Susan McConnell (Stanford): Designing effective scientific presentations 

0:00 Intro 3:05 Font style/size 5:29 Color contrast 8:50 Layout (heading, text, lists) 11:19 Use of empty space 12:20 Simple image on each slide 13:51 How many slides to show 14:57 Avoid busy slides 19:10 Data: Don't overdo it 21:21 Minimum essential components 25:19 Structure of a good talk 26:30 Use of home slide 29:27 Meat & Taters; Keeping the audience's attention 31:45 The specificity dive 35:07 Conclusions 37:40 Conclusion/Q&A slide 38:33 Conclusion of this actual presentation

11 years later this is the most helpful video on giving presentations!

What's so hilarious is that at about 30 minutes into her presentation she switched to a dark screen and I found myself getting very sleepy and I almost stopped the video. Then she goes back to the white screen, shows a bell chart, and starts talking about how the attention span of the audience goes down over a period of time. That's EXACTLY how my attention span was during her presentation. But it was a good presentation though.

This is the best presentation I've ever seen :) I listened every minute of it without skipping! Thank you so much..

I hadn't realised this was an 8+ year-old video until reading the comments! It still largely stands the test of time 🥰 one thing that could be interesting to mention is accessibility (it looks like Michael Alley's book doesn't discuss this). Things like high contrast (not using text that blends in with the background) discussed in the video are great examples of important accessible features for disabled listeners/viewers. I like the idea of a centring slide! Thanks for this video, it's given me lots to consider as an undergrad who's new to PP presentations (but has sat through a lot of terrible ones!) 😊

"Use of animation" advise really saved my life. Thank you so much!!!

This is fantastic. Seriously, I have to give a talk at a conference in a few weeks and I didn't know where to begin. Now I'm confident that I have the tools to make it as good as possible.

Man I love her personality! Thank you very much professor for providing the whole idea in a comprehensive, insightful and effective way!

I'm preparing for my thesis presentation. I kept listening non-stop to your guidances. It was very awesome

This is what I'm looking for. I will have scientific presentation at International seminar next Tuesday. Thank you so much for the tutorial :-)

This remains an excellent tutorial on how to give a technical presentation - life science based or in any other field. I just used some of the info in a lecture and told my students to be sure and watch this.

This is great! A must for every beginner- lecturer and very useful for everyone who gives talks 🏆. Thank you!

Thank you so much! that was really helpful.. I'm having my first paper presentation this week and the tips in your video were really helpful.. This was one of the best presentations I've ever seen.. Really good job.,!

nice one :) you managed to give a talk on "how to talk" very effectively!

thank you so much, this has been a wonderful help! I'm presenting my first ever seminar for my honours so more than a little nervous, but this has been amazing. Thank you!!

giving a talk at a symposium tomorrow, this really helped!

This is the best presentation ever i seen and learnt about power point presentation and trully helpful to improve slides presentation. She touches all the sides of power point presentation. Thank you so much for the video

Great. Assigned for my Science Communications grad course. Some particularly expert recommendations:1. Use of a Home Slide; 2. Summary slide with complex terms, acronyms and jargon to help with Q&A (!); 3. Only show what you plan to highlight or mention. Don't be lazy and the audience will appreciate your efforts.

When talking in front of a large audience I use an inverted triangle formation. I choose 3 people.The first in the center of the front row and one on both the extreme left and extreme right of the very back row and alternate my gaze between the 3 during the presentation. Gives everyone the feeling your addressing them at some point.

Great and very helpful presentation that I have ever seen. I learn many things and at the same time I was gotten positive feeling .Thanks Dr.McConnell

I'm already feeling confident about my upcoming presentation.. Thanks! :)

This video from Jan 2011 still holds up in Jan 2023. 10/10 Thanks for the video doctor : )

Thank you for this video! I redesigned my talk after watching your video, I thought it was very helpful!

Great stuff. I'm preparing presentation for my viva and this really helped. Thank you.

Wow, this was an amazing presentation! Thanks a lot, for all the suggestions for an effective presentation!

I'm looking for videos to help me on a presentation for October and this video had been really helpful. Thanks!

This was a good talk. I like the 'data dives' suggestion and coming back to a home slide. It's almost like breaking a lecture up into parts, making it easier for someone to pay attention to the next 'data dive' even if they spaced out on a previous one. It sucks when you lose track of something, and then everything else following that point in the talk doesn't make any sense.

A very informative talk delivered meticulously. Thank you

Glad to find out this video before my graduation presentation!

These are the kind of video for which I love RU-vid and the Internet.

This video is pure gold! Thanks!!

Thank you so much Susan, best presentation i ever had!

Thank you so much for sharing this video!!!! What a great help!! Many many thanks

This is just what I want to learn. It would be greatly helpful. Thank you very much!

"You're probably tuning into this talk because you're interested in improving your speaking skill." Nah, I just gotta watch this for class.

This really explains how the human brain works. Don't corrupt it with a lot of snow unless you are trying to fool it like politics. Excellent presentation.

Thank-you for such an effective presentation on presentations! You have covered all the points I would have myself, and now I will only need to have the students (non English speaking PhDs) watch this video, do some followup tasks and then we can move forward more efficiently. Thanks!

It would be really great if some examples of PPTs from actual presentations were uploaded here.

Amaizing presentation about presentations! Thank you!

Beautiful smile, intelligent and practical talk!

I really want to convey my respectful thanks for teaching us the presentation style....May I request iBiology to make some more video on the topic

Very helpful and insightful presentation. Thank you.

Thanks for your advice mam. It was really helpful. My presentation went a lot better with your sugestions. I knew how to began and how to end it.

Thank you! this video was really helpful.

Thank you and much appreciated. I hope move inspiring videos from you in the future. By having this might give impact for my final year project. wish me luck.:)

Thank you so much for this, just what i was looking for

Thank you so much! It's pretty helpful before my prospectus!

this video helped a lot ! thank you

This is so useful!Thank you so much!

This is incredibly useful! I have sent your video to all of my trainees and have changed my own talks with your advice in mind. Thanks so much!

It is quite helpful, Thanks for your advices!

This talk is really informative and helpful. Great Thanks!

it is very helpful , thank you so much for your tips

A perfect lecture, Thanks.

Thank you for really helpful tips!!

Very helpful presentation! I really appreciate it a lot. I got lots of tips here and could successfully have a good presentation for my intern work 3 months ago

This has been so helpful, thank you

Thank you, it was wonderful.

Amazing video realy helpful thank you!

Great to listen this professional talk...

this is great!! thank you so much!! appreciate it a lot!

It is good sometimes, to understand how to simplify complex things (that's simplify not double talk) so that people understand clearly how things are.

Wow. Great stuff! Thanks.

This is so helpful, my advisor made us watch the whole video :( , but we still liked it. Also, I think it's a good video to watch when tripping.

If you watch this till the end , then you should understand she is and expert and got all your attention.

Amazing presentation. I'd like to know which softwares were used to unify powerpoint with the video image of the presenter in one single screen. I noticed the presenter was apparently looking at a screen on her right side, so she could be sure exactly where to indicate on the screen in order to, at the end, look like she really had a powerpoint screen behind her.

Thank you! this is very helpful!

Great job... very nice to hear...& thank you...

Wow she is so good! Thanks for all the tips

Wonderful presentation on how to give a presentation

Great video Thank you Dr.McConnell

"Did I remember to load that gel" , this is too accurate.

This is quite brilliant!

You're amazing, thanks a million

gr8 video...helped me a lot...thanx Susan !

It was really great video!

Is this presentation subtitled in Spanish? Excellent and useful talk

very helpful advice, thk so much : )

one comment about "less is more". I think a common strategy used by a lot people is that put the redundant slides after the end of the talk. In this way, if someone in the audience bring up a question that could be perfectly answered by those slide, voilà.

Very very helpful, thank you!

This is extremely helpful.

this is extremely useful!

Thanks very much, very helpful. However, I'd just like to remeber that besides PowerPoint and KeyNote, there's also Beamer for Ubuntu people.

Thank you very much... this is very informative

Helps a lot. Thank u very much!!!

Could someone tell me the name of the software that the teacher uses in the video to make the talk? thanks

Thanks for such wonderful prsentation

Amazing Tips..!!

fantastic talk forever

Great ideas to doing a scientific presentation.

I have to say that she is an expert

You are a perfect scientist

Really informative 👏

very clear thank you!

this is such a good talk

it is really helpful for me, thanks!!

useful guide for starting a powerpoint presentation.

Good Presentation mam...mam how to prepare 5 slides for teaching positions?

Thkx a lot!its really helpful.

Oh, is great.. Thank you so much