/08/powerpoint/
• Rowh, Mark. Power up your PowerPoint: seven research-backed
tips for effective presentations.
www.apa.org/gradpsych/2012/01/presentationas.aspx

50. Additional Readings
• Duke University Libraries Introduction to Data
Visualization: Chart Dos and Don'ts