As its name implies, a visual is anything you show your audience to aid them in understanding the point of your oral presentation. Visual aids are particularly important when the content makes demands on their attention or understanding, either because the data is highly technical or because the information is new and unfamiliar. The most effective presenters choose visual aids that illustrate to illuminate.
Types
A visual aid is basically anything the audience can see:
• A simple key word list on a flip chart
• A model of the real thing (such as an architectural model)
• A picture (or video) of the real thing
• The real thing (a machine part, for example)
• A chart or graph
The medium by which the visual is displayed can be as simple as a drawing on a whiteboard, or as complicated as a PowerPoint presentation with animations and video.
Considerations
The main thing to consider when choosing visual aids for your presentation is whether or not the visual adds to, or distracts from your central objective. Too many presenters choose visual aids (such as animated PowerPoint slides) that look "cool" but add little to the audience's grasp of the subject matter. You should justify every visual you use from the audience's point of view.
Misconceptions
Far too many professionals nowadays assume that the only way to make an effective presentation is to use PowerPoint. This assumption leads to the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint" syndrome, whereby the audience tunes out the speaker and misses the point of the presentation. Remember that the best teachers of old (before PowerPoint) used many simple visual aids, such as real objects (the atom as an apple, for example) or blackboard drawings, to deliver their message and delight their audiences.
Prevention/Solution
When it comes to visual aids, less is always more. The more charts and graphs you use in your presentation, the less your audience will actually remember. Don't be trapped into thinking, "But I have so much material and so little time---I must include as many bar graphs and pie charts as possible." Be sure to design your presentation with an achievable objective ("My audience will learn three ways to design a training program") and then choose only those visual aids that will clearly illustrate your key points.
Potential
Before the advent of modern technology, presenters and teachers were limited as to what kinds of visual aids they could realistically stheir listeners. Now we have the ability to show them real-time videos and conduct realistic simulations that let them experience a learning situation first hand. As visual aids become even more graphic and interactive (imagine using a hologram to make a point, for example), they will increase our abilities to grasp and retain even more sophisticated patterns and concepts.
Tags: visual aids, real thing, your presentation, aids such, aids that, audience will
