THE BASICS

WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION?

In the previous unit, we learned all about crafting the speech: the intro, the language, the conclusion…no stone was left unturned. But, while we had our noses to the ground kicking rocks, we missed the giant sign in the air trying to remind us about visuals.

What the heck is a visual, though? Basically, it's anything your audience might look at. (We'll go more in-depth in the next reading. Stay tuned.)

The big question right now is: what value do visuals offer to our presentations?

Why do you need visuals, and are they really worth the extra effort? Granted, no visual can really save a speech if the content and delivery isn't there, but it can definitely act as that extra chocolate sauce on your presentation sundae.

Let's get more specific, though. What are some of the benefits of including visuals in our presentation?

Visuals improve audience understanding.

When it comes to perception and interpreting what someone is saying, it's a very personal and unique experience. We all tend to interpret ideas and concepts in our own way, based on past experiences and understandings.

For example, check out this image. Do you see a duck or a rabbit? Depending on where your eyes focused first, you might see either or. And it might not be what your next-door neighbor saw first. It just depends on the individual.

Thinking more on this idea of perception, imagine you're speaking to a group of twenty people. A hundred people. Five hundred people. That's a whole lot of individual interpretation going on. By including a visual representation of what you're talking about, you can help everyone see the same image, creating an overall more effective message.

Visuals can clarify concepts and ideas.

As much as we love words, they aren't all-powerful. Sometimes, we need a picture or image to clarify what we mean.

For instance, we could go on and one about how blood flows through a heart. We might explain all about the different valves and ventricles, and we might have the sweetest way of describing all the atriums. But, it'll all be pretty lost on the listeners without an awesome diagram to supplement what we're saying.

Or, maybe we want to give a presentation on something our audience has a hard time visualizing. Even the best speakers would struggle to help the audience "see" a newly discovered written language, for instance. A picture would go a long way in helping the audience understand exactly what the speaker's referring to.

By including those visuals to clarify our ideas, we can ensure that our audience is better able to understand what we're talking about.

Visuals can help you emphasize a main point.

If your audience only walks away with one or two main ideas from your presentation, what would you want those things to be? The answer to that is where you want to place emphasis. And, if you really want to put a massive, "Hey, look at me" sign on a main idea, make it visual.

Maybe you're giving a presentation on the bad effects of soda on a person's health. You could tell the audience that there's a whole lot of sugar in those carbonated beverages until you're blue in the face. Or you can whip out a bag full of sugar to show them just how much "a whole lot" really is. It's much more effective in illustrating your point, and it really emphasizes your idea to the audience.

Basically, it's adding repetition to your presentation. You couple your words with an awesome visual, and bam: you've got emphasis.

Visuals help your audience retain your information better.

This makes sense. If visuals are working to clarify your ideas and to emphasize main points, we can see why an audience would be more likely to remember all that awesome information from your presentation.

Plus, humans are pretty visual people. Unless we're sleeping or mid-blink, our eyes are open and taking in all kinds of information. Plus, by seeing a visual aid, it adds another level of sensory information (because our speech is already giving them the auditory info), which means that your audience is going to be more likely to store what's being presented in the short-term or even long-term memories.

Bonus: having visuals can help you remember things, too. When you see the next slide in your presentation, or you move on to another visual aid, it serves as a little reminder for your next speaking points. Talk about giving with both hands.

Visuals create a varied and more interesting overall presentation.

As a general rule, audiences are kind of shallow. You might have it going on in your speech, but if your presentation doesn't look good, you're gonna get rated a little lower.

So, how do you keep yourself out of that presentation friend zone? Yep. Visuals.

For instance, don't just talk through a speech on gourmet bakeries popping up around town; show off some of those sweet creations and let the audience drool a little. Or, if you're presenting information about a foreign culture, add a little zing by showing off the culture's clothing and traditions.

Seriously. A little bit of "pretty" can go a long way in helping your presentation catch the attention of your audience in all the right ways.

Visuals can improve your credibility.

What? We need pictures to make ourselves more credible? That doesn't seem right.

But, it actually is. If you've got a visual display to back up the words in your speech, you appear more prepared and competent, and audiences definitely catch onto things like that. Otherwise, if you just give a speech, it might seem like you didn't put as much effort as you could, which lowers the impression the audience gets from you.

And know that your visual aids reflect on you. If your visuals don't seem very professional and clean, neither will you.

Yep. There's a whole lot more to this visual aid business than it might seem. Don't worry, though: this is just the beginning of a wonderful adventure in visual aids.

TIME TO BUST OUT THAT AID

All this is good and well, but how do you know when to bust out that visual aid? It's all in the timing, right? If you pull something out too early or too late, it'll lose the effect you're hoping for.

Check out some guidelines for when to pull out that visual aid:

• Use visuals to save words. Is your information easier to show in a graph or chart? Do you want to explain just how significant some results are? A visual is going to be your best bet. That way, you're showing your results, as opposed to describing them.

• Use visuals to show things that would have a greater impact than words. If you're giving a talk on how Vermont fall foliage impacts the tourist industry, you might want to display a picture of leaf-gazers enjoying the visual splendor…instead of just saying "These leaves are really pretty. People love 'em." The image will have a much greater impact on the audience because nothing is left to the imagination. It's all there for them to take in.

• Use visuals as an introduction. Show off the title of your presentation in a slideshow. Define some terms the audience will need to know. You might include a little insight into the structure of your presentation, or you could highlight a question you plan to answer by the end of the speech. Or, you might just stick to simplicity by showing an image that sets the tone and theme of what you're about to talk about. Yep. The intro is definitely a great spot to include a visual.

• Use visuals during the main point of your presentation. You might even have more than one main point. Regardless, a visual is an effective way to highlight a new or important point. You might also display data or results that summarize your main point. And visuals are a convenient mode to offer evidence that supports your claims. Just be sure to keep those visuals hidden until they're relevant to what you're saying.

• Use visuals to end with a bang. While it can be a great idea to bookend your presentation with some visuals, don't just use a visual just to have something up there; be sure to add some value to your presentation. It can be something like a summary of your main points, or you can find an image that wraps up your main idea in a succinct way. Or, you might even show off some of your key references so that your audience knows where to start if they'd like more info on your presentation topic.

Again, it's important to remember your audience size and the environment of your presentation when you decide when and how to show of your visuals. If things are too small or not aimed correctly, your presentation is going to fall flat.

Take a leaf out of those Boy Scouts' handbook, and be prepared.

YOUR WEAPON OF CHOICE

As you move into new levels of presenting and we improve our speechin' skills, we've gotta step up our visual game, too. Long gone are the days of poster boards and overhead projector transparencies. Instead, we welcome in the reigning heavyweight champs of visual aids.

First, you've gotta consider the most basic of basics: your personal appearance. That's right. What you wear and how you look is considered a visual aid. Maybe you only go as far as dressing professionally, or maybe you don a suit of armor to talk about medieval England. Your appearance will definitely have an impact on the way your information is taken in, so be mindful.

Check out this TED Talk for a great example of just how important your clothing (or lack thereof) choices can be.

Not feeling the whole, "let me take my clothes off on stage" strategy? Here are a few tips you might consider when dressing for a presentation:

• Consider the audience. What kind of event or environment will you present for? What do you think the audience will wear to said event? Try to dress at least as well as or little nicer than them, and you'll be golden.

• It's okay to be comfy. Don't show up in a robe and slippers, but take into account that you'll probably have a bit of nerves. Avoid overly tight clothing or clothing that's too loose. You might end up fidgeting with your outfit, making you appear super uncomfortable. That's a great way to throw the audience's confidence in you right out the window.

• Skip the bright colors and wild prints. Maybe you're a fashionista, or maybe you just really dig the Hawaiian button-ups. Either way, skip those kinds of clothes on presentation day. It can be distracting to the audience, and you want them to focus on your message, not your sweet duds.

• Think about your movement. Will you have to stoop to pick something up? Skip the short skirts. Will you have to reach up for something? Avoid tucking in that dress shirt. Are you going to have some sort of sword fight in the middle of it all? Don't forget that shield. It's all about planning to be comfortable in the situation.

• If you're feeling nervous about the outfit you've chosen for your big day, try a dress rehearsal. That way, you know if you'll run into any problems beforehand, giving you plenty of time to figure out an alternative.

• Moving on from the fabulousness that is yourself, there are some other options for your presentation's visual aids:

• Props and objects are a great way to visually display anything you want to talk about. They'll help your audience actually see what you're talking about, making everything that much clearer.

• Demonstrations are kind of like live-action visual aid. They're an awesome way to catch and hold the attention of your audience, and they can add a lot of value to your presentation. Be sure that any demonstration is 100% relevant to what you're trying to say, and avoid being overly gimmicky. Instead, aim to include a demonstration that improves audience understanding.

  • Make sure to have a backup plan. Demonstrations don't always go smoothly, so get ready with an alternative or segue to move on from the mistake.

• Posters and charts offer a great way to display information, especially if you're limited in technology, making a slideshow impossible. Follow some simple rules for your poster:

  • Place it where everyone can see, and use big enough font that everyone won't be squinting.

  • Don't handwrite the information.

  • Make note of where you'll be presenting when asking whether your poster will hang or be freestanding.

  • Avoid turning your back to the audience when you talk about the display. You already know what you put on the poster; just talk about it and let everyone else take a peek.

• With the increased emphasis on integrating tech into our presentations, audio and video become powerful tools that are readily available in just about any venue. They're great for catching audiences' attention, and they can pass on a lot of information in a short period of time.

  • These types of aids are usually best used to emphasize a point, to introduce a new topic, or to help segue into your next idea.

  • Stick to a max of about twenty seconds or so. Otherwise, you're letting the technology do your presentation for you.

  • Have it ready to go. Don't get caught in the middle of your presentation and frantically trying to cue the video. Before you start speaking, have it all set to where you just need to hit that "play" button.

  • If a malfunction happens, move on. Don't waste time trying to fix it. Instead, try to summarize what's the video if you can, and if you can't just keep going. The show must go on.

• Handouts might be a great option for your presentation if you've got some super detailed information that your audience just needs to have. For instance, maybe you've got a massive data table that you had to dumb down for your slideshow so that it wouldn't be too busy (don't worry…we'll talk more about slide design in another lesson). But a handout doesn't have those kinds of limitations, so you can add just about anything you need to supplement your speech. Unless the information is absolutely necessary to understand your idea, wait until the end of the presentation to hand them out; otherwise, you'll have an extra distraction you'll have to compete with while you speak.

• Perhaps the most common visual aid in today's world is the slideshow. Generally, we use PowerPoint, Google Presentation, or another similar slideware program. It's a set of slides that'll display all the information you want to emphasize the main points of your speech.
  
  Since this is probably what you'll use most in presentation, we dedicate a lot of this unit to talking about the specifics of these visual aids. Don't you worry—more info's coming.

• Another slideshow-ish option is something called Prezi. Basically, it's similar to a slideshow in that it displays different images or text blocks in succession. But, it's the movement that makes it different. It's like the whole presentation is one big map, and the "camera" zooms in and out on different locations to show how everything's related. It's fun and dynamic, but the movement might possibly take away from your presentation, so be mindful that your content should be more interesting than all the transitions and zooming.

Looking over all this, it's clear that we've got a major arsenal to help us through our presentation. We can mix and match, or we can stick with the tried and true stuff that's gotten us through other presentations before. Or, we can move boldly into new realms. Regardless, you'll do well in battle by showing up on presentation day with one of these bad boys.