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Showing posts from August, 2012

Improve your slides using icons

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Last week I briefly mentioned the Icon Representation Principle. Let's dig in a bit further. According to Lidwell, Holden and Butler (LHB) the use of pictorial images makes easier to learn and remember concepts .  They list  4 classes of iconic representation: Similar icons . Images that are visually analogous to an action, object or concept. They are most efficient to represent a simple concept.  Example icons . Images that exemplify or are commonly associated with a concept. They are useful to represent complex concepts.  Symbolic icons . Images that represent a concept at a high level of abstraction. Mostly efficient when involved concept involves well-established and easily recognizable objects.   Arbitrary Icons  So much for the theory, let's go to the example. If you are interested in more check out their book Universal Principle of Design . The prime idea of the slide is to show the  4 dimensions that constitute the argumentation competence according to Grundler

Batch of visual resources

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It's summer and I though it would be nice to spend more time outside, so I'll change the format of the post today.      A Book: Universal Principles of Design This is a great read. There is a lot of good scientific supported advice on how to improve a presentation. From the visual to the organization and cognitive front. You don't have to be a psychologist or a industrial design to understand and enjoy it. I counted at least 20 principles that directly apply to presentations. For example the Picture Superiority Effect and Iconic Representation which leads me to... Links to get images and icons The Morgue Files offers stock-photography-quality images from free, even for commercial purposes. TinEyes Lab provides a Flickr search by color. The Noun Project "collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world's visual language." Another item  in Universal Principles of Design is the Signal-to-Noise Rati

Turn rocket science into the Rocket Man: Scientific and presentation writing. Part 1.

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Finding the right words and connecting with the audience are two problems scientific communicators face.  One way the overcome this problem is to turn scientific writing into presentation writing.   One of the smartest things I have read in the last weeks about presentation was Great presentations rely on great writing.                         — John Rode, Slide Rocket Great writing implies clear thinking, thoughtful structure, and respect for the audience, among many other things. No wonder great writing is hard work, really hard work. Professors and young researchers know this. In fact they strive to achieve excellence in scientific writing. And here is where the problem starts: Scientific writing is not the same as presentation writing. Last week Gavin MacMahon offered a free webinar on the 6 different types of presenters there are The storyteller and the coach The counselor and the teacher The inventor and the coordinator, their strengths and weakness and h