Presenting a Technology Analysis The Context and Your Delivery ENGINEERING SERIES The Cain Project...

Presenting a Technology Analysis

The Context and Your Delivery

ENGINEERING SERIES

The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication

CTOs’ Qualifications

Good CTOs understand

• the company’s situation and industry

• how to apply technical knowledge

• how to interact with others efficiently

CTOs are identified for future jobs early on

• Learning presentation skills on the job is too late

• COMP 694 will insist on a high level of performance

Technology Officer’s Value

• Reduces uncertainties for firm

• Makes the audience feel smart about causes and consequences

• Answers questions “two levels down”

• Partly an outsider

• Reassures audience

A CTO’s Internal Audiences

• Need comprehension for good decisions

• Feel high uncertainty acutely

• Are sensitive about their own ignorance

• Have little time to learn

• May have less technical background

A CTO’s External Audiences

• Need comprehension for interpretation

• Feel entitled to clear, short, explanations

• May have less technical background

• Include press, investors, competitors, etc.

• Have little time to learn QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Key Communication Challenge

To remember what it was like not to know

Uniting Content and Delivery

• Organizing Content for Listeners

• Reinforcing with Delivery

• Reinforcing with Visual Cues

How Audience Listens

• Creates expectations about purpose

• Creates “mental hooks” or questions

• Chunks new information

• Interprets new information on basis of prior understanding

Organize to Fit Audience Processes

How Speaker Adapts

• Elicits expectations

• Suggests “mental hooks” or questions

• Chunks new information

• Builds on audience’s prior understanding

• Warns when old understanding differs from new technology’s features


Basic Organizational Structures

• Benefits

• Features

• Functions / Process


• Benefits

• Process of

– Feature1 + Function1

– Feature2 + Function2

Technology Presentations Criteria

• Accessible

• Comprehensible

• Usable

• Personally engaging

• Culturally appropriate

Meet Criteria Through Design

• Accessible

• Comprehensible

• Usable

• Interpersonally engaging

• Culturally appropriate

• Overall design

• Reinforcement

– Content

– Delivery

– Visuals

• Colors, words, and images that meet audience preferences

CRITERIA

How to Increase Accessibility

• Organize from known to unknown

– Visuals

– Metaphors and acronyms

– Stories

– Diagrams

• Use message headings or verbal cues

• Reinforce spoken words with visuals

How to Increase Comprehensibility

• Establish a context for audience

• Give “soundbite” or Main Claim early

• Explicitly link reasons or sub-claims to main claim at beginning of new section

• Define terms as you introduce them

• Use visuals to reinforce connections or give overviews

How to Increase Usability

• Select content related to audiences’ main questions

• Give “soundbite” or Main Claim early

• Organize according to listeners’ intended use - give product feature list, handouts

• Define terms as you introduce them

How to Engage Others

First impression - build connections

– Look at audience before you speak

– Smile, show goodwill

– Don’t read, know your first few sentences

– Look at individuals

– Have an open stance, arms casually positioned

How to Instill Confidence

• Don’t read

• Look at PPT on computer, not on wall

• Begin each sentence looking at the audience

• Show certainty by ending sentences with downward voice contour – Upward contour indicates a question, in English it

shows uncertainty

– Don’t speak a fact or claim as you would speak a question

Speak to Aid Comprehension

• Vary speed to separate levels of importance– Slow down for key points

– Speed up for details

• Tuck in definitions for unfamiliar terms

• Pause before new sections of your presentation or between points

• Repeat cues about talk organization

Emphasize with Voice Variation

• Emphasize key terms

• Vary speed and pitch

• Stress transitions, logical signals

– “On the other hand . . . “

– “Notice the difference . . .”

– “Nevertheless, . . .“

– “Two years ago . . . . But in the future . . .”

Convey Character with Voice

• Expresses intellectual enthusiasm

• Indicates seriousness, concern

• Reflects mastery of material, expertise

• Should “go with” dress, stance, and other aspects of appearance

Reinforcing Content with Visuals

Organize with Blank Space

• Blank Space: An empty area

• Directs viewer’s eyes

• “Pushes” or groups items and separates them from others

Identifygroups of items separated by BlankSpace in this Web Site

Design Rules

Choose Colors for Legibility

Well-lit room:

use light background/ dark text & visuals

Dimly-lit room: use dark background/ light text & visuals

Strong light reduces contrast on dark background

Design Rules

Avoid Vibrating Colors

Bright complementary colors

that are close to each other in intensity

“vibrate” or reduce legibility

Design Rules

Choose Easy-to-Read Fonts

Good for print

ESerif

(Letters have “tails”Shaft width varies)

Good for projecting

ESans Serif

(Uniform shaft width)

Design Rules

Font Aspects Affect Legibility

• Contrast between background and text

• Uniform shaft width

• Size of font

• Type treatment of font

S S32 pts Times Arial

Drop ShadowsDrop ShadowsReduce Legibility

Design Rules

Use Text Properly

• Use keywords instead of sentences

• Avoid “orphans” – This is an example of an

“orphan”

• Be consistent in your capitalization

• Use grammatical parallelism

Design Rules

Use Short Phrases

• Write complete sentences rarely; use with – Hypothesis

– Questions

– Quotations

• Generate clear, accurate phrases

• Use slide show as an outline, not as a word-for-word script

Design Rules

Parallelism Comprehension

• Makes text easy for audience to skim

• Creates logical coherence through grammatical, spatial equivalence

Design Rules

Use Parallelism Equivalence

Parallel:

• Use keywords

• Avoid wordiness

• Opt for bullets

Not Parallel:

• Use keywords

• Wordiness is bad

• You should opt

for bulletsEach verb expresses an action of equivalent importance.

List similar items in the same grammatical form.

VERBS

Design Rules

Displaying Visuals

• Insert needed visuals

• Use color

• Resize appropriately

• Draw attention

Design Rules

Use Legible Graphics

• Don’t stretch them to the point of graininess

• Don’t shrink them to be too small to read

Design Rules

Offer Familiar Images First

• Offer figure or image familiar to audience first

• Technical image next

• Electronic voting machine example of familiar image

Design Rules

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor


Offer Context Images for New Technologies

• User operating a nanopatterning device

• From http://www.molecularimprints.com/ viewed on May 12, 2008

Design Rules



http://www.molecularimprints.com/

Show Overview Sequences NextSchematic of Imprint Lithography developed at U. Texas Austin

[ Note: The fused silica surface, coated with a release layer, is pressed into a thin layer of low viscosity, silicon-containing monomer. When illuminated by a UV lamp, the surface is polymerized into a solid layer. Upon separation of the fused silica template, the circuit pattern is left on the wafer surface. A residual layer of polymer between features is eliminated by an etch process, and a perfect replica of the pattern is ready to be used in semi-conductor processing.]



Very Technical Images Last

• Build toward technical understanding

• Sequence: Photo / diagram/ schematic/ cross-sections/other technical images

Design Rules



The S-FIL® imprint mask and substrate are in liquid contact due to the low viscosity imprint solution, which also behaves as a lubricant.

Combined image types in sequence diagram

Templates for step and plate imprint lithography http://www.molecularimprints.com/Technology/templates.html



Animating: Tips

Use animation purposefully (and sparingly!)

– Animating should help audience comprehend your message

– Don’t animate solely for aesthetic purposes

Design RulesQuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

Animate to show sequence

• Don’t stretch them to the point of graininess

Design Rules



Animate to Direct Attention

Also see video animation at http://www.net-gmbh.com/

Design Rules



http://www.net-gmbh.com/e/fpc_9600.shtml

http://www.net-gmbh.com/

Choose Effects Judiciously

• Avoid slow moving or fancy effects:

– Swivel effect– Spiral effect

• Effects should have a point/support your message

• Don’t overuse special effects

– Crawl in effect

• Keep effects and transitions consistent

Design Rules

Test Presentation with Others

• Show draft PPTs

• Combine media to provide multiple ways of relating to your material

• Watch for difficulties, errors

• Practice talk

Ask for process feedback

Allow time for review and revision

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

http://cnx.org/

http://cnx.org/

http://cnx.org/

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj






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