Preparation of Visual Aids

In our image-rich world, people have become visual learners, so it is important to use effective visual aids in a speech or presentation. Whether you are giving a speech in your public speaking class (and therefore are worried about a grade) or for another occasion, you need to make sure you choose visual aids that truly enhance your presentation. Here are some tips to keep in mind when selecting a visual aid of any kind, including a presentation prepared with the use of MS PowerPoint® or similar software tool.

• Visuals help to give a lot of information in a short space of time.

• They are really ‘quick snapshots’ of situations, developments, events, and processes which would take a long time to explain in words

• Good visuals speak for themselves.

· Principles of design

- visibility

- emphasis

- balance

· Principles of Colour

- use strong primary colours

- avoid pink, light blue, yellow

· Visual aids should be easy to see.This may seem obvious, but it is so obvious that many speakers do not consider this when selecting a visual aid. Think about it from the perspective of the audience. Have you used colors and text in a way that will be easy to read? Is the visual aid large enough? Will everyone in the room be able to see the visual aid?

· Visual aids should be easy to understand. People should be able to look quickly at your visual aid and get the point. They cannot pay close attention to you and close attention to the visual aid, so make things easy for them. Each visual aid should only make one point. If you are using a graph or table of some sort, keep it as simple as you can. And if you are using a visual aid with text, use as little text as possible or you will distract the audience.

· Visual aids should look professional. A sloppy visual aid will seriously damage your credibility. Remember, professional does not necessarily mean ‘fancy’, but it does mean neat and organized. Do not use "cutesy" visual aids, even for a class presentation. And always make sure everything is spelled correctly!

· Visual aids should demonstrate something. A good visual aid does not just list information: it makes a point. Let us say you are giving a speech about the environmental damage done by cruise ships. You could list the different types of damage caused by cruise ships on a slide. But that does not demonstrate anything. A better visual aid would be a photograph of a shoreline that has been damaged because of pollution by cruise ships. Or you could show a graph that shows the increase of a chemical in the water over a period of time when cruise travel has increased in that area.

· Visual aids should be explained clearly. Make sure the audience understands what your visual aid is supposed to illustrate. Do not assume they will figure it out. In your speech about cruise ship pollution, do not show the audience a bunch of dirty water and assume they will know what it is. Instead, explain that this is a photograph of the ocean taken twenty minutes after a cruise ship came by.

· Visual aids should not be distracting. Your visual aid should blend into your speech. As a rule of thumb, you should not pass a visual aid around the room for people to look at while you speak. They will be looking at the visual aid instead of listening to you, and the audience will be distracted by having to pass something to other people.

· Visual aids should have relevance to your audience. If you are giving a speech about hate crimes on campus, do not show them a photo of the aftermath of a hate crime on another campus. Use a photo from your campus— or at least from a campus in your area.

· Visual aids should be appropriate. Use common sense. If you are giving a speech about the importance of wearing a condom, there are ways to illustrate this that won't gross anybody out, and there are ways to illustrate this that will. Err on the side of being conservative here, especially if you don't know everyone in your audience.

Use Visual Aids When You Need To:

1. Focus the audience's attention.

2. Reinforce your verbal message (but not repeat it verbatim!).

3. Stimulate interest.

Don't Use Visual Aids To:

1. Avoid interaction with your audience.

2. Present simple ideas that are easily stated verbally.