Team Presentations in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication

ENGINEERING SERIES

Part One

• Organizing a Team Presentation

• Enhancing Your Team’s Image

• Making Advanced Visual Design Choices

Team Presentation Challenges

1. Present a unified, coherent argument despite changes in speakers

2. Put work in context, identify specific problem, without going over too much familiar background

3. Meet audience expectations for the type of presentation

4. Make organization, argument structure accessible5. Support analysis with references to specific

engineering work 6. Provide figures to interpret data, persuade

audience

How to Unify Team Talk

• Introduce the group and the presentation as a whole; preview the organization

• Divide talk logically • Have individuals speak on

topics they know best • Hand off with a summary

and then introduce next speaker

• Use headings that refer to the introductory preview

• Dress and speak in a single style

• End with a summary and leave it on the screen to prompt questions

How to Organize

• Choose Common Patterns of Organization – Need / Satisfaction – Problem (Analysis into Parts) /Solution

(comparison of options)

• Use “Feature/Function/Benefits” Pattern to Support Claims in a Sales or Design

Proposal

– Ex. “we introduced a recycle loop to heat the incoming stream and thereby reduce utilities costs, etc.”

Sample Organization of Presentation Topics

• Who you are, summary of benefits, what you will show

• Critical problems or aspects of project• How design or work addresses these aspects• How features affect costs• Qualifications, implementation issues• Request for approval

How to Focus on Essentials

• Strip away clutter in graphics, argument

• Build on what audience already knows

• Present one point at a time

• Preview, present, review

How to Simplify Argument

• Select the factors on which the decision will be based

• Select the key features that make your proposal respond to the decision factors

• Organize to support those points.

• Sample factors:– Increased total

profitability – Lowered utilities

costs– Achieved purity

requirements– Added innovative

technology

Avoid These Teams’ Problems

1. Failed to put their work in context2. Organized chronologically according to what

they did, rather than audience expectations3. Provided minimal analysis, often without

reference to specific engineering work 4. Omitted figures or provided completely

inadequate ones5. Offered opinions rather than data to support

Part Two

• Organizing a Team Presentation

• Enhancing Your Team’s Image

• Advanced Visual Design Choices

Good Teams

• Emphasize each person’s strengths• Use a leader to introduce and summarize• Make the message accessible• Reinforce and repeat content selectively

“As Charles said earlier, . . .”

“As Ann will show, . . . ”

Team’s Image Signals Oneness, Professional Agreement

• Coordinate your professional image - colors, styles of clothing

• Introduce one another as you “hand off” the speaking role

• Coordinate your speaking styles• Watch one another attentively

Good Delivery Also Builds Trust

• Word choice - suited to audience knowledge • Body language - open, assured• Voice pacing and pitch - slows down for key

statements, speeds up on details• Eye contact - direct and friendly• Delivery - enthusiastic but not nervous

Use “Invisible” Method to Relax

• Breathing S L O W L Y for 3 to 6 minutes– Changes the blood gas ratio in brain– Allows deep breaths, slow heart rate– After big relaxation moment, lasts 5 minutes– Seems invisible: No one knows

Part Three

• Organizing a Team Presentation

• Enhancing Your Team’s Image

• Advanced Visual Design Choices

Five Top Errors in Slides

• Too much information on slides• Confusing graphics• Illegible or hard to read - poor font choice or

point sizes too small• Insufficient to answer decision-makers’

questions• Information dominated by logos, “puff”

Your Turn

Which of the five problems do you recognize in the next slide?

Make Graphics Accessible

• Choose the right type of graphic – tables to present data– graphs to show meaning of data

• Use high-content headings• Ensure legibility with wise color

combinations and font choices• Eliminate 3-D effects, competing grid lines,

Tables Present Data

Hard to know what to notice!

Persuade with Graphs

• Label clearly• Display only relevant information• Set up expectations with topic plus claim in

the figure title

• Coordinate point sizes to indicate hierarchy and enable viewer to grasp information without refocusing

Data Presented by Tables, Interpreted by Graphs in a Published Report

Sample

How quickly can you comprehend the next slide?

What makes it easy or difficult?

Unexpected that there are 5 years between first four columns, one year thereafter

Title doesn’t tell what to notice about the sulfur dioxide emissions

Points don’t explain Phase 1 & 2

Cannot read points below and numbers on columns without refocusing

Use Color Combos Wisely

• Good legibility occurs when there is high contrast between text and background

– (dark versions of complementary colors on light versions)

• Avoid colors of equal intensities (saturations); they make edges hard to view

• Choose

– Light backgrounds for light rooms

– Dark backgrounds for dim rooms

Color Palettes

PRIMARY

SECONDARY

High Contrast Versions of Primary Colors Highly Legible

ABT Engineering ABT Engineering

Low Contrast Not Legible

ABT EngineeringABT Engineering

Choose Fonts for Legibility

• Sans serif fonts (Helvetica, Arial) have uniform shaft widths that are easier to see in large rooms, smaller point sizes

• Stand back from your computer five feet to test font size legibility when projected

• Both the largest and smallest letters on the screen should be readable without refocusing the eyes

Hydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood Profile

Hydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood ProfileHydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood Profile

Hydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood ProfileHydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood Profile

Compare Legibility of Font Choices and Type Treatments on Light Background

Arial Bold

Arial Outline

Times BoldHydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood ProfileHydrologic Analysis Confirms Flood Profile

Times Dropshadow

Ethics in Data Representation

– Intent to deceive = Intent to deceive = scientific fraudscientific fraud

– Distortion: Distortion: whenwhen visual visual representation is not representation is not consistent with consistent with numericalnumerical representationrepresentation

– VisualVisual representation = representation = perceivedperceived visual effect visual effect

• 3-dimensional graphs 3-dimensional graphs may fool the eyemay fool the eye

– Context is crucial Context is crucial (show enough (show enough data)data)

– Intent to deceive = scientific fraud

– Distortion: when visual representation is not consistent with numerical representation

– Visual representation = perceived visual effect

• 3-dimensional graphs may fool the eye

– Context is crucial (show enough data)

Uniform shaft width affects legibility,especially with small point size

Sans Serif: Arial 20 Serif: Times 20

Please attend to the legibility of the text

Use Fills for Drama

• Use with or without outline

• Watch for legible contrast between text color and changing background

Adjust Diagrams to Facilitate Understanding

• Simplify when needed for non-specialist audiences

• Use font size and colors to direct attention• Choose animations to allow audiences to

focus on portions of the whole

Show Sequence with Animations

Achieve Strong Team Status

• Unify the talks• Make argument comprehensible, accessible• Establish your professional credibility

through words, body language, and advanced visuals

• Practice team interaction for poise, calm

In Summary

More resources are available for you

• under “Engineering Communication” at Connexions at http://cnx.org

• at the Cain Project site at http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj

• in your course Communication Folder in OWLSPACE.

Lead through Excellence in Engineering Communication