PowerPoint Presentations

I find it interesting that this paper, “The Structure of PowerPoint Presentations: The Art of Grasping Things Whole”, which analyzes Jean-luc Doumont’s guidelines for presentations, finds that the only principals that are generally followed are the design of individual slides.  So, I will focus on this.  In fact, I found that most of what he said about individual slides is something that I also agree with.

The first of his three principles is that it is better to have a good presentation with no slides than to have a presentation accompanied by bad slides.  This just make sense logically.  Bad slides end up being distracting for the audience, and we want the audience listening to what the speaker is saying, not being distracted by bad slides.

Second, he states that the message should be presented clearly and with as little text as possible.  It should be very little text supported by visual evidence.  This is something that I have had said to me a lot, and I agree that it works very well.  This principle is good, because not only does it keep the audience from only reading the slides and not listening to the speaker, but it also helps the speaker avoid reading directly off of the slides.

Lastly is a principle that I don’t quite agree with.  He says that words on slides should be in complete sentences.  I feel that it is often better to avoid doing this, because, like I said before, the audience will read the slide and begin to ignore the speaker.

In my groups final presentation, we plan to break it up into these parts:  introduction, process, sprints, demo, and conclusion.  One group member will cover each part, and their part will be something that they feel most comfortable and knowledgeable with presenting.  Because our project does not have a user interface, we will first go through our prototype, which is a Prezi we put together last semester.  This will give the audience a basic understanding of our project, before we demo.  The demo will consist of running the face recognition software on the command line.  We hope that our audience will walk away with a good understanding what our project is and why it is useful.

Social Nature of Technical Communication

There are a lot of ways in which the reading, “Science as a Social Enterprise”, correlates with work in computer science.  For one thing, it states that “Collaboration and cooperation both within and across disciplines and professions are essential to the development of scientific theories, research, and knowledge.”  This is absolutely true for computer science.  A programmer will obviously be working with other computer scientists on different projects, so it is very important that the communication between these people within the discipline of computer science is well-developed and well-understood.  Otherwise, the project will simply not work.  In addition to having good communication within a discipline, computer scientists must be able to present their work to people who do know have the same technical skill as themselves.  This could be a manager, client, or even the media if necessary.  Knowing how to properly communicate with these different groups of people is very important.  Otherwise, there is a chance that they will misunderstand what the project is about.  A manager or client might start to think the project is moving in the wrong direction and scrap it.  but, even worse, the media might misrepresent the product and customers might get the wrong idea about what they are purchasing.

Needless to say, it is very important to have proper technical communication when communicating with different groups of people.

Progress Reports

I have had to write progress reports before in my work as a computer science major.  This is something that must be done fairly often in the job world.  However, the ones I have written have tended to be very informal in comparison to the superstructure that the book describes.

The book describes that the superstructure of a progress report should include multiple sections.  The first is an introduction which gives a basic overview including the purpose of the work.  Second, is a facts and discussion section which includes both a past and future work subsection.  Finally, there is a conclusions and recommendations section, which is used to tell the reader how the writer thinks we should move forward.

Progress reports I have written have focused only on having a facts and discussion section that doesn’t always include a future work section.  I organized my progress reports in a way that made sense, but just dove right into what I was doing rather than explaining the reasoning behind doing so.  I realize after reading this chapter of the book that I need to focus more on making sure the reader has a complete understanding of my work, even if they are coming in completely blind to the work that I am doing.

Revising Drafts

Image from the book listing draft revision techniques.

I think that the comments from the book about how to revise drafts in an effective way are very useful.  A number of the techniques listed in the image above are things I often do.  First of all, I always take some time away from the draft after it has been written. Then, I like to make sure it makes sense to my readers, which includes my peers and professors.  I find that doing so helps me get a different perspective on what my readers want.  One thing I don’t think I have tried in the past is reading my draft multiple times while focusing on different issues.  I never thought about doing this, but now that I read this in the book, I can see how this can be useful, and it is something I will try when revising my papers in the future.

This book also makes great comments on giving and receiving feedback that everyone should know and strive to achieve.  It is very important to take feedback and criticism with grace and no backlash.  It is important just to accept what they have said, and consider if and how the paper should be improved from this.  If someone is giving wrong feedback, there is no reason to stifle them.  It is best to simply listen to what they have to say and go from there.

On the vein of receiving feedback, I find that I use a lot of the techniques the book mentions.  For example, it is always important to start off with something positive and to generally phrase all constructive feedback in a positive way.  Someone is much more likely to listen to feedback if it is presented in a positive and constructive way.

Creating Reader-Centered Graphics

Comparing Two Different Types of Graphics

The following two graphics are from a paper on warehouse storage and product management:

These two graphics both seem to be showing the comparison of two variables.  In this case, both are showing how the total inventory in a warehouse may be distributed over time.  In the article, both graphics appear in the same place to help show that a dedicated and random (class-based) storage policy is optimal.  So, the location of these graphics are good as they help the reader understand why the class-based policy is best.  However, the graph on the right seems like the wrong type for this kind of situation.  If they are trying to show a change over time, a line graph, such as the one on the left, is more appealing.  It does a much better job of grabbing the reader’s attention and portraying the information in a quick and easy to understand manner.  Another thing they both do well, for the most part, is providing plenty of information without giving too much detail that crowds the graphs. The titles are very informative, while the names of the variables are kept short and to the point.  However, the line and column names might be too brief.  It isn’t too clear what A, B, and C mean when just looking at the graphics.  In context with the paper, it is made clear that these are classes of storage, but it would be more helpful to the reader if this was also specified in the graphics.  In terms of color, the graphic on the left does a great job of using contrasting colors to make it clear which line is which as they cross over one another.  Although the table at the right lacks color, the addition of any colors wouldn’t support the reader’s understanding of the graphic.  The lack of color there is an effective strategy.

Guidelines for Creating Effective Graphics

Tables.  Look table from the previous section.  There are a few things this tables does right and wrong.  It starts out with a table number and an informative title, but is is lacking units.  It is not quite clear that these are inventory numbers, and even if it was, are the units in hundreds of packages or just packages.  Although the data in this table should likely be represented as a line graph instead, the rows and columns are ordered in a useful way, sequentially from 1 to 10 and A to C respectively.

Line Graphs.  Look at the line graph from the previous section.  This graphic seems to do most things right.  The one missing thing is the source, but in the context of this paper, this graph has been created for use as an example of what a class-based storage policy might mean.  Perhaps a note could have been included to identify the graph as an example.  Beyond this, every other aspect of the graph seems perfect for its intention.  The row and column headers are clear, although it might be better if they had units.  The only reason it may be okay this time is given the fact that this visual was created solely for example.  As mentioned before, the color contrast and labeling is all done very well.  It also correctly contains a figure number and title.  The tick-marks along the edges also follow protocol.

Flowcharts.  Take a look at this flowchart on the left.  This is a very simple flowchart, but it does many things well.  The point of the chart is to show how inventory flows through a warehouse.  It has a well-placed title, and it effectively uses arrows to show how packages travel.  One thing it is lacking is a variance of symbols to signify what different types of steps there are.  Although each step is properly labeled, multiple symbols or possibly even drawings that signify what each step is would make this flow chart more effectively convey the point it is trying to make.

Drawings.  The drawing above is being used as example of a warehouse for distributing goods.  The point is to show what all exists in a distribution center.  There are good and bad things with this drawing.  The labeling is all done fairly well and it is clear what the different section are.  However, the forklifts in the isles is a bit distracting.  They seems to take away from the point of the drawing a little bit.  The coloring, on the other hand, is perfect for grabbing the reader’s attention to show them what is important in the picture.

Screenshots.  The screenshot above perfectly describes someone of the features in this application.  It is cropped perfectly and only shows the window that needs to be viewed.  In addition to this, the many parts of the application are labeled very well.  It is very clear what everything is on the screen.  It even shows a few easy steps to switch to another view.  The only downside there could be is that the icons are little small on the screen.  Otherwise, this is a great screenshot.

Organizational Charts.  The organizational chart above is used to show how different devices are tied together and communicate.  It does a great job of helping the reader understand the structure of the system.  This chart is not as formal as an organizational chart that is meant to show the structure of a business.  This one does a great job of using images to help the reader visualize the system, meanwhile, a business structure would likely be more formal using plain boxes as opposed to pictures.

Schedule Charts.  The schedule chart above is what is known as a Gantt chart.  There are a few good things about this one, but there are also a few issues.  It fails to mark major releases with a diamond, and it also doesn’t have clear subtasks for each project phase. Besides these issues, it does a good job of using the bars and arrows to show the order in which the tasks should be completed in a critical path.

Photographs.  The photograph above is used to show what kind of hardware exists within a computer.  An image, like the one above, should include labels to point out what each part of the computer is.  It is quite clear what the layout of this computer is from the image.  The labels are positioned perfectly with indicators that do not cover up any important parts of the image.  One downside to this photograph is the fact that the lack of a surrounding could make it difficult to find this piece of hardware if it is located within a larger system.

Pie Charts.  The pie chart to the right is used to show what the top teaching languages in some online courses are.  There are some good and bad things about this image.  It should have a figure number, but it is labeled as a table instead.  Beyond that, it is quite clear what the pie chart is trying to show.  There is no distortion given that it is a two-dimensional image, and the pieces of the pie are clearly labeled with contrasting colors.  It also properly begins the largest wedge in the twelve o-clock position.

Fleet Driver Facial Recognition Software

Facial recognition is one of the many up-and-coming fields of computer science. There are a number of companies that are using it both commercially and for research.  Alongside this trend, we are currently working on a project that utilizes this technology to simplify fleet vehicle driver tracking.

Fleet Vehicle Drivers

Big shipping companies have a large fleet of vehicles and drivers that drive shipments all over the country.  These companies must keep track of the vehicles and their drivers to assure that the right person is driving each vehicle.  In the past, drivers have had to carry key fobs to confirm their identity, but this can be expensive.  Many companies are moving toward adding forward and cabin-facing cameras for use on the road.  With the proper facial recognition technology, these cameras can be utilized for driver recognition which will cut down on cost.

Facial Recognition

The idea for this project is to have a database of faces for each customer to register their drivers with.  Then, when someone gets into the driver’s seat, the cabin-facing camera captures the person’s face and compares it to the proper driver’s face in the database.  If there isn’t a match, it will then alert the company that the wrong person may be driving that vehicle.  This will be useful in preventing everything from hijackings to drivers accidentally going to the wrong vehicle.

Project Team

We are very excited for this project.  Our team has had a focus on various fields of computer science for a number of years.  Some of us already have experience with computer vision and image recognition which is very helpful in getting us started. Between the lot of us, we have participated in the development of a number of different projects ranging from video game development to other various database and web applications.  We are a dedicated group that is very excited to bring this product to fruition.

Workplace Communication

In order for any workplace to be successful, there must be an effective means of
communication.  Email is used in almost every workplace.  A recent New York
Times article reports that Amazon has very strict standards for email as well as a harsh culture in which coworkers can criticize one another.  The stress associated this type of work environment can only serve as a detriment to productivity and will lead to an unhappy workforce.

Email

The ideal workplace environment should be void of stressful communication practices.  One of the strikes against Amazon is the idea that employees need to be able to respond to emails after work hours.  This creates a very poor work-life balance, meaning employees will always have work on their minds.  Email would be best served as a workplace-only medium for communication.  In the case of emergencies and needing to contact someone ASAP, it would be best to give them a phone call.

Instant Messaging

The formality of the workplace can lead to added, unnecessary stress.  Many
companies have implemented Instant Messaging (IM) systems which make communication feel less formal and more inviting.  IM is much more efficient than email, which leads to better productivity during the workday.  This increase in productivity also helps to alleviate the need to answer email after work hours, which promotes a better work-life balance.

Coworker Feedback

Coworker reviews can be a touchy subject.  To avoid creating conflict, it is best to give feedback in as constructive a manner as possible.  In the ideal work environment, this would be done with a form that has as little structure as possible.  This would allow employees to truly open up and speak their minds, and it should also mitigate the possibility of receiving misleading responses from multiple-choice questions.

Work itself is already often stressful, so why have the added stress of poor standards of communication?