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6.10 Animate Your Graphs
Understanding a graph takes time. Even for very smart people familiar with your
work. Often times, speakers are deep into explaining critical findings from their
graph, while the audience is still trying to figure out the basics (what is being plotted, what’s on each axis, the units, the legend). We are thus back with a scenario
where the audience is no longer listening to the speaker and rather find him/her
annoying. My strong advice is to ANIMATE your graphs:
• First introduce the axes with axes names and units, without any data yet. You can
even introduce only one axis at a time
• With the axes defined, introduce only one set of data at a time
• For instance, if you compare results from three different experimental configurations, introduce only one at a time with its corresponding legend
• Spend as much time as needed prior to proceeding with the next data set (animate
as slowly as needed)
• Introduce trend lines after you have introduced the data points
• To emphasize specific data points, do not use the laser pointer (Sect. 13.4).
Instead, animate some circles or other geometrical figures or pointing arrows to
emphasize your data
• Consider making some data disappear after you have discussed it, to avoid cluttering your graph when introducing additional data that does not require the previous one to still be seen
Advantages of animating graphs:
• The audience is not overwhelmed by too much info flashed at once
• The audience is guided through all basic elements of the graphs, in an appropriate sequence determined by the speaker
• Verbal explanations are provided at the same time as visual information is introduced (see Sect. 2.2)
Don’t think you are treating your audience like kids when you take the time to
slowly introduce your graphs. Quite the contrary, you are demonstrating respect!
Two examples are shown on the next page, where the graphs are introduced in 4
distinct steps each.
6 Graphs
6.10 Animate Your Graphs
Understanding a graph takes time. Even for very smart people familiar with your
work. Often times, speakers are deep into explaining critical findings from their
graph, while the audience is still trying to figure out the basics (what is being plotted, what’s on each axis, the units, the legend). We are thus back with a scenario
where the audience is no longer listening to the speaker and rather find him/her
annoying. My strong advice is to ANIMATE your graphs:
• First introduce the axes with axes names and units, without any data yet. You can
even introduce only one axis at a time
• With the axes defined, introduce only one set of data at a time
• For instance, if you compare results from three different experimental configurations, introduce only one at a time with its corresponding legend
• Spend as much time as needed prior to proceeding with the next data set (animate
as slowly as needed)
• Introduce trend lines after you have introduced the data points
• To emphasize specific data points, do not use the laser pointer (Sect. 13.4).
Instead, animate some circles or other geometrical figures or pointing arrows to
emphasize your data
• Consider making some data disappear after you have discussed it, to avoid cluttering your graph when introducing additional data that does not require the previous one to still be seen
Advantages of animating graphs:
• The audience is not overwhelmed by too much info flashed at once
• The audience is guided through all basic elements of the graphs, in an appropriate sequence determined by the speaker
• Verbal explanations are provided at the same time as visual information is introduced (see Sect. 2.2)
Don’t think you are treating your audience like kids when you take the time to
slowly introduce your graphs. Quite the contrary, you are demonstrating respect!
Two examples are shown on the next page, where the graphs are introduced in 4
distinct steps each.
6 Graphs