2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Scientific Presentation: Clear Thinking Made Visible

With every figure, slide, and talk, we are building a scientific case – perhaps for the existence of a particle, for the necessity of a policy, or simply for the validity of a control. While we often focus exclusively on the content of that case, the structure of the material is critical for the content to be understood. Yet many of our common practices in presenting information actually obscure the main message. In this workshop, presenters will discuss fundamental principles for structuring information that apply at all scales, from the lone data figure to the entire talk. Attendees will learn how to apply principles of attention and visual design to turn presentations into what Edward Tufte calls “clear thinking made visible.”