Designing Science Presentations
A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More
- 2nd Edition - November 28, 2020
- Author: Matt Carter
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 1 5 3 7 7 - 2
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 1 5 3 7 8 - 9
Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More, Second Edition, guides scientists of any discipline in the design of compellin… Read more
Purchase options
Institutional subscription on ScienceDirect
Request a sales quoteDesigning Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More, Second Edition, guides scientists of any discipline in the design of compelling science communication. Most scientists never receive formal training in the design, delivery and evaluation of scientific communication, yet these skills are essential for publishing in high-quality journals, soliciting funding, attracting lab personnel, and advancing a career. This clear, readable volume fills that gap, providing visually intensive guidance at every step—from the construction of original figures to the presentation and delivery of those figures in papers, slideshows, posters and websites.
The book provides pragmatic advice on the preparation and delivery of exceptional scientific presentations and demonstrates hundreds of visually striking presentation techniques.
- Features clear headings for each section, indicating its message with graphic illustrations
- Provides clear and concise explanations of design principles traditionally taught in design or visualization courses
- Includes examples of high-quality figures, page layouts, slides, posters and webpages to aid readers in creating their own presentations
- Includes numerous "before and after" examples to illustrate the contrast between poor and outstanding presentations
Researchers in virtually all scientific disciplines, including life science, physical science, and chemistry. The First Edition was well received by undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, primary investigators, and even medical doctors.
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- About the author
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1. Using design principles to present science
- 1. Scientists as designers
- The elements of a science presentation
- Good scientific content does not speak for itself
- What is design?
- What design is not
- Well-designed presentations translate complex information into a simple message
- Design is ultimately about the audience
- Design is about more than just following “the rules”
- Any scientist can learn to design excellent presentations
- Appreciate good presentation design from other scientists
- Design is a continuous process
- Summary: Thinking like a designer
- 2. Design goals for different presentation formats
- Each presentation format has unique goals
- Advantages and disadvantages of different presentation formats
- Reasons for success and failure
- Summary: Designing for different presentation formats
- Part 2. Visual elements in science presentations
- 3. Color
- Use color to communicate
- How to describe color
- How computers specify color
- A color wheel can be helpful in selecting colors
- Choosing color combinations using a color wheel
- Choose warm colors for the foreground
- Ensure foreground and background colors have high contrast
- Use color to highlight salient information
- Emotional associations of different colors
- Prepare for color in a colorless environment
- Black and white are colors, too
- What you see on your screen might not be what you get
- Summary: Design principles for color
- 4. Typography
- Decisions about text matter
- Characteristics of a font
- Choose the right font for the job
- Considerations for casing
- Choose font styles to increase legibility
- Font considerations for numbers
- Sizing up a font
- Making the best use of bullets
- Be deliberate about typesetting
- Summary: Design principles for typography
- 5. Words
- Word choice matters
- Try to avoid colloquialism and slang
- Avoid wordiness
- Singular versus plural
- Choosing the active versus the passive voice
- Choosing verb tense
- Commonly misused or incorrect words
- Understanding the distinctions between similar words
- The burden of proof
- The meaning of Latin abbreviations
- Guidelines for writing about numbers
- Summary: Design principles for word choice
- 6. Tables
- When to use a table instead of text or a figure
- Anatomy of a table
- Logically formatting a table
- Text and number alignment
- Choosing to add gridlines on tables
- Reduce table size for slide presentations
- Summary: Design principles for tables
- 7. Graphs
- When to use a graph
- Anatomy of a graph
- Categories of graphs
- General design considerations for graphs
- Designing line graphs
- Designing bar graphs
- Communicating maximum information in bar graphs
- Designing histograms
- Designing scatterplots
- Designing pie charts
- Help your audience visualize what is most important
- Reduce clutter, decoration, and distractions
- Use figure legends to convey supporting details
- The best graph titles are often conclusions
- Summary: Design principles for graphs
- 8. Diagrams
- When to use a diagram
- Clearly define the purpose of a diagram
- Showing relationships and sequence order in diagrams
- Considerations for labeling diagrams
- Designing Venn diagrams
- Designing flowcharts
- Designing tree diagrams
- Designing timelines
- Designing pictorial diagrams
- Designing maps
- Designing sequence maps
- Designing circuit diagrams
- Designing pathway diagrams
- Designing procedural diagrams
- Summary: Design principles for diagrams
- 9. Photographs
- Why show a photo?
- Assume that representative photographic data will be harshly judged
- Be picky about composing and finding images
- Crop photos to emphasize what is most important
- Frame your content using the “rule of thirds”
- Adjust image settings to your needs
- Adjust data images ethically
- Ensure that labels are secondary to content
- The differences between image file formats
- Ideal image resolutions for different presentation formats
- Summary: Design principles for photographs
- Part 3. Expressing scientific ideas in written presentations
- 10. Research articles
- The purpose of a research article
- The structure of a research article
- The title should emphasize what is most important
- Effective abstracts tell a complete story
- Effective introductions lead to a specific research goal
- Materials and methods sections allow studies to be reproducible
- Provide your results section with context
- Achieve harmony between figures and text
- Use your discussion section to add reflection and insight
- Avoid common reasons for rejection
- Summary: Design principles for writing research articles
- 11. Review articles
- The purpose of a review article
- Choose a way to make sense of the literature
- Strategies to improve the readability of your review
- Writing a review article from scratch
- Summary: Design principles for writing review articles
- 12. Research proposals
- The purpose of a research proposal: to justify
- Pleasing your reviewers
- The structure of a research proposal
- Your experimental design must show logical thinking
- Enhance the visual design of your proposals
- Summary: Design principles for writing research proposals
- Part 4. Designing slide presentations
- 13. The use of slides in oral presentations
- The purpose of slides as presentation tools
- Slides are for the audience, not the speaker
- Design a slide presentation from an audience's perspective
- To design for your audience, know your audience
- Compose ideas before you compose slides
- The relationship between slides and oral delivery
- There is no correct number of slides
- Exceptional slide presentations require time and effort
- Summary: Design principles for using slides
- 14. The structure of a slide presentation
- A good scientific talk is a good scientific story
- Good science stories should convey the scientific method
- Consider storyboarding a talk to preview its structure
- Set the tone of your talk with a title slide
- Start a talk by progressing from general questions to specific goals
- Clearly emphasize your scientific goal and why it is worth pursuing
- Prepare for inevitable shifts in attention
- Organize the presentation of data into individual segments
- Consider uniting sections of a talk using a “home slide”
- Deliberately emphasize one to three take-home messages
- Conclude a talk by transitioning from specific details to a broader scientific context
- Briefly acknowledge your contributors
- Answer questions while showing a summary diagram
- Example outline of a structured talk
- Summary: Design principles for slide presentation structure
- 15. Visual elements in slide presentations
- Optimizing visual elements on slides
- Add design instead of decoration
- Choose the most optimal slide size for your screen/projector
- Choose inconspicuous backgrounds
- Optimize color choices for slides
- Assemble a unifying tone using a color palette
- Choose fonts that are most legible
- Keep text to a minimum
- Minimize the use of lists and outlines
- Use slide titles to make a point
- Optimize tables and graphs for slides
- Try to only present one table or graph per slide
- Animate data in tables and graphs for emphasis
- Optimize diagrams for slides
- Optimize photographs for slides
- Optimize videos for slides
- Summary: Design principles for visual elements in slides
- 16. Slide layout
- Be deliberate about slide layout to tell a better visual story
- To be deliberate about slide layout, avoid universal slide templates
- Design a natural flow of information
- Emphasize important visual elements
- Align visual elements for harmony
- Align visual elements using a grid
- Embrace simplicity
- Split busy slides into multiple slides
- Achieve harmony with photographs
- Summary: Design principles for slide layout
- 17. Slide animations and transitions
- The benefits of using slide animation effects
- Don't be an animation show-off
- Use animation to introduce concepts at a time of your choosing
- Use animation to relate the big and the small
- Animate movements naturally and intuitively
- Animate diagrams to bring dynamic processes to life
- Use animation to direct the audience's attention
- Use slide transitions minimally for emphasis
- Use transitions to create scenes and panoramas
- Summary: Design principles for slide animations and transitions
- 18. Delivering a slide presentation
- To seem like a natural, design and rehearse
- Strategies for dealing with anxiety
- Place yourself front and center
- Immediately gain rapport with your audience
- Aim to be present
- Don't use slides as presentation notes
- Work toward eliminating verbal distractions
- Strategies for answering audience questions
- Summary: Design principles for delivering slide presentations
- 19. Using technology to present like a professional
- Bring your own power and projection cords
- Know how to calibrate your laptop with a projector
- Know how to control your presentation with your keyboard
- Use personal display settings to see the next slide
- Learn the light switch before your talk begins
- Have a way of keeping track of time
- Use a laser pointer to focus the audience's attention
- Use a remote slide advancer to move more freely
- Considerations for presenting while traveling
- Summary: Design principles for presentation technology
- 20. Considerations for different categories of slide presentations
- The research seminar
- The panel/symposium talk
- The data blitz
- The lab meeting presentation
- The journal club talk
- The course guest lecture
- Summary: Design considerations for different categories of slide presentations
- Part 5. Designing oral presentations without slides
- 21. Presenting without slides
- You never needed slides in the first place
- Communicating structure without slides
- Plan figures ahead of time
- Be deliberate about maintaining an audience's attention
- Make any presentation notes brief
- Summary: Design principles for presenting without slides
- 22. Considerations for different categories of oral presentations without slides
- The chalk talk
- The round table presentation
- The elevator speech
- The speaker introduction
- Summary: Design considerations for oral presentations without slides
- Part 6. Designing poster presentations
- 23. The composition of a scientific poster
- The purpose of poster presentations
- The sections of a scientific poster
- The first step: writing an abstract
- The best poster titles are conclusions
- Background/introduction sections should be concise and informative
- Highlight your research question/goal/hypothesis
- Determine if you need a methods section
- Use results sections to declare major conclusions
- Highlight the major conclusions
- De-emphasize acknowledgments and references
- Reduce the amount of text as much as possible
- Ignore the trend of “Billboard” or “Poster 2.0” posters
- Advice on composing a poster from scratch
- Summary: Design principles for poster composition
- 24. The visual design and layout of a poster
- There are multiple ways to design a scientific poster
- Design an intuitive order of information
- Visually unite the content within each poster section
- Choose fonts that are easy to read
- Choose backgrounds that aren't distracting
- Eliminate extraneous visual elements for clarity
- Let your text and figures breathe
- Align visual elements for harmony
- Choose the right poster printing material
- Summary: Design principles for poster layout
- 25. Presenting at a poster session
- Posters are ideal for interactions with other scientists
- Anticipate the presentation venue
- Plan to look (and smell) your best
- Display your poster professionally
- Prepare for potential problems with a poster repair kit
- Be deliberate about being friendly and approachable
- Present your poster by giving a brief “walkthrough”
- Know where you stand
- Providing supplementary information
- Summary: Design principles for presenting a poster
- Appendix 1. Recommendations for further reading
- Appendix 2. Using illustration and presentation software
- Appendix 3. Thoughts on how to design a presentation from scratch
- Index
- No. of pages: 368
- Language: English
- Edition: 2
- Published: November 28, 2020
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128153772
- eBook ISBN: 9780128153789
MC
Matt Carter
Matt Carter is an Associate Professor of Biology at Williams College where he teaches courses in neuroscience and physiology. His research program focuses on how the brain regulates food intake and sleep and is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. In addition to primary scientific publications, he is also the author of Designing Science Presentations (Academic Press). He is a recipient of the Walter Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching from Stanford University and the Nelson Bushnell Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Writing from Williams College.
Affiliations and expertise
Assistant Professor of Biology, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USARead Designing Science Presentations on ScienceDirect