Hot Take to Go: Aesthetic is important to your research slides
As a scientist, I put a lot of effort in the design and aesthetics of my research slides (and posters and academic figures). I design all figures by hand, mull over color palettes, and agonize over the tiniest adjustment. It's a skill that I'm most proud of as a researcher. One time, I was talking to a faculty who insinuated that this was a needless effort. The science should speak for itself, they smugly told me. Everything else is window dressing.
I shrugged. I have an obsessive love of opera. If we apply this logic to opera: the costumes and sets are window dressings to the singing. Even the ornamentation of the singing is window dressing to the plot. We can go even further and say that the music itself is unnecessary. Why not just announce the narrative theme of the opera? Two to three hours are saved if we can announce at the beginning to the opera goers:
"La Traviata is about noble sacrifice and redemptive love!"
This faculty will be annoyed that I am comparing science to opera because they cannot stand how I keep relating the two.** But in the same way, there are major conclusions that both research talks and operas want you to walk out with **. The "needless" ornamentation (if done right) supports the narrative. Humans are not passive computers to give data to where they will then gain immediate knowledge. Humans ultimately want a good story.
Aesthetics can be a key part of the narrative. First, people love being distracted. Making sure that your slides aren't cluttered and the texts are legible are part of aesthetics. Good design helps reduce the mental fatigue of the audience. Too much figures, what is there to focus on? Too much text? I'm sorry, but no one is reading that. Consistent color palette can help the audience remember what each figure is about. I redesign all my paper's figures when they're on the slide because I need the audience to understand it quickly. Aesthetic helps with understanding.
Frankly, I respect anyone who clearly put a lot of effort into designing good research slides. The want of communicating clearly should trump the want of appearing smart. Your cluttered slides full of bad design with too much figures suck! I'm sorry, but you're not respecting the audience's time. This 15 minute research talk is literally an ode to your ego.