Presentations

About Presentations
A presentation aims at giving an audience - that might know nothing about your project, your goals, your context of work - an idea of your project.
It might be hard to condense 3 months of work into 5 to 15 minutes of presentation. So try to find the essence that gives an idea what your work has been about (and will or might be about in the future).

Using Media
It seems to be a rule to do presentations using PowerPoint or PDF-Files. This is wrong, obviously. They are powerful tools as PowerPoint or Keynote allow an author to structure the thoughts - and easily change them. So this might be one way - and perhaps one component of a presentation. Think about a dramaturgy, about something convincing, that makes the audience ask for more information.

Structure of a presentation
As mentioned above, "slides" - what way ever - are a crucial part of most presentations. The following structure (based on the experience of BJ Fogg, see Brenda Laurel, Design Research) might help you to reflect the process and to choose the right density of your presentation.
For presentations in smaller audiences it might be helpful to provide the people with handouts. It is also important to give an idea about the length and the actual status of your presentation - because some visitors might be too late and want to get into your reasoning.

Project / concept overview
What is the basic idea of the project? What is the starting point, what are the challenges and basic goals? How many time was spent?

User description
Give some Informations about the users you are designing for. Why did you chose those users, what are their needs - and why will they benefit from your idea?

Storyboard of user experience
Give an idea how your product, service or concept will used. A scenario - visual might be best - gives a good insight and makes your ideas understandeable.

Prototype
If you developed something visual (or sensualy perceivable) show it as a prototype to give an idea what it will be like. For Interfaces, it is good to have an interactive prototype so that the use can be shown or that the Prototype can be used by the audience.

Features / Functionality
Give a brief overview about the features of your concept. What are the features, what are the functions?

Justifications for design
The Design process is about decissions. So tell about your strategies and why you made decissions so that people will understand what you did. It is not about detailled reasoning, but about explaining the rationale behind your decissions. This might be helpful to start a discussion.

Quick user testing
It is fine if you can provide the audience with a quick user testing. There are many ways and methods to do user studies, and even if you didn´´ have enough time to conduct user studies you give an impressions what you are planning to do next.

Shortcomings / Limitations of design
The presentation is part of the design process. It is not about presenting the final results, it is about a (potential) decission how to proceed. So you can critically talk about some challenges or problems that still have to be dealt with. Its good if you point out the limitations - that might lead to a constructive discussion.

Expansions- what else will be possible?
Of course you know that there are some more things to be done. It is a crucial part of the design process to decide which options are incuded in certain step. But you can outline some future benefits, features and functionalities. This shows the potential of your work.

Next steps in the design process
Obviously, your work is worth to be continued. So if you would have more time (2 weeks, 2 months...) what would you do next? This is not about inventing something new, it is more about the awareness of a design process - and the next steps after your presentation - that might be a decission if to proceed - so show how to proceed.

Prof. Heidkamp June 2004