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.

Presentation Prep Workshop Series

The UNM Libraries team up with Graduate Support and the Engineering Student Success Center each semester to offer a four-part presentation prep workshop series this semester. Join us to learn how to be a more prepared, confident, and effective presenter! Workshops take place in a hybrid format, via Zoom & in person in Zimmerman Library. Registration is strongly recommended, & workshops are open to anyone in the UNM community! Pizza will be provided to in-person attendees.

What is a Conference?: Tuesday, March 4, 11am-12pm
Designing and Developing Presentations: Tuesday, March 11, 11am-12pm
Data Visualization: Tuesday, March 25, 11am-12pm
Delivering Presentations: Tuesday, April 1, 11am-12pm

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