
Slide Design for Developers - holman
http://zachholman.com/posts/slide-design-for-developers/
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mmahemoff
I agree, these are some pretty slides. But I have a feeling a talk called "How
GitHub Uses GitHub to Build GitHub" by someone at GitHub no less, would have
been popular if it had been a series of black-and-white LaTeX bullet points.

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twog
You may not considering yourself a "designer" but you are. Your command over
typography, colors, and shapes aren't typical among developers.

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gfodor
I think he raises a good point, inadvertently. Sometimes you put more on
slides not because you want your audience to read them, but because your
slides are going to be an _artifact_ of the talk for reference later. I think
this is a tough tradeoff sometimes. Of course, if you think your slides are
really going to undermine your talk by having too much information, then cut
it down. But it's not a free lunch: you're removing information from those who
may download them as a reference later.

I realize slides are not really meant to be referenced, and that that type of
thing belongs in supplementary documentation, but you know that's not how it
works. People download the slides and fill in the gaps in their own minds
(often to the detriment of the author, since they are misinterpreted,) so you
might as well try to help them fill them in with as much information as
possible without sacrificing your ability to give a good talk.

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lurker17
If you really need to include your "paper" as part of your presentation and
not as a separate document (due to constraints of SlideShare or whatever), you
can attach your paper as an appendix at the end of your presentation, so it
doesn't interfere with your presentation proper.

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thomastom
Not a developer, but I used your tips for my talk yesterday. I thought the
slides came out great and the talk went over very well. Thanks for sharing
your tips!

Here's what I came up with, if you're interested:
[http://www.slideshare.net/tomcatalini/putting-yourself-
out-t...](http://www.slideshare.net/tomcatalini/putting-yourself-out-there-
blogging-your-personal-brand)

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nodesocket
Awesome, giving a presentation on Wednesday, and certainly using some of your
tips. For the record, I agree that you have a great eye for design as well.
Your one of the 'gifted' ones who are hackers and designers. You are a special
breed. :)

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d3vani
Slides are designed to keep the audience on point as the conversation goes on
and to ensure that the audience isn't reading the slides instead of listening
to the talk.

These slides get it while leaving a 'alright, that was memorable' feeling as
you walk away

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davvid
The typeface used in these slides is Yanone Kaffeesatz, one of the free google
web fonts:

<http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Yanone+Kaffeesatz>

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navs
I love the design of those slides but the angled text on just a few puts me
off. I don't know if its just me but I have trouble with angled text. My eyes
just can't seem to focus and so it all looks like gibberish.

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FaLKoR
I love slide #63. It reminds me a lot of e-mails I had to read...X-| and how
much I hate that ticket system's rich text area for letting my users express
their text-style art!

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justcaldwell
Yeah, don't want to bust your developer cred or anything, but you are a
designer. Nicely done.

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mashmac2
For more in-depth info on slide design, see Nancy Duarte's excellent book
slide:ology.

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tcurvelo
Really nice slides indeed. Any chances you post that talk, btw?

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holman
In terms of video? No, not yet. Waiting on the conference guys to process and
post it.

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tiagofernandez
Which presentation tool do you use, Keynote?

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CPlatypus
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I've seen a half dozen slide decks by
GitHub about GitHub, and I can't remember a single shred of content from any
of them. All I can remember is that too-familiar "I want those five minutes
back" feeling whenever I get fooled into reading something banal and
superficial. To me, that seems like an utter failure of slide design and
composition.

A great presenter doesn't need slides at all. That's a good reason to emulate
the presenter. It's a terrible reason to emulate their slides. Mediocre slides
in the hands of a less-than-stellar presenter are a recipe for zzzzz. Make
slides that don't need a great presenter. Make slides that don't even need
you, that can be sent to people you don't even know exist and still convey
your ideas well enough to invite further conversation. You might not get a
reputation as a great presenter that way, but you will succeed in conveying
information.

