Appropriate Visual Aids

Create the Visuals

Whether you use PowerPoints, handouts, or posterboards and flipcharts, there are a few standard considerations for any kind of visual aid used in a presentation.

• Are they legible from the appropriate distance?
  You don't want to have your audience squinting at the front of the room, or worse, breaking up your momentum by complaining that your visuals are illegible. The size of fonts or graphics will depend on the size of the room, the size of the audience, and the light level. Although it would be ideal to test-drive the visuals in a similar space, it's not always possible. Keep in mind that a large meeting (20+ people) is too large to use posters and flip-charts effectively. For that large of a group, slides or PowerPoints on a projector work better. Gathering around a laptop is just fine for a group of 2-3, but it becomes ludicrous with larger numbers.


• Do the visuals all contribute to the message?
  Consider this hypothetical example from a manufacturing firm: Fred, the senior engineer, wants to illustrate that, although the plant's gross widget manufacturing numbers are up for the quarter, there are a number of quality problems that could lead to recalls and damaged reputation in the future. In order to illustrate the point, he shows about 500 Excel graphs with multicolored lines pointing in different directions. Some of his slides have four graphs per page.
  
  In this scenario, Fred has done a great job of researching the information, but he is overloading his audience with too many visuals that do not directly contribute. Fred would have saved himself a lot of time if he had only pulled up two or three illustrative examples that clearly illustrated the point.


• Are the visuals simple enough to understand readily?
  Visual aids should be like a billboard on the highway--large and readily understandable. Although one slide may remain on the wall for 10 minutes while you speak, you don't want to create a situation where your attendees are reading instead of listening to you. Or worse, staring at the slide with a head cocked to the side, trying to figure out what it means. If you use text, pare it back to the bare minimum. For graphs, make them simple and clear.




The figure above, created by the charting gurus at Peltier Technical Services (http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ComboCharts.html) was intended as an educational module on how to use Excel's advanced graphing tools. Although this would be a very useful graph for certain purposes, it just has too much going on to be effective in a presentation. As a general guideline, keep graphs simple with only a few bars or pie slices. Use distinct colors, and avoid a mass of multicolored lines running in multiple directions.

Remember, a complex graph is fine for a detailed report, and it might even have a place in your handouts, but as a visual aid during a presentation, it can cause your listeners to get derailed--spending more time sorting out the graphic than listening to what you're saying.

• Avoid excessive clip-art and cutesy cartoons
  Clip art is another downfall of the presentation planner. Younger presenters, in particular, think a "boring" presentation will be livened up with a few clip-art images. If the presentation is actually boring, the speaker has a larger issue that won't be solved by comic strips. It would be better for the speaker to tailor his presentation to the needs of his current audience, so that it addresses their goals and becomes relevant to them instead of boring.
  
  There is a time and a place for everything, of course, but before dropping in a graphic just for entertainment value, think about the image your artwork conveys--and think about the audience and how the graphics may be perceived. How well do you know the audience? Are they stressed-out and super-serious or relaxed and fun-loving? Will your comic strip make them think you aren't taking the topic seriously, and neither should they?


• Use standard fonts and templates
  If your company has a standard PowerPoint template, use it. Also use their standard font style. This saves you huge amounts of time making small decisions, and it also reinforces the sense of unity across the company.
  
  However, if you have to start from scratch, decide on one simple theme and use it throughout. Use a simple color scheme (one background color, one font color, and maybe one accent color). Make your headings distinctive enough to stand out without being distracting--in other words, don't change font faces for every subhead. Pick one font, use bold for headings. Decide on what size the headings and body text will be, and stick to it.


• Keep the amount of wording on the visual to a minimum
  Each slide should highlight one to two points, it should not be exhaustive. Say "no" to PowerPoint novels.


• Consider colors carefully
  Keep color schemes simple, choose one accent color, one background color, one font color, and stick with these choices throughout. Also, think about the color-blind: one out of ten men has difficulty seeing the difference between colors. To the color blind, red-green and blue-yellow look the same, so a red background with green letters would all look dingy brown, and would be impossible to read.

A word on color theory

Color theory is another whole field of study unto itself. Scientists and artists such as Leonardo DaVinci, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Isaac Newton have contributed to the conversation throughout hundreds of years. Wikipedia offers a short explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory.

Briefly, color theory describes light and color and its psychological impacts on the viewer. For the presenter, color selection can harmonize with your message or disrupt it.

Example: Not long ago, I received a bright orange flyer densely packed with black text. The two colors working together made my eyes water and I couldn't read any of the text on the page.

Imagine if this flyer had been a template for a PowerPoint presentation, and that bright orange light filled an otherwise dark room, and no one could read any of the text as a result of instant eye-strain.

When planning presentation colors, allow for good contrast (black and white, navy and yellow) but don't overdo. Keep the colors simple and neutral wherever possible.