Writting presentations

Today I am having a real memory block. I am trying to write my presentation for the short paper that I submitted to ALT-C back in February, right at the start of the project. It seems an age ago and the usability research I did back then seems to have filtered out of my ears and been replaced with all the other information that I am collecting as the project progresses.

However, in having to revisit the project documents it has highlighted that this is a reusable model that I have created. As we get closer to having WebPA piloted at other institutions, it has highlighted that we need repeat the usability testing with our partner institution. Even though the model is geared up to using approximately 5 users I think it is worth doing with each institution, no matter the number of users available.

So here I am, writing my Blog and avoiding getting this presentation right. May be I will leave it till tomorrow and look at it with fresh eyes. But getting back to this presentation. I have only 15 mins to try and convey not only the research and reasons that back up this method, but also the method itself. I am also a great believer that the slide in a presentation should not be just solid text. Following HCI rules that are relevant to usability of either software or even presentations in this case 7 +/- 2 items seems to be a good guide. Another good guide is to take the number of minutes that you have to present in and divide by two. All of this means that I only have maybe 7 or 8 slides, of which there should be no more that 9 points. As you can see I have set myself the most unrealistic target to start with. But I still don't think I can get everything included in. So why I am writingwriting it this early! Especially as in two weeks or so I will have completely forgotten everything I have written today. Right back to the presentation before home.