Visual aids can enhance your training presentations by making them more engaging, memorable, and persuasive. However, using them effectively requires careful planning, design, and delivery. In this article, you will learn some of the best practices for using visual aids in your training presentations.
Depending on your training objectives, audience, and content, you may want to use different types of visual aids, such as slides, charts, graphs, images, videos, or animations. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, so you need to consider how they align with your message and learning outcomes. For example, slides can provide structure and clarity, but they can also be boring and distracting. Charts and graphs can illustrate data and trends, but they can also be confusing and misleading. Images and videos can evoke emotions and stories, but they can also be irrelevant and inappropriate.
1. Keep it simple: Use clear and concise images that support the content of your presentation. Avoid using too many colors or cluttered visuals that may be distracting. 2. Use high-quality images: Make sure the images you use are of high quality and resolution. 3. Keep the text minimal: Use simple text that is easy to read and understand. Avoid using long paragraphs or complicated words. 4. Make it relevant: Use visuals that are relevant and meaningful to your audience. This will help to keep them engaged and interested. 5. Use variety: Use a variety of visual aids, such as diagrams, charts, and videos, to keep your presentation interesting and engaging.
Before the application of visual aids, imagine your audience. It is important to understand the variations of these aids that don't always convey imagery. The focus of visual aids is to create focus towards one's central idea. They help bring everything all together. Many times a simple artful bullet point will do. For instance, if your topic is about sustainability, then try using earth tone colors to convey the idea of nature. It would allow your audience to retain focus. For something like 'symptoms', visual images like photographs could be used to create deeper visualisation in the minds of your audience. Overall, when deciding on which visual aids might be best, it is always important to consider how to best reach your audience.
Visual design is the art and science of creating effective and appealing visual aids. It involves applying principles such as contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, balance, and hierarchy to organize and emphasize your information. Visual design also involves choosing appropriate colors, fonts, shapes, and icons to convey your tone and style. Visual design can help you create visual aids that are clear, consistent, and attractive, and that support your training goals and brand identity.
As far as visual design, make sure you are not cluttering up your presentations. Too much information can cause cognitive overload on the recipients part. Also proofread your presentation to ensure you don't have colors that do not work well together or images that cause words to "dissappear" in the graphics.
Visual aids are meant to enhance your verbal communication, not to replace or contradict it. Therefore, you need to use visual aids that are relevant, simple, and concise, and that highlight your key points and evidence. You also need to avoid overloading your visual aids with too much text, data, or graphics, as this can confuse and distract your audience. Instead, use visual aids to provide visual cues, examples, and summaries that reinforce your speech and help your audience remember and understand your message.
Visual aids should complement the verbal information you’re providing the audience (it’s for them, not for you). The key to adult learning is repetition so visual aids should complete two things: 1) they solidify your content through the use of visual alternatives and 2) provides an alternate method of communicating your information without repeating it word for word (e.g. ‘reading from the slide’). There’s a balance between over-saturation (of information) and over-simplification (no new data is provided to the audience). Holding your audience’s attention is key through concise and easily digestible visual learning.
Using visual aids effectively requires practice and preparation. You need to rehearse your presentation with your visual aids, and check for any technical issues, errors, or glitches. You also need to familiarize yourself with the equipment, software, and environment you will use to display your visual aids, and have a backup plan in case of any problems. You also need to prepare for how you will interact with your visual aids during your presentation, such as when to switch slides, how to point to or zoom in on details, and how to handle questions or feedback.
I recently presented a five-minute talk at Disrupt HR in Salt Lake City where I had to time my presentation to slides that changed every 15 minutes. Practice and preparation was necessary for the presentation to go smoothly but it was still hard!
Visual aids can help you engage your audience by making your presentation more interactive, dynamic, and fun. You can use visual aids to invite your audience to participate, share, or respond to your content, such as by using polls, quizzes, games, or simulations. You can also use visual aids to elicit emotions, reactions, or opinions from your audience, such as by using humor, stories, or controversies. You can also use visual aids to challenge, inspire, or motivate your audience, such as by using quotes, testimonials, or calls to action.
Visual aids of this nature can serve to engage the audience in quick ‘break out activities,’ but it is always important to be mindful that the slides are clean, coherent, educational in and of themselves, that they are colors that evoke the mood the presenter is attempting to evoke, and that that they clearly convey to the audience what you are ‘asking’ of them/them to do. If you have to stop and explain what the slide is ‘supposed’ to be conveying,’ you have wasted a slide, and their time. No one wants to relive their Pictionary nightmares in front of an entire group ?? - Dr. Nikki Martinez, Psy. D., LCPC
Choosing the clearest most concise visual can help dictate the style of response you want from your audience. Add some humour with unusual or comical images and memes, follow a more structured animated approach to engage your audience or have them communicate with one another about different approaches to a common problem. Different approaches can be tailored to the people you’re working with, in teams you know, or by having a chat with the audiences line manager to see what kind of interactions and topics motivate their team, then create break off activities or challenges. Engaging an audience, get them actively involved rather than just simple text, will help the whole session go much smoother, and lead to staff room chatter for days.
Using visual aids effectively is a skill that you can improve with feedback and reflection. You can evaluate your use of visual aids by asking for input from your audience, peers, or mentors, or by recording and reviewing your presentation. You can also use tools or frameworks to assess the quality and impact of your visual aids, such as the CRAP test (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity), the SUCCESs model (simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories), or the 4MAT system (why, what, how, what if). You can then use the feedback and assessment to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and to make adjustments and improvements for your next presentation.
Visual Learners engage their sight and enhance their comprehension with visually appealing activities Infographics: Transform complex concepts into captivating visual representations. Videos and Animations: Bring your content to life with dynamic visuals that leave a lasting impact. Slide Presentations: Utilize eye-catching graphics and compelling imagery to reinforce key points.
Visual presentations are great for augmenting your presentation for a portion of the population. Be aware, however, that kinesthetic learners will need to be engaged in additional ways to keep their attention. If your whole presentation engages only the eyes and the ears, and they have to sit and listen for more than a few minutes, you can lose up to 40% of your audience. (https://nationalmathfoundation.org/curriculum-research/)
This article covers it all fairly well. I would add perhaps an obvious note which is: you might not need one. It totally depends on circumstances, of course, but a super inspirational/emotional/story-telling message may be less impactful if audience members are distracted by visuals behind them. TL;DR: There is a time and place for visual aids - use accordingly!