Visual Aids not First Aid

By Amanda Westland, Director of sortoutmypres.com
http://presentersuniversity.com/visuals_visuals_not_firstaid.php

Visuals can be an important part of your presentation - they can stimulate your audience, holding their attention and ensuring they remember and process the messages.

A successful communication can be defined as:

`One which modifies the behaviour of the audience so that they do something in your favour that they would not have done had you not spoken to them. ¹

Visual aids have an active part to play in ensuring your presentation is a successful communication. If used well, they can clarify, inform and entertain your audience.If used ineffectively, they can confuse, irritate and trivialise your message.

Visual Aid

A visual aid can be anything that visually stimulates your audience.

1. Graphs and Charts: It is easier to illustrate movements and trends, areas of little activity and areas for growth, with the use of a chart or graph. Text takes longer to read and assimilate, whereas the impact of a graph can be seen immediately.
2. Stock photos: These can be found on the internet (e.g. http://www.gettyimages.com/)
3. Digital photos: Take your own digital photos and edit them in a photo editor e.g. Microsoft Photo Editor. They can be blended into your presentation by colourising them to match your template. They can be used to add a personal aspect to your presentation e.g. to identify members of a team
4. Video: There are sites offering individual footage to buy and download (e.g. http://www.digitalvisiononline.co.uk/). These can offer real impact and ensure the audience are taking notice. The downside being, they can be expensive and require a lot of memory.
5. Text in the form of quotes, statements and ideas, can be used to add visual impact.
6. Diagrams: To help illustrate a complicated process
7. Clipart: This can look outdated but can be revamped using an image editing package e.g. Microsoft Paint

or First Aid

A visual aid is just `an aid' though. It should not act as a crutch, in the hope of resuscitating a presentation lacking content or preparation. To effectively communicate your message to your audience you need to ensure your visuals are supporting the presentation rather than acting as a screen to hide behind.

Effective Visuals

1. Audience - know your audience!

• What level of knowledge of your subject do they have?
• What do they want to achieve by coming to your presentation?
• How many people will be attending?

2. Know your subject.

• Research thoroughly
• Practice your presentation and speech beforehand
• Don't use graphics to replace lack of knowledge or material
• Tailor the type of visuals you use, to the type of message you wish to convey in your presentation

3. Use your visuals effectively

• Use a graph or pie chart instead of a series of numbers
• Intersperse your text slides with relevant photos or animations
• Use diagrams to clarify a complicated process or idea

Ensure your visuals are easily seen. It is hard to concentrate on something you need to squint at.

• Practice in the location (or similar) with an audience (one person will do). This way, it will be possible to ensure your visuals can be seen easily from a distance
• Check on your colours when they are projected. They can often appear different from screen colours.

Ineffective Visuals

1. Impressive graphics can hide lack of content. Visuals are often used as a distraction to cover inadequate research or understanding.
2. Overloading the audience with too many pictures, clipart and diagrams may cause the audience to switch off
3. Too many visuals (especially in the form of clipart) can trivialise a subject. Ensure your graphics are tailored to your audience and topic.
4. The more multimedia effects you have within your presentation the more likelihood there is, of something going wrong. Here again, practice is important. Always have a hard copy back up.just in case!

Why use visuals?

There are many advantages to using pictures/photos and graphics within a presentation:

1. They can enhance understanding of a complicated idea or process
2. They can grab attention and, if used effectively, keep it.
3. They aid memory - It is far easier for a human to remember a visual explanation than a series of words
4. They can be entertaining

If used effectively, visuals can clarify, entertain and inform. They can help keep your audience interested and ensure the presentation is remembered.