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    Common Communication Problems: Chartjunk

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    Sonam Chhetri

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    Common Communication Problems: Chartjunk

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    Sonam Chhetri
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    Common Communication Problems: Chartjunk

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    Common Communication Problems


    All the 1-1/2 hour presentations I attended were in “PowerPoint” format…you
    know, click on the button, the slide changes, the presenter talks about the
    slide, he or she clicks again and…well, you get it. They all had solid technical
    content and a high level of applicability to my job. Four out of those five,
    however, had fair to poor presentations. The slides were either not engaging,
    way too busy (also known as chartjunk), illegible (because the fonts were so
    small) or served simply as the presenter’s script. Couple that with a dimly lit
    room and inadequate ventilation (we WERE in a hotel, after all) and you can
    imagine what ensues.

    Pervasive Communication Problem


    I’ve had the same feeling every year I attended this particular conference over
    the last 5 years, and I can remember only a handful of effective presentations
    at national conferences over the years. Now I’m no presentation guru, but
    neither am I a sommelier — yet I know when a wine tastes good, and I know
    when a presentation misses the mark. If, as an industry, we are going to
    advance building performance, energy efficiency and sustainability, we need
    to communicate more effectively with each other — as well as non-technical
    audiences.

    12 Presentation Tips for an


    Engineer from an Engineer
    1. DON’T - READ YOUR SLIDES! Oh, sorry, did I yell that? Well, I meant to. I read
    aloud to my 4 year old because he can’t do it himself yet; I can. Use your slides
    as talking points, perhaps to compare a few things with a graph, or to highlight
    the main points you want to cover.
    2. DO – Prepare notes from which to speak that only exist in your hand. This will let
    you look away from the slide and engage with your audience.
    3. DON’T – Put up a slide that’s simply a white background and black text. C’mon
    folks, Power Point has dozens of canned templates that, if nothing else, add a
    splash of color or some texture. Additional time = 2 minutes. If that’s a little too
    much to do, use some other font than Times New Roman and make the text a
    different color. Something…anything!
    4. DO – Use photos or sketches to describe your talking points. We all like picture
    books whether we want to admit it or not…same thing applies to presentations.
    Photos are great ‘cause they’re real. Every presentation I’ve attended that uses
    photos always seems to keep the audience’s attention.
    5. DO – Use graphs. All the folks at this conference have the technical aptitude to
    understand a graph. Graphs are a simple way to compare A to B to C and they
    can add a splash of color.
    6. DON’T – Use graphs that have so many data points and compare so many
    things that looking at them starts to make me say “whoa man, what’d they put in
    that lunch buffet?”.
    7. DO – Use graphs to illustrate a point by summarizing or showing an indicative
    section of the data. Keep the font legible and the number of data points to a
    minimum.
    8. DON’T – Show me a screenshot of the ENTIRE SPREADSHEET you used to
    perform a complicated analysis or to compare umpteen options and then start by
    saying “this isn’t meant to be legible”. No kidding?!
    9. DO – Show me a section of that spreadsheet and summarize the headings on
    the top and side. You’re giving me an idea of what you did, not presenting the
    detail of the findings.
    10. DON’T – Stand behind the table or podium if you can at all help it. I know, public
    speaking is not a strong point for many people and that’s perfectly acceptable.
    Just step around the physical barrier that is between you and your audience. I
    don’t expect you to be that person who walks around the room and gets to know
    half the audience, but removing the barrier is another step to keeping my
    attention.
    11. DO – Look the audience in the eye. If you can’t do this, which is understandable,
    look at their hair. I learned that somewhere and you know what, it works. You can
    do an entire presentation without making any eye contact and still convince the
    audience you were looking at them.
    12. DO – Practice your presentation and get your colleagues’ input ahead of time.
    We’re all busy, believe me I know. But I paid to attend this conference and I
    expect a little more than a presenter who stumbles though their presentation
    because they weren’t familiar with the content of the slides. Yes, that happened.
    He even said “sorry, I’m not totally familiar with this presentation.” Folks – he was
    the guy the program listed; it wasn’t a surprise to him he was presenting.
    So that’s my 2 cents on what these presenters could have done better to
    engage me which, I assume, is what would engage you or most anyone else.
    What’s your favorite tip (or resource) for more effective presentations?

    RESOURCES
    PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports (Edward Tufte)

    Harvard Business Reveiw Guide to Persuasive Presentations - Nancy Duarte

    Mastering Prezi for Business Presentations – Anderson-Williams Russell

    TOPICS:  S US TA IN AB IL IT Y   WO RK PL AC E & P EO PL E

    Written by Matt Napolitan


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    Frank S. Adamo
     
    3/2/2013, 7:51:43 PM
    For an engineer, you have some excellent tips :).

    If I may, for #2, having notes in your hand is a good idea in that you are also
    suggesting to move out from behind the lectern. My recommendation for notes
    would be to print copies of the PowerPoint slides and place them on the
    lectern. If you are stuck at the lectern, at least you can move back a foot or
    two and the notes would still be visible. And if you have the opportunity to step
    out from behind the lectern, you can move close to the lectern to glance at the
    notes. You can also use your laptop to view your slides, while facing the
    audience.

    For #3, I would also suggest designing a background template. It's relatively
    simple to do. Use an engineering photo. You can use your own photo, or there
    are hundreds of public domain photo web sites available for a nominal fee.
    Use a photo for a title slide, then crop and reduce the photo to have it
    available as a content slide as shown in http://youtu.be/EXWeRpsKUY4.

    #6 is so important and so correct. #'s 8 & 9 are also excellent points.

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