Having now seen the slides from @Fox0x01's latest talk, it got me thinking about an often overlooked and forgotten element of presenting your research: design aesthetics and how one presents the message.

I see a lot of presentations and for the most, the research that is often amazing, is let down badly by the delivery of said research from both a visual perspective and how the presenter tells their story.

Humans are hard-wired for visual input.

Charles Eames, a legendary American industrial designer, said:

"Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”

For research, it should compliment the work you've spent countless hours sweating, crying and laughing doing.

Sadly what is often the case are those who do the slides at the very last minute. Almost like it's a badge of honour and it really isn't, it shows disrespect for your audience, we know this and it sticks with us, believe me.

If anything, you should be spending 20-30% of the research time into the visual output as well as how you present it. I've found that applying the rule of thirds helps a hell of a lot for slide designs.

So what does this actually mean?

Take this image from Henri Cartier-Bresson, a pioneer of photography who used this to great effect.

Take a single page, break it into two horizontal and two vertical lines.

What you want is the focal point to be on the intersections of the lines. So here we have the cyclist in the top left. Your eye is drawn to it and for slides, it works really well

Maria did this well in the deck for ARM, the main focal point here is the breakdown of the processor in the mobile device, so bottom left.

The other huge mistake so many make is clutter.

Don't do it. Your slides are not a white-paper, the last thing you want to do is make your audience read the slides, if they do that, they aren't looking at you anymore

If the tech content is deep, release a paper beforehand

Steve Jobs was the master of telling the story. We were captivated as all attention was on him, often with very minimal slides just adding further curiosity or implanting key messages he wanted to get across.

Often I hear "but my work is super technical, I can't simplify this". My response is often curt. Bullshit, you can.

Good placement of elements, a suitable font and a story that takes the viewer through complex concepts without smacking them in the face.

The art of storytelling and presenting is as important as the super l337 bug you've found, don't ignore it and think a few bullet points suffice, they rarely leave an impression.

Kudos to @Fox0x01 and others who put so much effort in, us in the crowd really appreciate it