REVIEW
Digital Forensics Trial Graphics: Teaching the Jury through Effective Use of Visuals is an electronic publication intended to aid digital forensics practitioners in the construction of their presentations to laypeople (e.g., juries, judges). In truth, this publication would be very useful for anyone that is required to make presentations in a professional environment. We have all sat through presentations that were confusing, unengaging, or ineffective. This publication explains in simple terminology the common mistakes, misconceptions, and pitfalls that are to be avoided while reinforcing the concepts and strategies that will build a successful presentation.
The text is broken down into seven chapters, as well as an appendix that contains a plentitude of other resources for creating better presentations. The chapters cover a range of topics from graphic design principles to planning tips to learning theory, and each chapter builds logically on the preceding one. This is not a technical manual on the process of creating a presentation, but rather a guiding set of principles to convey information through a visual medium.
This publication stresses the point of “less is more,” and it follows its own advice. It is a quick read at 96 pages, so the lessons learned within far outweigh the time investment required. In fact, if one were to criticize this text at all, it could have been even shorter. Some of the topics are covered several times over, and a few entire sections feel a bit repetitive. That being said, the text does stress repetition as a major learning aid, so perhaps this was done purposefully.
There are numerous illustrations, pictures, graphics, and tables strewn throughout the text to help reinforce the topics discussed, but what good would a book about visual presentations be without some visual aids of its own? All of the graphic elements are well placed and give good examples of the various topics and caveats; the examples of what not to do may be the most striking (and familiar). Many of the pictures and graphics are in black and white, however, so those underperformed slightly. Hopefully, a release will be made in full-color to really show the power of all the visuals. The publication would also have been helped by adding even more visuals and fewer words, to further illustrate by example the overall point being made. The publication is at its best in Chapter 6, where it takes all the topics covered previously and puts them to work within a real world example. The authors use an actual presentation made to a jury regarding technical information to illustrate how to effectively convey difficult concepts to nonexperts. Not only are the various topics and relative graphics expounded upon to the reader, but also the way in which it was explained to the jury is described. It presents a full example of how to start with the technical information used every day (and perhaps taken for granted) and end with the jurors' understanding of said material through the use of visual aids and straightforward explanations.
Overall, this book is recommended to anyone interested in better presentation construction, especially those in the forensic world, who are tasked with conveying complex information and processes to those who have no prior knowledge or experience.