PPD Feedback

After presenting my final PPD presentation in front of a quarter of the class there were quite a few pointers that I took away from the session that would help me in future public speaking. As I had never made a PowerPoint presentation before, well not since high school where it was all about the amount of flashing animations and cheesy fade ins and outs, I struggled to come up with a basic layout. I knew that I wanted it to be well structured, to make the whole experience easier, and I didn’t want just black text on a white background. I worked to create an approach that would flow throughout all the slides, and also inject some colour, bringing an upbeat feel to a task that I quite frankly hate doing.

After the morning session it was brought to my attention that there was far too much text on the slides, something that I definitely agree with. When I get nervous I tend to panic and almost over prepare, therefore overcompensating with text. It was also brought to my attention that there should be some sort of design context visible, an aspect that I had not thought about. Obviously I have been influenced by many people over the last year, I just couldn’t find a way of putting all of them in at some point, because each project has been so different it would be a hard to display an example of what inspired me at that time. Hopefully the amount of posts I have put onto my DC blog will stand me in good stead, and display to the tutors that it’s not as if I haven’t been doing it.

Over all the experience wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, but to be completely honest I am probably the least confident person you will ever meet. I find it hard to talk in a group of three, let alone fifteen. So no matter how much I continue to practice I will always find it difficult, and I don’t think that’s something that’s ever going to disappear. I am shy, it’s always been part of me, its not going to change over night. And at the end of the day it affects me more than it does anyone else. I’m not making excuses, I’m simply stating that public speaking is not everyone’s forte; I hope I am not judged poorly because of this.