Research Guides: Presentation Design: General Principles

Workshop Materials

Presentation Workshop Slides: Visual Design for Oral & Poster Presentations
For more in-depth presentation tips and examples, download the slides from the Library's presentation design workshop
Presentation Design Worksheet
Worksheet designed to help you develop a thoughtful, targeted presentation

Sharing your work

If you want your audience and other to have access to your presentation materials, consider posting resources on a site such as the following

SlideShare
Upload slides, posters, and other documents for a public or private audience. Formats accepted include PowerPoint, PDF, and OpenDocument.
Figshare
A free online digital repository where users can share, preserve, and access research products such as figures, data visualizations, media, datasets, and more.
Google Drive
Google Drive, a free cloud storage service connected to Google accounts, is a great way to host and share research presentation materials with a limited audience.

Spring 2022 Presentation Prep Workshop Series

The UNM Libraries are teaming up with the Graduate Resource Center and Engineering Student Success Center to offer a four-part presentation prep workshop series for the Spring 2022 semester. Workshops take place on Tuesdays from 11am-12:30pm in a hybrid format (Zoom & in person in Centennial Library). Registration is recommended. Workshops are open to anyone in the UNM community!

Feb 22: Presentations, Oh My! - What is the Conference?
March 1: Presentations, Oh My! - Delivering Presentations
March 8: Presentations, Oh My! - Developing & Designing Presentations
March 22: Presentations, Oh My! - Data Visualization

General Presentation Principles

The following core principles apply whether you're creating a poster presentation or slides to accompany an oral presentation

Think and communicate visually: Humans remember images and words better than words alone.
Be consistent: Keep your slides or poster design simple and use a consistent style (fonts, colors)
Focus: Keep your audience focused on your most important points

Structure

Hook and Preview
Methods, Data and/or Details (Don't dwell overlong here)
Conclusion and Takeaways

Other Considerations

Use stories to help people remember your points
Use metaphorical thinking to choose impactful and meaningful images
Avoid "slide-uments" (slides that contain a high level of text detail). To communicate detail, make a slideshow as well as a handout/document