7 deadly text-related sins in presentations | Hacker News Reader

7 deadly text-related sins in presentations

blog.niftio.com

33 pointsRoxanaEftene13 comments

I see 7 words: "Database Error" in the tab header (page title) and "Error establishing a database connection" in the page content.

I read the cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

Yes, if that's a sin, it's hardly a deadly one.

This mistake makes the text not only hard to read, but prevents the audience from seeing the text at all. [1]

If that doesn't quality as deadly sin, what would qualify? How much worse could it be?

[1] So they need to reach out for different sources like archive.org and/or Google cache for the rescue.

I'd classify it as a deadly sin - because I can't see the content.

I concur, from the cached version:

"5. YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE YOUR AUDIENCE FEEL WRATH WITH UNREADABILITY"

This turns out to be an article about design, not content. Somewhat off topic: What I was expecting to see was "DON'T JUST READ OUT YOUR SLIDES TO THE AUDIENCE VERBATIM." (A favorite presentation-watching pasttime of mine is seeing how closely I can lip-sync with the speaker, who is basically doing the audiobook of what's written on the screen.)

Also "DON'T POINT TO YOUR TEXT WITH A LASER POINTER." Unless it's karaoke, when it might be OK.

By all means, point to details on your diagrams; just resist the temptation to point to your bulleted text lists.

Would be great if people who have their presentations posted online afterward didn't use a laser pointer at all unless it's going to somehow show up in that content as well. There are countless lectures online that have this problem where you're left in the dark as to what the presenter is referring to because of this.

I feel like services like speakerdeck encourage this type of bad behavior, as people are trying to build decks that can be flipped through after the actual presentation. A deck that presents well with a speaker to a live audience != a deck you can read on your own and follow easily.

They should at the very least have a spot for expanded speaker notes on those sites.

The most deadly text-related sin I guess in any presentation, is where the text displayed moves the focus of your audience away from you and the topic. I've seen enough presentations where the speaker is usually just re-reading the text on the display. That to me is not presentation, but rather becomes a reading class.

Database Error - "We wasn't readyyyyy :("

I am still shocked that people can't keep blogs up and running while on the front page of HN. The cheapest VPS with enough bandwidth and a default-configured NGINX is easily enough. For some reason, blogs now need database connections to display basic content.

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