No matter the forthcoming reason to present your research, it can be a daunting task! Whether you are going to a conference, you are presenting in a classroom, or you are talking business, it's just going to be hard for you to prepare for. Aside from collecting and organizing your data and building slides, your presentation should be a thoughtful narrative that eloquently and logically takes your audience through your findings. One of the most effective ways to do just that is to storyboard your research before you even start your presentation. Storyboarding, as most likely you have seen produced in movies, is a wonderful way to see the content flow of your research presentation together and ultimately ensures that there is clarity, coherence, and engagement in your synthesized narrative. In this blog, we will explore the importance of storyboarding your research presentation, the steps involved, and practical points to help you think about and develop this skill.
The Importance of Storyboarding in Research Presentations
Simply, storyboarding is planning. Storyboarding is a visual embodiment of your presentation that allows you to explore your ideas and to organize your story. Storyboards are different from typical outlines because they utilize a sequence of panels or frames to show how the sections or points link together. Whereas an outline is either sequential or written text (or both), in a storyboard, panels can be visually linked to one another. Creating a storyboard can help you visually note holes, redundancies, or emphasis in your presentation.
Storyboarding can be particularly helpful for research presentations because it requires you to think about the story you want to tell. Research is complicated and heavy with data; without structure, it is easy for you to lose your audience or have them overwhelmed. You can think of the storyboard as somewhat of a map that guides your audience along from the introduction to the conclusion, and that the key messages you wanted to convey are seen in both your outline and the storyboard journey.
A storyboard also allows you to plan, consider your audience, and plan for their needs. When you put your presentation on paper or a digital tool to see how your presentation flows as a series of events, it becomes simpler to anticipate your audience engagement. You will be able to see the points that might require further explanation or of relevant to your examples, or overview details that you can illustrate with a visual. A productive storyboard results in a better presentation experience for both you and your audience.
Understanding the Storyboarding Process
Storyboarding your research presentation involves several distinct stages, each designed to help you clarify your message and refine your delivery. The process begins with understanding your audience and objectives, moves through organizing your content, and culminates in creating a visual representation of your presentation.
Knowing Your Audience and Objectives
If there is one thing you should do prior to storyboarding, it is to start to consider your audience, and specifically, what you want your audience to take away from the presentation. Are you presenting to experts or to the general public, who may not have the same background knowledge as practitioners? Are you simply informing, persuading, or advocating for action? The answer will fundamentally change how deep you might go, how you present your visual notes, and the composition.
For instance, if you are presenting to fellow researchers, you might present from a methodology and data analysis perspective; however, you might be giving the same presentation to policymakers and be focused on implications or recommendations. Understanding clear objectives and knowing your audience enables you to organize with the viewer in mind.
Organizing Your Content
Once you have an audience and goals, you will need to plan out your material. Identify where your most important material lies. This may include your research question, the research you have already completed, your methods, your findings, and your conclusions. You will also need to think about the order of your points. Which points does your audience, or the broader audience, need to know first? What background, context, or "stuff" do they need to understand your work? Are your findings in a cause-and-effect order, a standard chronological order, or power order, or some other order? In this process, you may find it handy to write your main points on sticky notes or index cards. Since they are movable, you can put them together in various orders until you have a logical and compelling sequence. As you develop your organization, remember that you are telling a story, not only about the beauty of song, but about your audience's research journey as selected and presented as data.
Creating the Visual Storyboard
Now that your content is organized, you can start to create your visual storyboard. The storyboard layout will often involve drawing a series of boxes or frames on either a large piece of paper or on storyboarding software. Each box represents a slide or part of your presentation, and the box includes a few words, a description of the content, and any visuals, charts, or keywords you would like to use.
As you create your storyboard, you can pay attention to how you transition from one section to another. What moves you from one point to the next? Are there natural breaks to recap and consolidate your key messages? When you visualize the transitions, you will inadvertently establish a logical train of thought that makes sense and is easy to follow, minimizing the chances of confusing or losing your audience.
The storyboard serves as a checklist to remind you of what you want to include in your presentation that is a necessity for it, like your introduction, background, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion, but also helps you to avoid tangents or diversions.
The Benefits of Storyboarding Your Research
There are many good reasons to storyboard your research presentation. First, (and not least of all), there are all the reasons about clarity. Essentially, you can think of storyboarding as a visual means of putting your presentation onto the page. Once you can visualize everything at once from the beginning, you can lead into the overall narrative sense, and where your main points go, and if they are justified. That clarity will in turn translate into confidence when you present, because you will know exactly what you want to say and how you want to.
Additionally, storyboarding will assist in engagement. A well-structured and easy-to-follow presentation will help support attention and memory in your audience. If you design a storyboard looking at where visuals, stories, or interactive material will go, you are creating a more diverse and memorable way of presenting.
Finally, it saves time, which is priceless. As you may think, developing a storyboard is a waste of time at the start, but in the long run, you will be able to avoid having to make last-minute, rushed changes or have massive revisions during your presentation simply because you did not spend time storyboarding first. You will build your slides faster, as you will have already thought about how your presentation looks and feels, allowing you to create slides with confidence and clarity rather than second-guessing or having to keep going back and forth until your delivery feels "right".
Practical Tips for Effective Storyboarding
If you are going to start your storyboarding process and want to maximize the use of the storyboarding tool, here are some suggestions to maximize the process:
Begin with a draft. Don't stress about your storyboard being perfect the first time. You can start with generic drawings or just list important points. You can always build off it.
Consider how many images, charts, or graphs you want to use. Only use images (including charts and graphs) that serve or support the message you want to send. Don't add visuals to fill space, or the storyboarding process (or slides) will be cluttered.
Pacing. Think about how long you want to spend on each section. Don't make all frames in your storyboard the same length. Sections that include your key findings should be shorter and punchier than each frame that supports a detailed explanation, and facilitate discussions for more complex information.
If you want a seamless presentation, you should practice how you will transition from the previous frame to the next new section of the presentation. Transitions will help maintain the flow of the presentation and provide links for your audience.
As you share your work or presentation, and have it reviewed by colleagues or mentors, challenge them to share their ideas on how it can better support your argument/final presentation. Fresh eyes will allow any confusion, lack of clarity, or additional changes to be identified and addressed.
Storyboarding Tools and Techniques
There are many ways to storyboard your research presentation. If you prefer the traditional method of working on paper and using sticky notes, you have a great way of being flexible and tactile. If you want to storyboard digitally, there are many options, such as PowerPoint or Google Slides, even specialized storyboarding software, that allow you to use a template and reposition frames easily. Choose the method that is right for you and your work style. You want to concentrate more on the structure and flow of your presentation rather than design options at this point. Don't forget, the storyboard is a planning tool! You do not need to make it polished or final.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Although storyboarding is a powerful method, there are some common traps to avoid. One is adding too much detail in your storyboard. Remember: the purpose of the storyboard is to show your overall communication coverage and flow, not to script every word and design every slide. Keep your storyboard high-level and flexible.
Another trap is not thinking about your audience. As you create your storyboard, you should also always ask, “At this stage, what do I want my audience to know? What are their questions?” Anticipating your audience’s needs will help you create a more effective and meaningful presentation.
Finally, avoid the temptation to skip creating a storyboard and simply dive into the slide creation. With deadlines getting tight, you may feel that creating slides is your best option. However, spending a little time creating a storyboard initially will give you better results and impact in the end.
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