{"id":7384,"date":"2019-07-16T13:16:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=7384"},"modified":"2019-07-16T13:16:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:16:34","slug":"designing-a-winning-3mt-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=7384","title":{"rendered":"Designing a Winning 3MT Slide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By now, many of you will have entered this year’s 3 Minute Thesis<\/a> competition. For the last few years, I’ve had the privilege of being AUT’s 3MT scorekeeper. I tally up the judges’ marks and facilitate their deliberations. Every year, I have an inside view of the judges’ room, and boy, it’s given me some insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief among those insights is the importance of the 3MT slide. Entrants only get one slide to display during their 3-minute presentation. There can be no sound effects, no animations, no audio or video of any kind. Just that one slide. Static. Still. Hanging there in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an entrant – and I know this from having been one myself – it’s easy to overlook the slide and focus on the content of the 3-minute talk. But that’s a huge mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The design of the slide fundamentally influences the judges’ impressions of the whole presentation. There are no points allocated for it specifically, but it sets the lasting mental image that judges will retain of your presentation. They won’t remember every word you said, but they will <\/em>remember your slide; and they’ll have it in mind as they award points and choose a winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slides that tend to earn positive comments from judges are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n