Hello!
Audio-visual science communication is an essential element of research, by which novel findings are disseminated to the field and public. These can occur at conferences, through interviews or science fairs, to name a few. The best approach to convey our message needs to be adjusted accordingly depending on the target audience. Furthermore, as research projects become increasingly interdisciplinary, it can be challenging to accommodate such a wide variety of backgrounds when preparing a presentation, even in scientific contexts. For example, in our institute, doctoral students must give a Colloquium presentation about their work every semester to all members of the Institute for Biomechanics, which includes people working with *in silico, in vitro and in vivo projects with a great diversity of expertise. Therefore, in this post, I would like to share some of the approaches I try to follow when preparing presentations and how I aim to be as inclusive as possible for colleagues with different scientific backgrounds.
3. Adding animated visualisations
Planning a story
First, I begin by brainstorming and identifying the set of topics or results that I would like to include in the presentation. For instance, since the Colloquium presentations mentioned before are also intended to act as a progress report, we must select which items we want to present as we cannot possibly include all projects we have worked on since the previous presentation. Hence, this step is beneficial to identify which topics are most relevant and creates the baseline from which we can define a storyline with a logical flow. Indeed, even if there are concepts unfamiliar to some elements of the audience, the presence of a connecting thread is extremely valuable to follow the motivation, execution, and conclusions of the work.
While for the brainstorming step, it is usually enough to keep notes in a written document, I find it quite effective to prepare the storyline already in the format we aim to prepare the presentation (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint), usually, by creating slides with one-sentence summaries or titles of the ideas to present. This approach kicks off the ideation of how the information should be incorporated in the slide, and it also helps to identify the sequence of slides that introduces the necessary concepts for subsequent results while keeping the flow of ideas.
Drafting a script
Next, I find it very useful to prepare a written script of what to say in each slide. This step builds on the previous one and provides a more detailed awareness of the sections where I may be providing too much information or moving too fast. More importantly, it is usually at this stage that concepts that may have not been appropriately introduced are highlighted, promoting iterative adjustments to the work.
Additionally, this step also gives a great indication of the expected duration of the presentation, helping to balance the amount of information to share with the time available for the talk. Indeed, during the final preparation, I also add the expected duration of each slide to the presenter’s notes, such that I have a live indicator of the presentation pace and adjust accordingly.
Adding animated visualisations
At this point, we should have an initial version of the presentation containing the bulk of the topics we aim to present. The goal of this phase is two-fold: to identify which concepts can be supported or replaced by images and make the work more engaging for the audience. For example, I find presentations with dynamic images (like GIFs) much more entertaining than plain static figures showing all the information at once. Indeed, this approach can be used for different purposes, such as introducing complex ideas (by creating an auxiliary representative image that allows the audience to follow the explanation) or presenting results by making graphs progressively more populated as the findings are shown.
From a practical perspective, these animations usually require additional effort to prepare. For instance, my work involves analysing 3D micro-Computed Tomography images of mice, and, therefore, I use Paraview to conveniently create GIFs showing each step of the analysis. This tool also includes several features like surface smoothing, controlling the illumination and camera trajectory, which provide excellent control over the progression of the clip. Finally, the software exports the animation as a sequence of images, which can be combined in a GIF or movie format using standard video editing software.
In other cases, while preparing results (usually in Python), I typically export several versions of the same plot with different combinations of data following the flow of ideas drafted in the script. As a result, during the presentation, the graphs would evolve with the explanation coherently, making it easier for the audience to stay engaged.
The underlying idea is to review the presentation and identify which slides could benefit from such animated tools to make the content more accessible and exciting.
Discussing with colleagues
Finally, a rather obvious step is to present the work beforehand to a few people (ideally with different backgrounds) to collect feedback and get a first impression about how the presentation is received. Again, this phase is vital to identify which slides still contain too much information, are overly complex or perhaps can lead to misinterpretations of the content. Obviously, inevitably, the presentation will not be unambiguous for all audiences and, therefore, one should keep in mind the expected basic level of knowledge needed to follow the work depending on the population that we target with the work (e.g., science fair or conference).
“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” – Rollo May
Conclusion
In conclusion, these are some techniques I apply when designing my oral presentations. Additionally, I actively try to learn better strategies to communicate very technical concepts effectively to an audience with various scientific backgrounds while keeping the talk engaging.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on how you prepare your presentations
Have a great day!