Visual Annotation

I don’t agree with everything Dr. Abela says but he does have some strong points. He’s repeating some of the concepts we’ve talked about before-

• Purify your slides
• No useless transitions or animations
• Use lots of graphics and little text

He also advises using only black and white unless you’re using color to emphasize a point in the slide. Dr. Abela feels that lessens the cognitive load on the view who will be trying to apply a rationale to your color choice (even if there is no rationale). I’m not sure I’ll go that far as I feel that color plays a role in the audience’s engagement and the proper use of color tends to make your presentation appear more professional.

The Key to Moving People is Moving People « Chalkdust101

Sitting in Estes’ presentation, I learned that I have not been nearly observant enough of my audience; your audience and being able to read them and redirect them through the use of movement, storytelling, and, of all things, touch, determines the success or failure of your message. Information without reflection and discussion does nothing for learners. Give them the chance to hash out what you are saying and clarify it for one another and you stand a much better chance of making a difference in their learning.

Some really great presentation tips regarding some things that are rarely done in presentations- human touch and movement.

Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theory

[H]ere’s a crash course on some of our favorite learning techniques gleaned from cognitive science, learning theory, neuroscience, psychology, and entertainment (including game design). Much of it is based around courses I designed and taught at UCLA Extension’s New Media/Entertainment Studies department.

Well worth checking out.

Virtual Hosting Blog » Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies

Eye-tracking studies are hot in the web design world, but it can be hard to figure out how to translate the results of these studies into real design implementations. These are a few tips from eye-tracking studies that you can use to improve the design of your webpage.

While focused on web design a lot of these points can easily apply to presentation slides as well.