AAFS Resources
Visualize Your Evidence
Stop burying your best arguments in a mountain of dense data and hoping the jury figures it out. This is a curated collection of battle-tested resources designed to do one thing: help legal professionals and expert witnesses strip away the noise and master courtroom demonstratives.
Breaks the expert ego trap. Teaches how to build progressive, layered data reveals so layperson jurors feel like they are learning with the expert rather than being lectured.
Effective Demonstrative Exhibits
A deep dive into psychological anchoring in litigation. Explains how to map abstract, elite technical data directly to common everyday concepts a juror can instantly grasp.
Discover the 7 key differences between expert report graphics and trial graphics. Learn how they serve unique roles in litigation.
This literature review examines how jurors understand forensic expert testimony and identifies gaps in current research. It discusses the ongoing debate among forensic scientists and commentators regarding the most effective ways to present evidence in court.
Learn how jury psychology influences expert witness credibility, communication, and visual evidence. Discover the science behind persuasive expert testimony and its impact on jury decision-making in U.S. litigation.
IMS Associate Jury Consultant Alexa Hiley explains the psychology behind how jurors respond to expert witness testimony—including those with 'junk science.' This article explores the factors influencing juror perceptions and the implications for legal proceedings.
Nobody Cares About YOU!
You aren't the focus of your expertise. The impact your knowledge, mission, or research can have is far more valuable to your audience.
Explodes the narcissism of opening with a 5-minute resume dump. Juries and audiences decide if they give a damn within 30 seconds. This means you have to lead with immediate human relevance!
Forces technical presenters to stop viewing a presentation as an ego-driven performance and reframe it entirely as an act of ruthless service to the audience's immediate needs.
A reality check for researchers who think "the data speaks for itself." It details how to stop treating listeners like passive seat-fillers and map data directly to what they stand to lose.
Smashes the information dump. It maps out concrete methods to align complex technical metrics with the audience’s cognitive bandwidth so they don't glaze over.
A tactical brief on taking three steps back from specialized jargon to frame your proprietary breakthrough inside a massive, urgent problem the audience actually experiences.
Experts are poorer communicators in their own domain than nonexperts. MIT Sloan’s Miro Kazakoff offers ways to reverse that curse.
The content of your talk matters. So does what you do in the hours and days before you give it. This stack is about the preparation side of presenting — mental rehearsal, logistics, managing nerves, and building the kind of confidence that comes from process, not just talent. For scientists and technical experts who want to walk in ready.
This article explores the concept of mental rehearsal and its effectiveness in enhancing performance across various activities. It provides practical tips and insights on how to implement mental rehearsal techniques for better outcomes in sports, academics, and personal goals.
This page provides practical strategies and tips for overcoming public speaking anxiety. It aims to help individuals build confidence and improve their speaking skills in various settings.
This page discusses effective strategies for preparing and delivering a talk. It provides insights from author and speaker Scott Berkun on how to engage an audience and convey ideas clearly.
This article provides strategies to help individuals manage anxiety and perform confidently during important presentations. It emphasizes that the audience is often unaware of the speaker's internal nervousness and offers practical tips to improve composure.
This page provides a comprehensive checklist to help you prepare for a speech, focusing on essential tasks to complete the day before and the day of your presentation. It aims to ensure that you are fully prepared and confident when delivering your speech.
TED and TEDx talks are the highest profile opportunity most scientists will ever have to make their research matter to people outside their field. The format is specific, the stakes are high, and the coaching most researchers get is generic. This stack covers the TED world as it actually works, for technical minds.
Most scientists use TED and TEDx interchangeably. They are not the same thing. Understanding the difference is the first step to choosing the right stage and applying strategically rather than randomly.
Straight from TED. What TEDx is, how events are organized, and what the program is designed to do. The starting point for any scientist considering applying to speak at a TEDx event.
TEDx organizers are looking for original ideas from their community, not polished professional speakers. Credibility, authenticity, and a genuinely fresh perspective matter far more than a speaking resume.
From the presentation firm that has coached multiple TED speakers. The 18 minute format is harder than it sounds. This covers the preparation process that turns a 45 minute academic talk into something that actually belongs on the TED stage.
Open with impact, build to a revelation, and never give away your punchline too early. A breakdown of the narrative structure behind the TED talks that people actually remember and share.
The application process has no universal format. Each TEDx event selects speakers differently. This step by step guide covers how to research events, pitch your idea, and navigate the process without wasting months applying to the wrong stages.
The slides that scientists build are, on average, catastrophically over-designed and paradoxically under-visual. This stack covers slide design as a communication discipline, not an aesthetic one.
Anthony Greiter's 40/30/1 Rule treats every element on a slide as a communication choice. If it does not help the audience understand, it gets in the way. There is no neutral in slide design.
A peer reviewed guide covering slide design, data presentation, and delivery for scientific researchers. Built around cognitive processing principles and tested across academic institutions over a decade.
Written by a scientist for scientists. The ten most common ways researchers undermine their own data with poor figure design, and exactly how to fix each one before the next conference.
Tufts University's guide to slide design for researchers. Covers visual hierarchy, font consistency, bullet point avoidance, and how to design slides that serve the audience rather than the presenter.
Slides are a visual aid, not a script. If you are reading from your slides, you have already lost the room. A practical guide to using PowerPoint the right way in scientific presentations.
Reports follow documentation structure. Presentations follow storytelling structure. Scientists who confuse the two end up with slides that are accurate, comprehensive, and completely impossible to follow.
The Art of Technical Translation
Technical translation is the skill that separates experts who influence from experts who inform. It is not dumbing things down. It is finding the precise level of complexity that makes an audience lean in rather than tune out. This stack covers the actual craft that Anthony Greiter has spent 20 years developing.
Technical translation is not simplification. It is finding the exact level of complexity that makes a non-expert audience lean in. Anthony Greiter has spent 20 years developing this skill specifically for scientists and researchers.
Jargon creates walls. Plain language builds bridges. Practical strategies for making complex scientific content accessible without losing accuracy or credibility.
A researcher's honest breakdown of what it takes to translate months of technical work into something a general audience can follow. The challenge is not the science. It is knowing which parts to say out loud.
The best technical communicators are translators first. Identify your audience's knowledge level and match your language to where they actually are, not where you assume they are.
Up to 68% of technical projects face challenges because experts cannot communicate clearly with non-experts. A systematic approach to bridging that gap for scientific presentations and conference talks.
Plain language is not a dumbed down version of expert language. It is a more precise version. Scientists who resist simplification are often protecting complexity that does not need protecting.
