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Value of visually striking presentations

"PowerPoint is a joy to use — click a few highly intuitive buttons to animate your favourite model and the results seem the work of professionals with years of film school behind them. Customize your graphics to rival the finest glossy magazines. But does a visually striking presentation really make your research more accessible or memorable? Do bouncing phosphates really explain a kinase reaction better? We would argue that overbearing graphics tend to distract the audience from the science."
So begins the editorial in this month's Nature Cell Biology (9, 1217; 2007), which continues: ... "graphics tools ought to be used only when necessary. It is worth reflecting on the frustrating experience of watching a Hollywood movie so overloaded with special effects that it leaves the viewer drained from sensory overload but intellectually and emotionally unsatisfied. Less is more: after a day of back-to-back talks, nothing is more refreshing than a visually clear, logically constructed and well articulated presentation."
Read the full editorial here.


Posted by Maxine Clarke on November 09, 2007
Categories: Communication, Conferences | | Comments (1)

Comments

While everyone has experienced painful powerpoint presentations, with annoying slide transitions, various 'bings' and 'bongs' accompanying overused animations; one mustn't be too harsh on animations in the round. Tamás Freund gave the Fred Kavli Distinguished International Scientist Lecture at the 2007 Society for Neuroscience meeting last week and successfully informed the delegates about the relatively complicated idea of how different populations of cortical neurons modulate neuronal oscillations in different ways with a comic, yet highly enlightening animation of an octopus. Likewise, using the "zoom" animation can visually express magnified views, and motion paths easily make animations of signalling cascades more engaging.
Animated Powerpoint presentations are like most methods in science. When used appropriately they are informative, when used wrongly, they are deceptive and annoying.

Posted by: Bill Connelly | November 12, 2007 01:16 AM

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