Which of these do you do when your desk is a mess and you can’t deal with everything on it anymore? Freeze? Leave? I bet you ultimately re-arrange things into more manageable piles. Why? Because your brain becomes frazzled and momentarily short circuits. It cannot absorb so many seemingly equally important stimuli demanding your attention, so it re-groups to where it can manage what it sees. That same short circuiting happens when you present overloaded visuals in a presentation. You short-circuit your listener’s brain and your listener tunes out. To avoid that short-circuiting, keep these five points in mind when creating presentation visuals.
- Less is more. Do not show more than one point per slide
- Actual visuals trump text. The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than words. Use images, graphs or charts more than words.
- Big is better. Big images & readable fonts hold attention.
- Color attracts. Use color to direct listener’s eye, for interest &/or to differentiate.
- Direct listener’s eye for graphs and charts. If, for some reason, you do have a slide with several elements on it, clear it first. For example, “In the upper half, you see a comparison between A and B. In the lower half, you see the revenue implications of each. Looking at the upper half first, we see…”
Don’t be your own worst enemy in a presentation! Work with your listener’s brain, not against it to get the results you want. Use GOOD visuals for appeal, clarity, and retention.
Anne Miller
Words Matter – Make What You Say Pay!