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Speaking: Visual Aids

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Speaking: Visual Aids

• Designing the presentation as a whole
• Designing your slide master
• Designing each individual slide
• Using visuals effectively
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Designing the presentation as a whole

• Translate structure into draft slides
1. Closing and agenda slides: main takeaways
 Make stand alone sense
 Use presentation title
 Make highly visible
 Build each point
 Keeping last slide visible during Q&A
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Designing the presentation as a whole

(cont)
2. Supporting slides: explain and provide evidence
for every item on the agenda
 Prepare one or more supporting slide for each
agenda item
 Should follow from and relate back to the agenda
3. Opening slide: optional for grabbing audience
interest
 Blank screen
 Title slide
 Grabber slide
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Designing the presentation as a whole

(cont)
• Tie your slides together with connectors
1. Consistency
 Same phrasing
 Same numbering system
 Similar phrasing in trackers
2. Repeated agenda
1. Highlighted text
2. Dim text
3. Put a box around text
4. Insert an arrow
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Designing the presentation as a whole

(cont)
3. Trackers: shortened version of each main point
on the agenda
 Should be visible without calling attention
 Do not insert in agenda or summary slides
 Do not include agenda or summary on list of
trackers
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Designing the presentation as a whole

(cont)
• Choose among types of slides
1. Deck slides: viewed individually,
information rich
2. Traditional projected slides: less
information rich
3. Image driven slides: visual, no or minimum
text

Designing the presentation as a whole
(cont)
DECK SLIDES:
Rick information
• Presenter seated
• Small audience
• More in-depth discussion
• More details
• Smaller font (14-24)
• Few or No photographs
• Complex graphs
• Audience can read before,
during or after the
presentation
• Provides detailed hard copy
• May be hard to keep
audience on point
• Can become too detailed
TRADITIONAL
PROJECTED
SLIDES – less
information
• Presenter standing
• Medium sized audience
• Some in-depth discussion
• A mix of photographs and
text
• Medium sized font (18-36)
• Some graphs
• Allow presenter to control
pacing
• Keep audience on point
with animation
• Can be changed at last
moment
• May inhibit group
discussion
• Not as flexible in terms of
flipping ahead or back
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IMAGE SLIDES
• Presenter standing
• Larger audience
• Less or no in-depth
discussion
• Minimal text
• Large fonts (30-96)
• Usually one photograph
per slide
• Easy illustrations
• Dramatic and attention-
grabbing
• Memorable due to high-
impact images
• Can increase audience
focus on speaker
• Lack leave-behind detail
• May require extra time and
advanced design skills
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• Visual presentation
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Designing your slide master

• Design your own slide master
• Avoid ineffective themes
• At least choose a plain one
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Designing your slide master

1. Selecting colors
 Colors reinforce structure
 Colors emphasize key ideas
 Background
▫ Solid, dark or light
 Title and text color
▫ Contrast with background
 Accent Color (Spot Color)
▫ Use sparingly
▫ Link to message titles
▫ Use as pointers
 Avoid fruit salad effect
 Always check color on the big screen
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Designing your slide master (cont)

2. Choose a readable font
 Sans serif: contemporary and modern
 Serif: traditional
 Use sentence case for extended text
 Use font styles sparingly
 For emphasis only
 Do not use for extended text
 Use an appropriate size
 Onscreen – headings: 22-36; text: 18-24; labels: 14-16
 Deck – headings: 18-24; text: 14-16; labels: 12-14
 Image driven – headings: 60-72; text: 30-48
 Handouts based on slides
 Override slide lock-in
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Designing your slide master (cont)

3. Using animation to “build” your idea
 Use to focus audience attention
 Choose “appear” as your animation effect
 Build important bullet text
 Build important illustrations
 Use animation as your pointer
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Designing your slide master (cont)

4. Providing a permanent record
 Deck slides: 1 slide per page for detail
 Projected slides: 6 slides per page for stand alone
sense; 3 for note taking
 Image driven: separate document as a handout /
slides with speaking notes
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• Emaze
• VisualBee
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Designing Each Individual Slide

• Using message titles
• Designing graphical charts to show ‘how much’
• Designing concept diagrams to show ‘how’
• Designing text slides to show ‘why’ and ‘how’
• Using other visual images
• Editing each slide
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Using message titles

▫ Avoid topic titles
▫ Use message titles
 Short phrase or sentence
 Maximum one and a half lines long
 Left justified
 Sentence case
 At the top of the slide
 Main idea of your presentation
 One title only
 Tied to spot color
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Benefits of using message titles

• Improve audience comprehension
• Add stand-alone sense
• Help you with transitions
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Message titles and accent color

• Accent color alone – Focused
• With lines
• With arrows
• With ‘exploded’ off section
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Designing each individual slide

Designing Graphical Charts to Show ‘How

Much’

• Important for Business Presentations

▫ Choose the most effective kind of graph

▫ Include only relevant data
▫ Eliminate chartjunk
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To show parts of a whole

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To compare items
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To show changes over Time or Frequency

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To show correlation
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Labeling graphs
1. Label inside
2. Label just outside section
3. Label and connect to section with line
4. Use a legend
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Eliminating Chart-Junk
• Instead of using legends, insert labels on the bars/lines
• Delete all of the unnecessary colors
• 3D views distort the data; choose 2D views instead
• Make sure “gap width” between each column or each bar
is less than the width of the column or bar itself
• Eliminate unnecessary extra zeros by adding the word
“Thousands” or “Millions” to the axis label
• Consider labeling five-year intervals only
• Delete the extra title that appears when you import a
graph from Excel
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Eliminating Chart-Junk (cont)

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Designing each individual slide

Designing concept diagrams to show ‘How’

• To illustrate relationships
▫ Interaction
▫ Structural emphasis
▫ Comparison
• To highlight sequence
▫ Linear flow
▫ Time sequence
▫ Circular flow
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Concept diagrams and visual sense

• Only use arrows if one idea leads to the next
• Only use overlap diagrams to show overlap
• Place ideas of equal importance on the same
horizontal level
• Group similar ideas together
• Only use circular flow diagram if the last step
will lead to the first
• Use smart art with caution
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Designing each individual slide

Designing text slides to show ‘why’ and

‘how’
• Also Called Bullet Slides
• Keep text charts simple
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Designing text slides to show ‘why’ and

‘how’ (cont)
• Build lines of text
 Using Animations to focus their attention
• Make stand-alone sense
 Product - Unique business model
 Market analysis - Large market with unmet needs
• Use telegram/PowerPoint language
 XYZ Corporation has been downgraded by Moody’s.
 Moody’s downgrades XYZ.
• Don't misuse bullet points
▫ Sequence
▫ At least two in a list
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Designing text slides to show ‘why’ and

‘how’ (cont)
• Make sure there is more space between each bullet
point than within each bullet
• Check for parallelism
• Consider use of case
• Check line breaks
 Combination increases value-added products and
services
 Combination increases value-
added products and services
 Combination increases value-added
products and services
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Designing each individual slide

Using other visual images

• Provide visual variety
• Add a visual aspect
• Make a point come alive
• Can send across a wrong/inconsistent/confusing
message
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Designing each individual slide

Editing each slide

• Avoid overload
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Editing each slide (cont)

• Skim through your slides
• Check the animation and colors
• Cite your sources
• Check for errors
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Using Visual Aids

• General preparation techniques
• Techniques for specific equipment
▫ Slides
▫ Decks
▫ Flipcharts/boards
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Practicing with visual aids

General preparation techniques

• Choose your equipment
▫ Audience?
▫ Location?
• Familiarize yourself with the equipment
▫ Rehearse
▫ Prepare a back up plan
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Using slides
• Check colors on screen
• Practice with the remote
• Decide where to stand
• Control where your audience sits
• Decide if and when you will be giving handouts
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Using slides (cont)

• Opening the presentation
▫ Maintain eye contact
▫ Discuss agenda slide slowly
• Transitioning between slides
▫ T-MOD
 Transition
 Message title
 Orient
 Discuss
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Using slides (cont)

• Cueing your audience
▫ Use animation
▫ Do not use laser pointer
▫ Do not point vaguely
• Making sure they read what you are discussing
• Making eye contact with the audience
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Using decks
• Decide when to distribute the deck
• Consider what they will view
• Decide where to sit
• Check your chair
• Place deck on the table
• Prepare to be flexible
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Using decks (cont)

• Opening the presentation
▫ Maintain eye contact
▫ Discuss purpose
▫ Introduce agenda slide
• Discussing each page
▫ Introduce each slide’s main message
▫ Introduce chart elements
▫ Refer to page number
▫ Note color, axes etc
▫ Deal with text heavy pages: summarize, focus
▫ Read quotations
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Using decks (cont)

• Communicating nonverbally
▫ Avoid reading word to word
▫ Use gestures
▫ Look professional
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