3 Progress Presentations
In order to present the advancement of your practice projects as well as theoretical research, there will be 3 progress presentations during the process, together with all students and mentors.
Progress session 1 «Background and Related Work»
5 min per individual project & 7 min per tandem project + 10 min feedback/discussion each
- Present status of your thesis concept
- Analysis of existing situation, experience or technology
- Present related work and how you situate your project in comparison
- Present iterated prototype
Progress session 2, «Early Findings and Prototypes»
The format of this progress session will include a short presentation, a live demo of your current prototypes and an open prototype tour at the end (open for all IAD).
Presentation
5 min per individual project & 7 min per tandem project + 5 min live demo +10 min feedback/discussion each
- Advanced research from user studies if applicable
- Present data and main findings
- How will this inform your concept, problem or design opportunity? Based on your findings, inform or enhance your concept.
- What kind of prototype is the most suitable for your project?
- What kind of prototype helped you find the main findings/observations?
- What do you hope to achieve with your prototype?
Open Prototype Tour
60min
Each individual or tandem project grabs a table and place themselves somewhere in the space. The teaching assistant will coordinate the setup. Mentors and other semester students have the chance to visit each project/prototype to try it out and provide
feedback.
Progress session 3, «Observations and Lessons learned»
5 min per individual project & 7 min per tandem project + 5 min live demo +10 min feedback/discussion each
- Present your final exhibition concept and project
- Present your video storyboards (max. 1 min)
- Final Observations from user studies
- Present 3 main lessons learned from your process
- Present your contribution to the field of interaction design
Thesis Colloquium
The Thesis Colloquium concerns only the written part of the thesis.
In case of individual project alone and in case of tandem project in pairs, the students meet with the main mentors in a session.
The session lasts 20 minutes per individual project, 30 minutes per tandem project and is divided as follows:
- Introduction Student Side
max. 5 min per individual project & max. 10 min per tandem project
You will give an introduction on what you have been working on, what you have researched and found out. Try to be as condensed as possible with only presenting the most
important information. You could use slides if you want or talk freely.
In tandem projects you divide this in such a way that everyone speaks for the same length of time.
- Discussion Mentor Side
15 min per individual project & 20 min per tandem project
Afterwards, the mentors ask questions about the written part. Obviously, the questions depend on the particular written piece, so you can't tell in advance what kind of questions
will arise. The mentors try to find deficits and ask questions in cases where not everything is clear.
Tandems try to divide the speaking time equally.
It is important to stand behind your work and defend it with your answers. This is easier if you know your topic by heart, so read through your whole thesis again before the collquium starts.
BA Finals
BA Finals Practice Round
2-3 days before the BA Final Presentation, students will meet with their mentors for a practice session. Students will present 1:1 as they would at BA Finals. The mentors provide feedback which can then be incorporated into the presentations.
Important: The Practice Round is organized and determined by the individual mentors themselves.
BA Finals
The BA Final presentation take place within the exhibition space. Present are certainly all BA diploma students, as well as internal and external mentors. The whole event is public, so there could be some more guests
individual project: 15 minutes presentation (theory + practice) + 10 minutes discussion/feedback
tandem project: 17,5 minutes presentation (theory + practice) + 12,5 minutes discussion/feedback (additional 5 min in total)
Whether you're using slides or not, this is the narrative that we recommend for your BA final presentation:
- First slide: Your Name, Project title, School, Department, Mentors, potential Collaboration partners, Date
- Second slide: in 1-2 short sentences your project summary (what is it?) and why it’s ground-breaking
- Describe your project a bit further: what are the interactions within the project, how do users experience it? You can present here as well a very short demo of your project if relevant
- Background Research / Related Projects: This can pertain to various categories: eg related background in sciences, in history, in art, in design, in technology, in the aesthetics, in the concept, in literature/science-fiction, etc… Pick the most relevant
projects and mention how your project extends/pushes the topic further.
- Experiments / First Tests
- Decision-making process: How did you make the decisions you made? Define the 2-3 key moments in your process.
- User-studies: Who are your users, how did you involve them and how their input helped you make decisions for your project?
- Reflections on the project and contribution to the field
- Potential impact & future directions
Presentation Style
Oral Style
- Present in English or German
- Think of your presentation as a performance: try to not learn your text by heart, but rather practice enough that you can present with a natural conversational flow
- Start the presentation by reminding briefly the audience what your project is about
- Slides are recommended - other formats are possible - please check with us beforehand
- If you do use slides, don’t read all the text that is present on the slides, summarize your thoughts
- Go to the point, be concise, cut the non-essential parts in your speech
- Don’t lose time describing what is presented on the screen (we can understand by looking at the slides)
- Respect the time - don’t be afraid by the “short” time - it’s plenty enough if you keep to the essence of your ideas. If you use these minutes well, you won’t have to rush through what you have to say. Don’t think that all you have to say matters,
you can always be more concise.
Slides Style
- The text should be readable (font minimum at 24 or 36 pt), in a readable colour over a readable background.
- Don’t crowd your slides with text - usually keep it to 1 strong idea = 1 slide.
- For every statistics, photo, reference, quote, statement (including your own), you need to state the complete source and date in a readable caption.
- Be careful of typos in your text
Be Ready
- Prior to the start of the class or during the break, test your computer on the room projector & sound if you need it
- 2 minutes before the current presenter is finishing, be ready to start. Any time that you’ll get your computer ready once it’s your turn, it will be discounted from your overall time. Have your slides ready on screen, do not search for them in a folder.
- Be sure your computer is charged, that a screensaver is not running, that apps such as Mail, Flux or other interruptors are not running in the background
- Have a backup of your slides on the server in case you get a computer crash
- If you present videos or sounds during the presentation, have them embedded in your presentation or make sure the external links are loaded. Limit your video excerpts to 30 seconds or 1 minute at most.