Conference in Cloud and online meeting technology

[Sawyer X]

On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 2:58 PM James E Keenan via yapc <yapc at pm.org> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> Specifically, I want to talk about slides.
>
> On #yapc, Todd has already mentioned that if you're presenting over Zoom
> and you're sharing slides from your laptop screen, the refresh rate of
> those slides is much slower than what you would normally desire.  Hence,
> you are advised to have fewer transitions among (or within) slides than
> you would if you were plugging your laptop into a conference-quality
> data projector.
>
> Can other people confirm that that is good advice?  (I suspect this is
> not limited to Zoom.)

Definitely. If you have videos and gifs and jumping stuff, you will
likely lose almost all of it with most viewers.

Transitions, in general, should be used sparingly. I'm happy this
would force people to stop using them. The range of responses to
"creative" transitions (from pure annoyance and mild disruption to
full-on seizures in more extreme cases) have taught us that a slide
deck is not where we will have our debut as immersive experience film
directors. Keep it simple. Movement == something to track == likely
confusion.

This has always been good advice. I never use anything other than
"appear" and - in some cases - "fade out." Online, I would drop the
"fade out," because it's short and will likely be missed.

> Also, slide layout and typography:  What have people found works best
> over Zoom?  My impression so far is that I can get away with my normal
> fonts in my slides -- but that if I go share my terminal, the font, font
> size and background color need to be chosen more carefully than usual.

Considering this is a large audience, it's best to keep the same concepts:
1. Make sure the contrast looks good on your computer. (Don't use
light colors on grey, for example, which I saw someone do yesterday.)
2. Large font == more readable.

I think this is a good chance to effectively use slides to control the
pace of the talk instead of a mechanism to store talk material for
ourselves.

Conversely, I don't suggest having one word per slide unless you're a
lively enough speaker. People will lose track, lose focus, get bored,
move on. (I, for example, don't think I could handle it as a speaker.)

> What have people learned with respect to sharing your screen, both in
> slides and in terminal?

* Pick a terminal that can increase the font. I usually use urvxt and
my font size is static[1]. When presenting video, I use gnome-terminal
which allows me to increase font easily. My phone on chat can help me
make sure I'll receive comments from people if the font is too small.
* Go slow in the terminal. I type fast, I move fast, and I confuse
people quickly. When I started seeing others in the terminal, I
realized I get confused by others just the same.
* Make sure your terminal shows where you are clearly.
* Less fancy stuff on the terminal means people focus on what you
write vs. your configuration. (Unless the presentation is about your
terminal "bling," keep that out of the picture so people focus.)
* When showing files, line rows are suuuuper useful because you can
say "On line 5," and the audience doesn't need to look for the cursor.
* Pick a type-font that works best for code. I like Source Code Pro.
There are others.
* As noted by another, you have no idea if your jokes land. This
sucks. I'm happy to hear how people are dealing with it because all I
have is my jokes and they're not very good either.
* Either find a way to be on chat and notice a few things, or move it
completely out of the way. Presenters' pausing can be very
distracting.
* Generally, when people share their screen and move around, you will
see their desktop. That's not only distracting but can be risky for
them. Forgetting weird or awkward desktop background images, some
people keep files on their desktop, have tabs open with certain
content (bank, chat with colleague or partner, work stuff, etc.), and
more (read: worse). Just as you're going to clean your physical
background, clear your desktop, your open tabs, your windows.
Alternatively, switch to a different desktop or workspace.
* Virtual background is not a bad idea if it helps keep a professional
environment and doesn't distract. ("Is that a mug on the desk? What is
the shirt hung behind them? Who's the person to their side?") However,
pick your virtual background picture selectively. It needs to stay
professional and *static*. Moving background makes people frustrated,
dizzy, disoriented, distracted, etc.

This is my braindump and I imagine I will mess up many of these. :)

[1] I'm sure there's a way to increase it dynamically, but I didn't
configure it.