Create Effective Visual Support Materials

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Create Effective Visual Support Materials

• Help Your Receivers Get the Picture

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Agenda

• Use visual displays to enhance message
  comprehension
• Make the most of your visuals
• Deliver your visuals with confidence and style
• Get feedback on your visuals

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Use Visuals to Enhance Message Comprehension

• Written documents
• Oral presentations

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Why Use Visuals

• People are accustomed to visual stimulation
• 70 of people prefer to receive information
  visually
• Visuals help receivers get the message
• Audiences remember up to twice as much when they
  both see and hear it

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Visuals Help Writers and Speakers

• Develop the content of their message
• Organize ideas and create continuity
• Strengthen the impact of their message
• Clarify important concepts
• Provide variety for their audiences
• Use fewer additional notes

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Visuals Help Listeners and Readers

• Clarify and digest abstract ideas
• Retain information
• Avoid boredom

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Reasons to Use Visuals

• Improve communication effectiveness
• Increase audiences perceptions of presenter
• Boost speakers confidence

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Visuals Improve Efficiencies

• Decrease decision-making time 12
• Spend less time in meetings
• Improve audience action

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University of Minnesota/3M Study

• Audience likelihood to act 43
• Perceptions of presenter 11
• Information retention 10
• Information comprehension 8.5
• Attention 7.5
• Agreement 5.5

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Software for Creating Visuals

• Microsofts Excel
• Microsofts PowerPoint
• WordPerfects Presentations

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Make the Most of Your Visuals

• Use visuals for major points
• Apply common visual formats
• Check visuals for consistency
• Avoid the misuse of visuals
• Use video or audio clips
• Use flip charts, white boards, and chalkboards

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Visuals Friend or Foe?

• Properly created visuals will reinforce your
  message
• Poorly designed visuals can distract from your
  message

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Use Visuals for Major Points

• Limit each visual to a single point
• Keep charts and illustrations simple
• Follow the 30-second rule
• Remove any superfluous material

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Use an Appropriate Design Concept

• Pay attention to the expectations of your school,
  organization, or company
• Observe what successful people are doing

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Determine Appropriateness

• Define your context your situation, audience,
  and objectives
• Choose templates based on this analysis

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Apply Common Visual Formats

• Word charts
• Pie charts
• Line charts
• Bar charts

• Tables
• Flow Charts
• Organizational charts
• Props and models

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Word Charts

• State key ideas concisely and directly
• Are the simplest and most frequently used visual

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• Figure 7-1

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Pie Charts

• Illustrate part-to-whole comparison
• Focus on only a few broad divisions

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Insert Sample Pie Chart

• Figure 7-2

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Line Charts

• Show trends or changes over time
• Illustrate simple comparisons of trends

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Our Degrees Conferred
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Bar Charts

• Compare one item with others
• Include variations to illustrate different
  relationships

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Varieties of Bar Charts

• Vertical bar charts
• Horizontal bar charts
• Segmented bar charts
• Grouped bar charts

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Fiscal Year Gross Sales
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Flow Charts

• Show step-by-step progression
• Simplify the audiences understanding
• Provide instructions or explain solutions

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Organizational Charts

• Illustrate the structure of a company
• Show lines of authority and job responsibilities

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Marketing Department
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Props and Models
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Check for Design Consistency

• Background (Template)
• Font
• Structure
• Capitalization
• Spacing
• Illustrations

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Background and Template

• Use the same template for your entire set of
  visuals
• Choose a template that respects your target
  audience
• Select high-contrast colors

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Multicultural Communication
Sherron Bienvenu, PhD Deborah Valentine, MS
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Fonts

• Use a consistent font
• Employ the same size and style for all titles
• Employ the same size and style for all body copy

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Fonts Have Personalities

• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Courier
• Comic Sans
• Bookman Old Style
• Arial

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Serif and Sanserif Fonts

• Serif Fonts
• Times New Roman
• Book Antiqua
• Rockwell

• Sanserif Fonts
• Tahoma
• Comic Sans
• Lucida Sans

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Limit the Number of Fonts

• Use only two fonts per document
• Choose sufficiently different fonts
• Avoid busydocuments

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Font Sizes for Slides

• 44 point font (good for titles)
• 32 point font (good for body copy)
• 28 point font (good for body copy in some fonts)
• 18 point font (too small)
• 14 point font (ridiculous)

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Font Sizes for Written Documents

• Major heads - 18-point type or larger
• Body copy - 12 points
• Title fonts should be easily distinguishable
• Bold
• Italicized
• Larger

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Structure

• Break up the text using
• Bullet points
• Enumeration
• Use parallel structure

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Capitalization

• Use capital letters sparingly in visuals
• Present titles using a mixture uppercase and
  lowercase letters
• Capitalize only proper nouns and the first word
  in each bullet

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Spacing

• Begin all titles at the same place
• Start body copy on the same line
• Consider an alternate starting place for slides
  with 2-line titles
• Use consistent spacing between bullets
• Use more space between bullets than within
  bullets

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Illustrations or Clip Art

• Illustrate your points
• Break up your documents
• Help your audience focus

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Samples of Clip Art

• Insert figure 7-10

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Use High-contrast Visuals
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Avoid the Misuse of Visuals

• Communicators misuse visuals when they
• Make them too complicated
• Overwhelm the message

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Video or Audio Clips

• Add impact by using video or audio clips
• Choose clips with motion and sound
• Create your own clips

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Flip Charts

• Are especially useful in problem-solving meetings
• Record ideas shared in a group
• Allow group to react to input
• May be posted for easy reference

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White and Chalk Boards

• Exist in many meeting rooms and class rooms
• Provide a large space to write

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Deliver your Visuals with Confidence and Style

• Double check your visuals
• Leave the lights on
• Use a remote control
• Face the audience - not the image
• Limit number of slides
• Minimize the number of transition types
• Turn off projectors when not in use

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Get Feedback on Your Visuals

• While designing your visuals
• During delivery
• After your presentation

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Remember Visuals Enhance Message Comprehension

• Use visuals to enhance your message
• Plan visuals based on audience needs
• Create consistent visuals
• Avoid over-complicating your visuals
• Check your presentation visuals before your
  presentation