

The Zeroth Rule of Presentations - smalieslami
http://arkitus.com/ZR/

======
glimcat
The hierarchy of slides goes something like:

    
    
        Relevant images which support the speaker
        Relevant graphs, rendered for projection
        Relevant microcopy which gives context or focus
        Relevant videos which are kept as short as possible
        Bullet slides which double as effective microcopy
    
        Bullet slides which double as speaker's notes
        Most slides which animate in point-by-point
        Irrelevant or unnecessarily long videos
        Unreadable diagrams
        Unreadable walls of text
    

The zeroth rule of presentations is _don't_ _waste_ _your_ _audience's_
_time_.

------
dmlorenzetti
Michael Alley describes an "Assertion-Evidence" structure for slides, in which
the heading becomes something more like a sentence that states the point, and
the rest of the slide presents evidence in support of that.
<http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides.html>

This approach tends to do away with traditional headings altogether, so it
tends to push you in the same direction as, or even a step beyond, the
production-oriented advice given here.

------
MTGandP
You shouldn't even have text at all on the bottom half of the slide. Text on a
slideshow presentation should be minimal. The audience should be listening to
you, not reading your slides.

------
Dove
That seems like rather venue-specific advice. In the average lecture hall or
conference room I've presented in, all the seats can see the full screen just
fine.

In fact, I've sometimes put important graphics as low as possible, knowing the
lights in a particular room tended to wash out the top half of slides a bit.

------
tribeofone
Also, don't save the best for last. In the first slide put the
results/outcome/point of your presentation and THEN explain how you made such
a brilliant deduction in the rest of the deck. Its not a movie, you're not
there to create drama and keep us on the edge of our seats pining for the
answer, you're there to transfer information - optimize for this.

------
jeffbarr
Now that I'm a crotchety old man, my zeroth rule of presentations is to always
use the bathroom before presenting.

~~~
calibraxis
Actually, it's a good idea for anyone. Get everything in order, because you're
talking for up to an hour. You don't want to be in the middle of a talk and
some part of your brain pokes you about not having used the washroom, and
another part of your brain idly speculates about how the audience would
respond to an intermission...

Same with eating a reasonable while beforehand. Not too close to the talk, so
you're not processing food too much while talking, not too far before... Helps
your distributed mind care about your audience. And sleep helps you improvise
better and have a sharper sense of humor.

------
alexjgough
Surely it's "know where you're presenting".

------
webjunkie
This is what I hate about these "I put up funny photos and slap some clever
sentence below them"-style presentations. If you're not sitting in the front
row, you cannot read anything.

------
DrStalker
This is a handy tip but calling it the zeroth law just because a cranky
blogger got stuck at the back of a presentation is extreme.

------
gpvos
I'd say it was "know what you're talking about".

