Presenting science in front of an audience invariably implies presentation of slides, either as support for the spoken text, or as the main ingredient of the presentation. I always wonder why these slides are so ill-designed: awful contrast, extremely busy, inconsistent lay-out through the slide show, wildly varying font sizes etc. The metaphors that come to mind are that of an elementary school playground or (comparison from a colleague of mine) that of an indoor swimming pool full of children. (picture © Kilian-Nakamura.com 2007).But we scientists are amateurs with respect to design of graphics. So let us see how the professionals do this.

Bad example 1: London School of Economics
Management of graduate schools for the hard sciences often complain that a lot of students with talents for these sciences opt for economics and business administration because that world is sexy. It is the scene of high salaries, lease cars and smart clothing, and – not to forget – the world of slick presentations. Let us check the quality of the presentations of an elite school of that sexy world: the London School of Economics (LSE).

Well if you are interested in a collection of PowerPoint presentations that are all of poor quality (for many reasons) check the PhD students’ portal, the information gateway for MPhil and PhD students at LSE. (Or navigate directly to the LSE collection of PowerPoint presentations.)

Bad example 2: Journal covers
The covers of magazines and (scientific) journals resemble slides. These front pages should catch the audience. You would think that they are designed by professional graphic artists. And perhaps these cover pages could serve as examples for presenters for improving their sheets. Well I will give an example here of the prestigious journal Nature. With all the mistakes of beginners: almost unreadable text, superimposed on a busy background with wildly varying contrast. The journal Science is by the way much better in this respect. But it can get much worse. I show here an hilarious example of a (Dutch) lifestyle magazine (Residence). If the slides of your presentation resemble this professional product you might want to change your career and step into the graphics industry.

Question
It is so simple to prepare high-quality sheets. What is the reason that people continue with their bad habits? Lack of time? Lack of respect for audience? Ignorance? Or indeed: lack of skills?

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