Seven considerations for choosing visuals for effective presentations

An effective presentation is key to success of any new idea, project, design or product.

Before reading this blog, please go through the following blog.

How to make your presentation spectacular/outstanding.

It often happens that we agonize over how to choose the best method of visuals to make our presentation effective. There are many visuals aids like props, slides, video, animation, flip charts, graphs etc.

For choosing the best visual aids following seven aspects may be considered

Size of the group

Your choice of the visual tool should depend upon the size of the group you are addressing.

Flip Charts

1. Flip Charts are best used when you need to generate and capture 'live' information from the group. For example, you might ask your audience a question about what they wish to learn in the presentation and capture their individual responses on a flip-chart. This information is generated live during the presentation and therefore cannot be prepared before-hand.
2. Do not use a flip chart for a group of more than 30 people. Not everyone will be able to see the chart.
3. It is also important to remember to write legibly and in Large letters when writing on a flip-chart. Write in capital letters if you have a handwriting which is difficult for others to read.
4. Flipcharts help you in 'saving' the information in the form of the chart-papers after the presentation. In longer presentation or training programs, you can put up these chart-papers on the walls of the conference room for participants to have a 'view' of the presentation-journey so far. If you do not wish to save the information, you can use a whiteboard from which information can be erased.
   

Presentations (Power Point/Keynote Presentations)

Power point presentations have been overused in the corporate sector to the point of exhausting both the presenter and the attendees. If you are planning to use a PPT, please take extra precaution to prevent the popular phenomenon of Death by Power Point from occurring in your session.

Keep these important pointers in mind

1. Do not write on the slides what you are going to speak anyways
2. Do not directly read out the slides
3. Do not use colors that do not go together
4. Do not use fancy fonts
5. Do not use every effect on every slide
6. Make sure the text is legible
7. Ask yourself if an image can represent what you are trying to say in written text
8. Keep the presentation short
9. Don't make the slides the star! Remember, you are presenting the slides and not the other way round.

Video

Video is best used to bring the 'outside world' into a conference room while you make your presentation. With the help of video, you can 'show' a factory floor, a rainforest, even a conversation -- something that would not be possible to see otherwise.

Objective

All visuals chosen should align with the objective of the presentation. Try to have a consistent theme and pattern.

Notice what others are doing

Strive for a better understanding of how your peer and colleagues present. Your presentations can be benchmarked to be at least of the same level and quality, if not better.

Organisational culture

You must know, what type of visuals are expected by the group of the people or the customer organization. Also, what type of visuals aids are used by your organization. For example at Ripples Learning in Bangalore, power point, videos and animations are used, along with flip charts when the audience size is small.

Time constraints

While many things are possible with technology these days, it is important to remember that visuals completed a day after the presentation or talk, are useless. Further, be realistic about what visuals you really can put together, within your allotted time span. Don’t use an instrument or visual, which has failed you a time and again.

Available resources

You must know what are the available resources with respects to people, and tools available. At Ripples, we use this great tool called Canva for designing great visuals.

Budget

Each and every visual costs something - either in terms of money or time. Keep a control over money aspects. Try to get the best with the available budget.

Corporate training on Presentation skills

Ripples Learning in Bangalore is conducting corporate training on presentation skills for multi-national companies and organisations in India and abroad and also for individuals on fast track basis. We would love to hear from you if you have a requirement in your organization.