Tips for presentations

Keep text, colors, and fonts to a minimum

In general, the less text you use on your slides, the better. 

Make sure that contrast between text and background meets accessibility requirements. Text should be easily read and have a high level of contrast from the background.

One idea / one graphic per slide

People need time to digest what you are saying; keep each slide simple. Try not to overlap photos or graphs—instead, consider removing extras. Use your spoken words to articulate the concepts as much as possible.  

Simplify complex figures

Create simplified versions of your figures for presentations where possible, highlighting the main point you are making. 

Make your slides accessible

Use the Grackle Slides extension for Google Slides or PowerPoint accessibility features. Consider sharing your slides (either as a link or PDFs) for those with screen readers to follow along with as you go through your presentation.

Make your presentation recording accessible

Fully describe in your spoken words what is being displayed on-screen. Imagine you can only listen to your presentation when you practice, and plan accordingly. 

Most research posters have text that is too small to read from a distance and too much text. Keep it simple and keep the font size large! 

When viewing posters, most people will breeze past and read only a few details. Engage with the audience by decreasing text in each section and using large font sizes.

1. Catchy, concise title - doesn't have to match the title of your paper or thesis! Pair with author names, titles, affiliations, institutions, logos. 

2. Introduction / Background - state the core research question or hypothesis. Concise bullet points can work here, and text should be geared toward a broad audience and easy to quickly grasp.

3. Methods - streamlined summary of your process; use short text and photos or figures when possible.  

4. Results - use one short sentence with keywords to summarize the primary key finding 

5. Conclusion / Discussion - summarize main takeaways, whether your hypothesis was supported, and any future directions. Keep it concise.

6. References / Acknowledgments -  a great place to use a QR code to link to your full paper or more in-depth information.