Example “Good Slides”
for a CHI Paper Presentation
Joshua B. Gross, Penn State | jgross@ist.psu.edu
Straightforward Overview
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Purpose/value statement
Principles of a good slide presentation
Example good slides
Conclusion - good slides are a good start
to a good presentation
Acknowledgements
Statement of Purpose/Value
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A good presentation starts with a
statement of the value of the work
• Why should people care?
• Why should they hear your talk?
• What contribution have you made?
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This information is probably in your
abstract, but should be distilled for the
slide
Presenting Background Work
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Don’t try to present all the background
• Just one or two really crucial elements
• The CHI audience is broad, so briefly
describe
• Examples follow
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Participatory Design
• The theory and practice of involving
users at some or all stages of design
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Semiotics
• A theory of how systems of symbols (like
a language) communicate ideas
Citing Prior Work
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It may be beneficial to cite prior work
• It should be important and relevant
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Use this style (Simon, H. A., 1975)
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Often, this is used to give your audience a perspective
• “Participatory design (Nardi, B. A., 1993)”
is not the same as
• “Participatory design (Bodker, S., 2000)”
Visual Design
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The pre-packaged Powerpoint slides are ugly.
A plain background is not ugly.
If you aren’t a graphic designer, don’t try to be :-)
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Simple, Consistent, and Legible.
Good Chart Example
Frequency Follows an Inverse Log Relationship to Word Length
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0.9
Word Frequency
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1
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Word Length
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Presenting Data
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Use simple charts/graphs, with (ideally)
one main point per chart/graph
• Don’t try to jam too much data in
your graph
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Labels x and y axis, and units
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Use a title that clearly explains the idea
you are trying to get across
Alpha and Beta Teams Perform Better in the Evening,
Delta and Gamma in the Morning
Mean Tasks Completed Per Minute
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0600
0800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2200
Time of Day
Alpha Team
Beta Team
Gamma Team
Delta Team
Graphs and Charts, Part 2
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Don’t just accept defaults from Excel
• Colors (including background) may
need to be changed
• Axis dimensions and scale can be
changed
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Make sure text is big enough
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Move legend to where it is most useful
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Make sure colors & background are visible
on a projection display
Acronyms
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Acronyms are dangerous
• Example: ERP
• Does it mean Enterprise Resources
Planner
• Large-scale corporate planning
software
• Or does it mean Event-Related Potential
• Reactions measure via
electroencephalograph
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Always spell out acronyms at first use
• E.g. Event-Related Potential (ERP)
• One safe exception - HCI!
Slang and Colloquialisms
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Avoid slang and colloquialisms if at all
possible
• CHI is an English-language
conference
• 2 billion people speak English
• Lots of dialect and regionality
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Make your message clear to people who
speak English as a second language
• Or third, or fourth…
Future Work
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You may want to talk about future work
• Work you intend to do
• Work you may have already done
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It’s been up to six months since you
submitted your paper
• What direction is the work taking
• What do you see as the major next
hurdle or accomplishment
Summary and Acknowledgements
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Summarize your major contributions
• Good slides are the basis of a good
talk
• Assume a broad audience at CHI
• Make sure your content is readable
• Stop on your summary slide - this
is useful for your audience
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Acknowledgements
• Funding
• People
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Include your contact information
Answering Questions
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An advanced tip is to have a few slides ready
for questions you anticipate
• You won’t always have one for each
question asked, and you may not use
them, but they can be handy
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This is a useful place to put
additional/supporting data, references, etc.