The Worst Slide Deck Ever

1
The Worst Slide Deck Ever

• Joshua B. Gross, BA, MS
• PhD Candidate, Expected Graduation May, 2008
• 311B IST Building
• College of Information Sciences and Technology
• The Pennsylvania State University
• University Park, PA 16802
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email jgross_at_ist.psu.edu
• Web http//hci.ist.psu.edu/jgross

2
An Inappropriate Talk Overview

• Detailed explanation of some of my work
• Some background, but no context
• Lots and lots of data
• If you cant do a good job, you can at least
  confuse people
• Conclusions that do not follow from the work

3
Requisite Prior Knowledge for All CHI Attendees

• In order to understand my talk, you must know
  about
• Usability Engineering
• Web Design
• Ecological Psychology and Affordance Theory
• Activity Theory from Vygotsky to present
• Neurophysiology
• Geldards homunculus
• My prior work
• My advisors prior work
• Et cetera
• I will not explain any of these

4
Talk Overview

• Here Ill include my entire abstract
• Research into presentations at CHI and other
  conferences indicates that some people do a much
  better job of presenting their paper than others.
  While the slide deck isnt the key to a great
  paper, a good slide deck is often the hallmark of
  a good paper. One of the most common mistakes is
  to put too much information on one slide.
• Now Ill say that I know you cant read this much
  information, but its really crucial to the rest
  of my presentation.
• Or Ill read the slide to you - thats fun for
  everyone!

5
A Really Bad Chart Example
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Whats Wrong?

• Too much data
• Unreadable
• Poor chart choice
• Legend doesnt help
• Cant read the titles unless you use a white
  background
• Isnt this a horrible background?

7
One Point (and a Non Sequitor at That)

• Participatory design is the only correct solution!

8
Latin and Other Foreign Languages

• While the argument may seem, in this case, post
  hoc ergo propter hoc, in reality res ipsa
  loquitur
• Latin phrases are another good way to confuse
  your audience
• Probably safe exceptions
• Et al.
• Per se
• Etc. or et cetera

9
Questions?