How can you use visual aids to communicate with stakeholders?

Ensure your visual aides enhance your argument. They ought to be supported with data and synthesize your key points. There are many tools available, so know your audience and how they best receive information. In my experience, Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel offer get tools to develop visual aides. This is an easy way to enhance your argument and offer your audience an alternative way to understand your key points.

“A picture tells 1000 words.” But only if you’ve chosen the right picture! Doing this right is ??POWERFUL!?? You want to angle ?? for the perfect: Image Format Context Impact??????? If you’re going to use visual aids, they have to tell the right visual story. Eye charts with a bunch of words that only the front row can read are an epic fail. Be intentional about the images and formats you select so they tell the story for you long after the brief/presentation is over. If it doesn’t help tell your story and make it more compelling; if it doesn’t make a lasting impression in a positive way to your desired business outcomes, it’s not the right visual. Be intentional. You got this! ??????????

In my experience the biggest problem with visual aids are too much information on one chart and the visual information not tracking with the accompanying verbal information. As a "rule of thumb" do not have more than seven lines on a chart or have it too "busy" with graphs or diagrams that no one can read/understand the information presented. Words and pictures communicate in different languages, so to be significant and effective they must carry the same message to reinforce one another and be most effective.

Visual aids are essential in today's age. People tend to remember more from a visual graphic than just from listening or words. The power of a graphic that highlights the information on an information radiator is invaluable. Select the appropriate format for the audience and situation. Utilize resources when available to deliver a visual aid that is informative and visually appealing.

It’s important to remember that everyone responds differently, so different presentations will appeal to different people. Some are visual learners, some want to understand the principles, some want detail. Wherever possible, I try to use several different presentations to get the message across in a single package - say a slide with a diagram or schematic, a narrative description and a table.

Due to the human nature of seeing patterns and rhythm in things, we tend to pick up when inconsistencies happen. Your presentation will fall flat if you have things like mismatched font sizes, stretched fonts, etc. Things like this will become distracting. The stakeholders may not even know why they seem bothered even. They might subconsciously attribute their discomfort to your material. Consist is key.

Simplicity is important in visuals because it allows flexibility in the style the data is presented, enabling you to tailor the story the visual is telling more precisely to its intended audience.

Design principles are guidelines and best practices to be followed during the process of designing a product, service, or interface. They help in creating effective, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly designs. However, these principles are not fixed rules and may vary depending on the specific design context. Adapting them to suit the goals, target audience, and specific project is essential.

Keep the visual clean. You should effectively use white space to make sure that the main point of the image stands out from everything else in the graphic. Remember, you are capturing eye movement from left to right, top to bottom. Therefore, the most important things need to be, generally speaking, Towards the top left of your graphic. If you follow eye movement patterns, you’ll see most things on the right hand, side of a graphic or never read. If using multiple images in a graphic, be sure that all eyelines point towards the main Takeaway.

Some of the best presenters I’ve ever seen are military. They are confident, rehearsed and have a standard process for delivery. Model yourself on this. Things to check out: - SMEAC model of briefing - Briefs by military instructors in videos

You, the presenter, are the number one visual aid of the presentation. Your actual visual aids won’t assist nearly as much if you’re sloppily presenting yourself as the audience will have their attention on a myriad of opinions, and possibly reasons for not focusing on the important matter at hand, the information.

Practicing and preparing visual aids is crucial for efficient message delivery, maintaining focus on presented information. Clear visuals enhance comprehension, ensuring your message is effectively communicated and memorable to your audience. I keep a positive mindset when preparing my visual aids.

You need to rehearse multiple times in front of a mirror with the presentation to be comfortable with it. More important than saying the same thing every single time like a robot, the key to persuasive presentations is matching the emotional frequency of the audience. You need to have your key takeaways down so that you have room to improv with your audience. You’ll need to read the room and weave your takeaways into a message that will resonate with your audience on presentation day.

Visual aids should be the back up singers to your lead vocals in most moments, but occasionally they can be the headliner that comes out to surprise the crowd with a live performance of a hit a collaboration track. What I mean is this: done right they support your foundational info and key points perfectly without being distracting or too much. There are times though, where a perfectly laid audiovisual tool can bring a laugh, a tear, or drive a key point that you couldn’t otherwise capture. Too often the audiovisual IS the presentation; they can be so much, or so heavily relied upon that the audience isn’t allowed to connect to the speaker. Use them strategically and wisely, and let your audience connect with you instead of power point.

Understanding when visual aids are supportive to a verbal presentation and when (sometimes more frequently) they will be passed around the organization without any other context (i.e. verbal explanation) is important. One scenario requires additional context, maybe in the form of a text box, to be added to the visual but too much detail on the slide can steal attention during a face to face conversation.

Many schools throughout the nation stimulate and teach to solely the left brain of students i.e. reading and writing for analytical understanding. Considering this, combining various forms of effective visual aids permits your audience to learn, understand, and apply the contents of the message better. Having the aid is less valuable if it doesn’t stimulate both sides of the brain.

When selecting visuals, it’s important to understand the type of presentation they are for. Live presentations should be very visual and light on text/data. The images should reinforce the message and have clear calls to action to solve specific pain points. For stand alone presentations that are sent to clients for them to peruse at their leisure, there will need to be a balance of images and text so that the reader can take away the information that would normally be delivered by the presenter. Anything to detracts from the key takeaways needs to be ruthlessly cut for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

When using visual aids to communicate with stakeholders, it's become increasing vital to prioritize inclusion and diversity. This means ensuring that the visuals represent a wide range of ethnicities, genders, ages, and abilities, reflecting the diversity of the audience. Care should be taken to avoid stereotypes or culturally insensitive imagery. Accessibility is also key. Language used in these visuals should be inclusive and clear, avoiding jargon or culturally specific references. By focusing on these aspects, visual aids can become powerful tools that resonate inclusively and effectively with a diverse group of stakeholders.