Thread by @DearthIrvine

Slides are visual aids that assist your presentation. Anytime you put something on your slides, its primary purpose is to help the *audience*, not you.

Nothing should distract from your verbal presentation, it should only enhance it.

A mini-presentation on slide design. 1/

One common mistake is to clutter the slide with lots of text, which the speaker reads out to the audience, verbatim. This is a bit boring and inefficient. Condense down the text to the main question or point of the slide, and speak the rest. Scary, maybe, but you can do it! 2/

Refrain from using too many colors, texts, or animations. Again, these are more likely to distract the audience than they are to help them. Strip down slides to the key points, and make those clear. Do use animations to make items appear at the right moments. 3/

Relatedly, avoid color combinations that are hard to read, or distracting fonts. Don't tax the audience any more than you need to. 4/

If you're putting a graph on the slide, you should always orient the audience to the axes before plotting the data, & make sure they can actually *see* all of it. I see way too many complicated graphs with inscrutable text, and lots of "You probably can't see this, but..". 5/

When using images or videos, always go for high-resolution. It may look okay on your laptop, but it will look much worse when it's tripled in size by the projector. 6/

When visualizing results, identify 1-2 key graphs to make your point. People often overdo this, and put up a dozen different visualizations of minor results. Find a small number of graphs that tell the big story. Also, give each graph its own slide; don't clutter. 7/

Remember that the audience is committing what you're saying to working memory, and trying to keep up. Don't overload them with complex jargon that isn't necessary, or acronyms that they have to remember. Relatedly, provide outlines and marker slides to segment information. 8/

Ok, this last point is about presenting. Public speaking is hard & many people read scripts so they don't forget key points. Fair enough, but audiences can tell & it's less engaging. Instead of a script, try jotting down key bullet points for yourself in the slide notes. 9/

As a presenter, your job is to guide the audience through your argument in the clearest, most engaging, & most efficient way possible. You gotta respect their time & attention, and use slides to support the verbal points you're making. Hopefully this has been helpful! 10/10.

Some really useful feedback & perspectives in the replies on accessibility. Here’s a great list of actionable steps from @socialslytherin:

https://twitter.com/socialslytherin/status/1515145679534010378