This morning I received an invite to the Industrial Design Communications 2 Digital Folio presentations, which is a class run for the first years at RMIT ID. Although I was supposed to be spending this morning preparing a presentation of my latest piece of design work (which is happening next Thursday) and it was only an hour before the presentations was going to start, I figured hey why not. I’ll get out and see what they taught this year’s first years.
The format of the presentation went as follows – each person presenting had 30 seconds to get up and talk about a project in their folio while a PDF of their folio scrolled through behind them. This turned out to be a very interesting exercise as while they had spent the semester being taught “Design Communications” which apparently included everything from sketching to tech drawing. However the lecturer had neglected to teach/inform them of, one key communication skill that they need, Oral Presentation. Of course to be fair they are first years and we can’t expect them to be aces at this straight away (Although it is the end of their first year? So can we?), however it did set my brain thinking and I thought about all the presentations I have seen done by designers – some professional, some students – in the past year and a large number of presenters exhibit the same key mistakes when doing a presentation.
Its seems to me that a lot of designers forget that their communication toolkit MUST include the ability to be able to speak about their ideas and concepts in a confident way.
So following are some presentation tips/things you may want to work on or do before your next presentation.
1. Prepare – Make sure you know your topic/idea/concept inside and out. Some people like to prepare a whole speech, others cue cards – whatever you preferred method – practice it.
2. Do not use filler words – filler words are words such as “um” or “ah”. Remember its ok to pause while you are presenting. A good way to deal with pauses it to have a glass of water next to you when you are presenting – if you need to take a pause and collect your thoughts pick up the glass and take a sip. But remember you should not pause too long. A good way to eliminate filler words when you present is to record yourself when you practice and then listen to it.
3. Do not fold your arms over your chest – when people are feeling uncomfortable the will fold their arms across their chest. In a presentation the audience will, unconsciously, disconnect from you if you stand their with your arms folded as it puts a barrier between you and them. As does standing behind a lectern.
4. Be enthusiastic about your topic, even if you are not. If you appear to be enthusiastic about your concept/topic then others will be.
5. Breathe – when those nerves set in take a few deep breathes.
6. DO NOT read straight from your notes/cue cards. If you do you will inadvertently face down into your paper/cards and not at your audience, creating a disconnect between yourself and them.
7. Don’t put your back to the audience or stand behind them. This, like facing into your piece of paper or having your arms folded, disconnects you from the audience.
8. Lastly if you are using digital slides to present -
- NEVER EVER EVER put slabs of text on them or overload them with too much information.
- DO NOT read directly from the slides.
Well I hope that you learnt something from my rambling on presenting, even if you are a seasoned professional in the presentation department, and if you are a lecturer of Industrial Design don’t forget to teach your students about proper oral presentation.
Below are some great links and resources to further refine your presentation skills.
Presentations by Steve Jobs – He is a master of presentation, watch him present and you’ll learn some great tricks.
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
Steve Jobs Pitching a Startup
Pitch Club
The Hive – Rock along to check out some awesome entrepreneur focused presentations
Pitching Do’s and Do not’s
Don’t forget to keep up with the the the latest articles, tips, news and reviews on design droplets via the design droplets RSS feed.
