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Blog Data Visualization 10 Types of Visual Aids For Learning [+ Teaching Aid Templates]

10 Types of Visual Aids For Learning [+ Teaching Aid Templates]

Written by: Sara McGuire Sep 28, 2018

As an educator, you probably understand the importance of diversifying your teaching materials. After all, it has been understood for a while now that many people learn differently.

In particular, visuals aids for learning can have a huge impact on how students retain information. While words can be abstract and hard to retain, visuals tend to be more concrete and easier to recall.

Plus, when information is presented visually, it’s a lot more engaging!

Visual aids for learning can also expand beyond the realm of just classroom posters and presentations. You can also visually enhance documents like student progress reports, lesson plans , and research reports.

After all, teachers can get bored too, right?

With a beginner-friendly design tool like Venngage, creating custom visual for any topic you want to cover is easier than ever.

Here are 10 types of visual aids for learning that will engage students and help you plan and deliver lessons more effectively. I’ve also included some design tips to help you get started.

1. Educational posters to inspire and remind students 

Educational posters are a classic teaching aid that can breathe life into a classroom. Hanging posters up on your classroom walls will not only invite color into the environment, they’ll also act as helpful resources for students.

For example, here’s an educational poster that you could pin up in your classroom. The three study tips on this poster are organized with a different colored background. This is a simple  poster design trick  to help the information stand out.

CREATE THIS POSTER TEMPLATE

Meanwhile, this educational poster uses icons to visualize each different type of learner. A poster with this layout this can be useful for introducing students to new or foreign concepts (for example, words in a secondary language) because they can associate each word with a visual.

USE THIS POSTER TEMPLATE

2. Educational infographics to simplify complex information

Infographics are a perfect classroom tool because they can make complex information easier to understand.

There are many different types of infographics you can create, depending on the information you want to visualize. For example, you could make an infographic to summarize a new topic , to show a timeline of events, to visualize statistics , to explain a process –and more.

For example, this educational infographic uses a combination of charts, icons and creative text to show statistics about teens and social media. Visuals aids like these can be helpful for students who have trouble wrapping their heads around big numbers.

CREATE THIS DEMOGRAPHIC INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE

The cool thing about infographics is that there’s so many approaches you can take to create one. And the design doesn’t have to be complicated–just effective.

Related: How to Create a Successful Employee Training and Development Program Using Visuals

For example, this infographic uses a pattern graphic design of colorful circles to represent different vitamins. Associating each vitamin with a color can help students remember each one.

CREATE THIS TEACHING AID TEMPLATE

In data visualization, color plays a bigger role than just for decoration. Color can also be used as a tool to visualize information. Check out our guide to using colors to communicate effectively .

3. Creative presentations to keep students engaged with a lesson

We’ve all sat through boring presentations before. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you don’t want to be the one delivering a boring presentation!

A creative presentation template can go a long way to keep your students from snoring in the middle of class. For starters, introduce bright colors and creative fonts into your slide design. You can also combine photos, charts and icons to illustrate concepts.

For example, this creative presentation uses a bold color palette that give each slide impact:

USE THIS PRESENTATION TEMPLATE

The combination of a script font with a more modern font helps makes for an interesting and unexpected design. Simple tricks like mixing and matching styles (as long as they’re complementary) can go a long way in your  presentation design .

Related: Storyline: A Starter Guide to Creating Engaging Visual Training Courses

Presenting information in a creative and visually-stimulating way can help get students excited about a topic. This presentation template uses image frames to seamlessly incorporate different pictures of foods into each slide design:

We have a tutorial for using image frames in your design, which you can access  here .

4. Educational charts to make data accessible

Simple charts are another great visual aid for an online learning platform . They can make data more approachable, and can also help reveal the stories behind data.

Look for opportunities to present information visually in your presentations, handouts, and reports, and find a chart that fits that type of information. For example, a classic pyramid chart is effective for visualizing a topic in different levels:

CREATE THIS PYRAMID CHART

Charts are also handy tools for analyzing processes. There are plenty of opportunities for you to include engaging visuals in your staff presentations, personal research, and more.

For example, a common problem that many teachers face is negotiating budgets for their curriculums, programs, and resources. Well-designed visuals can help you make a good case for your budget requests.

CREATE A CHART

Check out our guide for choosing the best charts for your data .

5. Student assessment reports with an approachable design

Since tracking students’ progress is an important part of a teacher’s job, why not make your student assessment reports more engaging with a creative design?

Younger students at the preschool or elementary school level can find assessments particularly stressful. A fun and playful design can help make a student progress report appear less intimidating.

For example, this progress report template uses a rainbow color palette, with star pictograms representing their grades:

CREATE THIS PROGRESS REPORT

You can also help students and parents understand their progress better by summarizing their progress in a chart. For example, this chart template uses a combination of a pie chart and some simple icons to highlight the main educational areas the student is being assessed on.

USE THIS REPORT CARD TEMPLATE

6. Classroom checklists to keep students, teachers and parents on track

A simple checklist can be a great tool to have in the classroom. From classroom duties to assignments for the semester, there are a lot of things that students need to keep track of.

Adding visual aids to your checklists can help make the points on the list easier to remember. For example, this simple checklist infographic  uses icons and a different color for each point:

USE THIS CHECKLIST TEMPLATE/button>

A visual checklist can also be useful for staff members, to help them remember tasks or best practices. For example, this checklist template offers tips to guide new teaching assistants:

USE THIS LIST INFOGRAPHIC TEMPLATE/button

7. Research reports to make data and insights engaging

If you want to share some interesting research findings with your students, or you want students to share their findings with you, try using a visually engaging report template . A visual report will require you or your students to identify and emphasize the most important pieces of information.

For example, this research report template uses circle icons to emphasize the study’s main findings:

USE THIS REPORT TEMPLATE

Presenting research visually can also help inspire students and staff members. For example, if you want to promote a student organization or a charity, visualizing some surprising statistics can make people stop and think about a cause.

8. School newsletters to get students, parents and teachers excited about events

A classic school newsletter can help keep staff, students and parents on the same page. Why not add some school spirit to your newsletter design ? If you start with a newsletter template, it’s easy to customize the text and visuals for every week or month.

Simply swap out the icons with ones that reflect the theme of each particular newsletter. You can also use image frames to share pictures of events at your school.

CREATE THIS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER TEMPLATE

Incorporate your school colors and fonts into your newsletter design. For example, this newsletter template uses the school’s colors of orange for the headers and blue for the sub-headers:

USE THIS NEWSLETTER TEMPLATE

Our newsletter maker offers a ton of creative newsletter templates. Why not try it out?

9. Education calendars to keep students, parents and teacher informed

Both teachers and students have a lot to keep track of. Adding some design flare to your calendar will make it a fun visual aid you can hang up in your classroom, or include to parents in an email.

Look for ways to organize the information so nothing is missed. For example, the lefthand column in this calendar template identifies the focus of each week, using an image to illustrate the ideas. This makes it easy for students to glance at the calendar and have an idea of what’s going on.

USE THIS CALENDAR TEMPLATE

10. Lesson plans to help you stay organized and to inspire other educators

As an educator, you no doubt understand the importance of being organized. Incorporating visuals into your lesson plan can make it easier for you to scan for information. It can also help inspire your creativity about a subject!

Since organization is key when it comes to lesson planning, you don’t have to go overboard with the design. Some simple design elements like icons, colorful headers, and a thematic footer can breathe life into a mundane lesson plan.

And if you want to share your lesson plans on a personal blog or with other teachers in your school, making your lesson plan engaging will make all the difference!

CREATE THIS LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Read More:  27+ Lesson Plan Examples for Effective Teaching

A few things to keep in mind when designing visual aids for learning:

• Make sure your information is organized and easy to understand–even if that means toning down the design.
• On that same note, keep designs relatively simple and keep text concise.
• Look for ways to visualize information using charts, pictograms, icons, and images.
• Customize templates for things like newsletters, reports, and calendars so you can easily reuse them.
• Export your teaching aids as high quality PNGs or PDFs so they will look good when you print them.

These are just a handful of the different types of visual aids for learning that you can use in the classroom. Are there any other visual aids that you like to use in your classroom? Share your tips in the comments!

What Is Your Teacher Personality Type? [QUIZ + INFOGRAPHIC]

8 Examples of How Middle Schools Can Incorporate Infographics in the Classroom

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106 Effective Visual Aids

Before you just open up PowerPoint and begin creating slides, you should stop for a moment and consider what type of visual aid will best serve your purpose and if you even need an aid at all. Select a visual aid that adds to your presentation in a meaningful way, not merely something pretty to look at or a substitute for thorough preparation. Visuals are not there for you to hide behind when you are in front of your audience. Because of the tendency for novice speakers to use visuals as a crutch in their speeches, it has even been suggested that beginner speakers be forbidden from using visual aids while they are learning to present. [1]

Visual aids serve a unique role in a presentation, and you should consider the specific purpose and desired outcome of your speech when determining if, when, to what extent, and in what format you use visual aids.

Visuals can spark interest, build emotional connections, clarify your words, explain abstract ideas, help draw conclusions, or increase understanding. For instance, a speaker may show a stacks of books to represent the amount of data storage in a speech about the evolution of computers; or demonstrate the proper use of ear plugs by distributing ear plugs, showing how to insert them, and then blasting an air horn in a speech about preventing hearing loss in order to make the value of ear protection more memorable and concrete. Done well—simple, visible, relevant, memorable, and audience-focused— visual aids can have a profound impact on your audience and your overall message.

Visual aids can be an important part of conveying your message effectively since people learn far more by hearing and seeing than through hearing or seeing alone. [2]  The brain processes verbal and visual information separately. By helping the audience build visual and verbal memories, they are more likely to be able to remember the information at a later time. [3]  If you can find a visual aid to complement what you are saying, you will help your audience understand the information you are presenting and remember your message. For example, a speaker might show the proper and improper ways to bow when being introduced in Japan while at the same time talking about the movements and also displaying a slide with the appropriate angles and postures for bowing. By using multiple modes in concert with each other, the message is strengthened by the pairing of words, images, and movement.

Not just any visual will do, however. Each visual should be relevant to your message, convey an important point, be clearly understandable, and be visible by your entire audience. Visuals should be used to make concepts easier to understand and to reinforce your message. They should illustrate important points that are otherwise hard to understand. [4]

“Diving in the Adriatic”  by melschmitz.  morgueFile license .

Use visuals for speeches about processes, products, or demonstrations of how to do something, such as a diagram of how email is delivered in a speech about computer security. Use visuals when you need to explain things you cannot see because they are hidden or abstract, like a model of your internal organs in a speech about gastric bypass surgery. Use them when you need to grab your audience’s attention or stir their emotions. A speaker could use a photo of a starving child and a bag of rice that represents the daily calorie intake of a poor child in a speech about food insecurity to create a visceral reaction in the audience. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so use images to tell a story or create a visual metaphor. Visual metaphors are useful when trying to evoke an emotion, such as showing an image of someone running or diving into a pool when you want to evoke action on the part of your audience. The images convey the message to “get going” or “dive in.” When talking about numbers or statistics, use visuals to provide context, comparison, and to help your audience understand the meaning of data. Done well, graphs can convey data. [5]  While there are many possible reasons to use visuals in your presentation, your guiding principle should be: does this make the message clearer or more memorable? If you cannot answer with a resounding “YES!” then re-think the plan for your visuals and begin again.

• Palmer, E. (2011).  Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students.  Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.  ↵
• Vasile, A. J. (2004).  Speak with confidence: A practical guide  (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  ↵
• Malamed, C. (2009).  Visual language for designers: Principles for creating graphics that people understand.  Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers.  ↵
• Detz, J. (2000).  It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffen; Palmer, E. (2011).  Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students.  Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers; Young, K. S., & Travis, H. P. (2008).  Oral communication: Skills, choices, and consequences  (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.  ↵
• Malamed, C. (2009).  Visual language for designers: Principles for creating graphics that people understand . Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers; Palmer, E. (2011).  Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students . Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers; Tufte, E. R. (2003).  The cognitive style of PowerPoint . Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press; Vasile, A. J. (2004).  Speak with confidence: A practical guide  (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  ↵
• Chapter 13 Effective Visual Aids.  Authored by : Sheila Kasperek, MLIS, MSIT.  Provided by : Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA.  Located at :  http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html .  Project : The Public Speaking Project.  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Cake depicting a cheeseburger.  Authored by : Michael Prudhomme.  Located at :  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cake_depicting_a_cheeseburger.jpg .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Diving in the Adriatic.  Authored by : melschmitz.  Provided by : MorgueFile.  Located at :  http://mrg.bz/SMkUNQ .  License :  Other .  License Terms : You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner.

Effective Visual Aids Copyright © 2020 by Liza Long; Amy Minervini; and Joel Gladd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Making the Most of Visual Aids

Three strategies for using visual aids to encourage students to engage more deeply with course content.

Most teachers understand the power of visual aids in helping students grasp content. Teachers value the support that visuals lend to classroom instruction because they encourage students to make associations between pieces of information, soak up chunks of course content quickly, and function as a memory aid.

But sometimes we teachers don’t approach the use of visual aids as carefully as we should. We may be too lax in monitoring how students interpret visuals (allowing the oversimplification of content) or how students create visuals (which shows whether they understand what should be included). As a result, students struggle to make the needed connection with course content.

As an educator who relies on graphic organizers and charts in the classroom, I have three strategies for using visual aids without sacrificing course content.

Sharing Intent

We often naively believe that a visual can stand on its own with minimal explanation. Instead, we should directly communicate to students what we hope for them to see (or interpret) based on the lesson at hand. For example, it’s useful to help students explore why the visual was selected and what the key characteristics of it are, and to identify the non-essential elements of it. And we should specify what we intend for the students to know after examining it. For instance, Professor Howard Cox’s purpose in integrating props like an officer’s cap and a replica revolver into his lectures on fiction set during the Civil War is to help build his students’ foundational knowledge about an author’s purpose and inspiration.

If time allows, I like to share a “runner-up” image and invite students to consider why the image didn’t make the cut. This discussion can deepen their understanding. And teachers can use prompts to help students reach that deeper understanding. Examples include “This image is a stronger representation of the concept because _____” and “This image makes me think about _____ from our lesson, which is important because _____.”

Activating Discussion

Most teachers encourage some level of class discourse when presenting a visual aid, but we need to go a step further. We can promote a conversation about how the visual helps in processing the course content. For example, ask students to share how the visual reinforces—or challenges—what they previously learned about relevant vocabulary terms. In my College Readiness class, we review a line graph that compares letter grades and attendance, discussing how the upward direction of the lines supports our expectations of a connection between consistent attendance and higher grades. We also question the story presented by the graph: Beyond lower grades, what consequences do absentee students face?

To increase students’ processing opportunities, use a think-aloud to get students talking about what makes a visual useful vs. the qualities that seem less important to understanding the theme or central message of the graphic or its connection to other content.

Push students to think deeper. For instance, in order to promote retrieval practice , put the visual away and ask students to break down the concepts represented in the visual relying solely on their memory. It’s important to discuss any discrepancies between what the students recall and what’s actually present in the image.

This is an excellent opportunity to explore misconceptions about the concept at hand. It’s also an ideal time to highlight any blind spots or typical areas of confusion related to the concept. For example, when sharing a bar graph, caution students that the measurement scale can lead them to misread it, especially if the y-axis starts with a random number instead of zero or if information is measured in the short term instead of the long term.

Creating Visual Aids as a Class

I believe involving students in the design of visual aids is essential to foster buy-in and learning ownership, but initially, students may hesitate to create their own visuals and take on the designer role.

Establishing design parameters for students should help. For example, limit their format options by specifying the type of graphic organizer or chart they can use, and provide time to discuss what kinds of visuals would potentially work best based on the content at hand. You can also assign a specified number of key concepts—based on the content reviewed—that students are required represented with their visual.

For students who continue to seem uncertain about creating a visual on their own, educator Matt Miller explains the value of maintaining a library of icons  (related to the topic, of course). Such a library allows students to focus on making meaning from the course material instead of becoming frustrated with the design work.

In addition to parameters, offer models. Make a point of asking students if it’s OK to share their visual with peers, and let them know why you wish to share their work. And teacher models are priceless. Dr. Deidra Gammill, a high school teacher in Mississippi, makes a habit of including images in her notes in order to provide concrete examples for her students to follow.

It’s not enough for a visual to capture attention—it should help students become more engaged. Over time, I’ve learned that aligning visual aids with course content is a deliberate process, one that is harder than I realized when I was starting out. With appropriate attention, we can ensure that our visual aids are windows to our lessons’ purpose and construction.

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14.2 Incorporating Effective Visuals into a Presentation

Learning objectives.

• Recognize the characteristics of effective visual aids.
• Analyze different types of visual aids and appropriate ways to use them.
• Determine how to create original visual aids and how to locate visual aids created by others.

Good communication is a multisensory experience. Children first learning how to read often gravitate toward books with engaging pictures. As adults, we graduate to denser books without pictures, yet we still visualize ideas to help us understand the text. Advertisers favor visual media—television, magazines, and billboards—because they are the best way to hook an audience. Websites rely on color, graphics, icons, and a clear system of visual organization to engage Internet surfers.

Bringing visuals into a presentation adds color, literally and figuratively. There is an art to doing it well. This section covers how to use different kinds of visual aids effectively.

Using Visual Aids: The Basics

Good writers make conscious choices. They understand their purpose and audience. Every decision they make on the page, from organizing an essay to choosing a word with just the right connotations, is made with their purpose and audience in mind.

The same principle applies to visual communication. As a presenter, you choose the following:

• When to show images or video for maximum impact
• Which images will best produce the effect you want
• When to present information using a table, chart, or other graphic
• How much text to include in slides or informational graphics
• How to organize graphics so they present information clearly

Your goal is to use visual media to support and enhance your presentation. At the same time, you must make sure these media do not distract your audience or interfere with getting your point across. Your ideas, not your visuals, should be the focus.

As you develop the visual side of your presentation, you will follow a process much like the process you follow when you write. You will brainstorm ideas, form an organizational plan, develop drafts, and then refine and edit your work. The following sections provide guidelines to help you make good decisions throughout the process.

What Makes Visual Aids Effective?

To help you get a sense of what makes visual media work, think about what does not work. Try to recall occasions when you have witnessed the following visual media failures:

• Websites crammed with so many images, flashing phrases, and clashing colors that they are almost unreadable
• Assembly instructions with illustrations or diagrams that are impossible to follow
• Photographs that are obviously (and badly) altered with photo-editing software
• Distracting typos or other errors in signs, advertisements, or headlines
• Tables, charts, or graphs with tiny, dense text or missing labels

In each case, the problem is that the media creator did not think carefully enough about the purpose and audience. The purpose of images, color, or flashing text on a website is to attract attention. Overusing these elements defeats the purpose because the viewer may become overwhelmed or distracted. Tables, charts, and graphs are intended to simplify complex information, but without clear labels and legible text, they will confuse the audience.

In contrast, effective visual elements are chosen or created with the purpose and audience in mind. Although a photo shoot for a magazine article might result in dozens of images, editors choose those few that work best with the article. Web designers and video game creators have an audience test their products before they are released, to ensure that people will understand how to use them. Understanding the function of different visual aids will help you use them with purpose.

Types of Visual Aids

Visual aids fall into two main categories—images and informational graphics. Images include photographs, illustrations and clip art, and video footage. Informational graphics include tables, charts, bar graphs, and line graphs.

These visual aids serve two purposes: to add emotional impact to your presentation and to organize information more clearly. With that in mind, read to find out how specific types of visual aids achieve those purposes.

Photographs

A striking photograph can capture your audience’s attention far more successfully than words can. Consider including photographs at the beginning or end of your presentation to emphasize your main ideas or to accompany a particularly important point in the body of your presentation. Remember that, as with other types of graphics, less is often more. Two or three well-chosen photographs are more effective than a dozen mediocre ones.

When you choose photographs, ask yourself these questions:

• What purpose does this image serve? Will it surprise the audience? Will it provoke a strong emotional response? Does it support an important point?
• Will this photograph be more effective if shown with only a caption, or does it need additional text?
• Will the audience understand what is happening in the photograph? Is the meaning immediately evident, or does the photo need some context?
• Would editing the image make it more effective? Consider using image-editing software to crop the photo, change the brightness, or make other cosmetic changes. (Do not go overboard, though. A slightly imperfect but authentic image is preferable to one that has been obviously altered.)

To illustrate the sense of helplessness people felt in the midst of tragedy, a student could use a photograph that shows fear, weariness, or defeat on the face of the photograph’s subject.

Figure 14.3

Neil Moralee – On The Scrap Heap . – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Illustrations

Illustrations, such as editorial or political cartoons, serve much the same purpose as photographs. Because an illustration does not capture a moment in time the way a photo does, it may have less impact. However, depending on your topic and the effect you want to achieve, illustrations can still be very useful. Use the same criteria for choosing photographs to help you choose illustrations.

Figure 14.4

Humor Blog – Political Cartoon about Budget Cuts – CC BY 2.0.

The style of an illustration or photograph affects viewers just as the content does. Keep this in mind if you are working with the stock images available in office software programs. Many of these images have a comical tone. This may be fine for some topics—for instance, a presentation on television shows for children. However, if you need to project a more serious tone, make sure you choose images to suit that purpose. Many free (or reasonably priced) image banks are available online.

Video Footage

Even more than photographs, video footage can create a sense of immediacy, especially if your video includes sound. Showing a brief video clip can help your audience feel as if they are present at an important event, connect with a person being interviewed, or better understand a process. Again, ask yourself the following questions to ensure you are using the footage well:

• What purpose does this video serve? (Never rely on video clips just to fill time.)
• How much footage should be shown to achieve your purpose?
• What will need to be explained, before or after showing the video, to ensure that your audience understands its significance?
• Will it be necessary to edit the video to stay within time requirements or to focus on the most important parts?

Informational graphics, such as tables, charts, and graphs, do not provoke the same response that images do. Nevertheless, these graphics can have a powerful impact. Their primary purpose is to organize and simplify information.

Tables are effective when you must classify information and organize it in categories. Tables are an especially good choice when you are presenting qualitative data that are not strictly numerical. Table 14.1 “Example of Qualitative Data Table” was created for a presentation discussing the subprime mortgage crisis. It presents information about people who have held powerful positions both in the government and at one of the investment banking firms involved in the subprime mortgage market.

Table 14.1 Example of Qualitative Data Table

Sources: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/%3Bkw=%5B3351,11459%5D ; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19gold.html ; http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/henry_m_jr_paulson/index.html?inline=nyt-per ; http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/robert_e_rubin/index.html?inline=nyt-per , http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/us/man-in-the-news-economic-adviser-from-other-side-of-the-deficit-stephen-friedman.html ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/342086.stm .

If you are working with numerical information, consider whether a pie chart, bar graph, or line graph might be an effective way to present the content. A table can help you organize numerical information, but it is not the most effective way to emphasize contrasting data or to show changes over time.

Pie charts are useful for showing numerical information in percentages. For example, you can use a pie chart to represent presidential election results by showing what percentage of voters voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, the Republican candidate, and candidates from other political parties.

Figure 14.5

Source: http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2008/2008presgeresults.pdf

Bar graphs work well when you want to show similarities and differences in numerical data. Horizontal or vertical bars help viewers compare data from different groups, different time periods, and so forth. For instance, the bar graph in Figure 14.6 allows the viewer to compare data on the five countries that have won the most Olympic medals since the modern games began in 1924: Norway, the United States, the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Austria. Bar graphs can effectively show trends or patterns in data as well.

Figure 14.6

Source: http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/all-time-standings/index.html

Line Graphs

Like bar graphs, line graphs show trends in data. Line graphs are usually used to show trends in data over time. For example, the line graph in Figure 14.7 shows changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average—an economic index based on trading information about thirty large, US-based public companies. This graph shows where the Dow closed at the end of each business day over a period of five days.

Figure 14.7

Source: http://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&startdate=May+17%2C+2010&enddate=May+21%2C+2010

In this exercise, you will begin to refine your ideas for incorporating media into your presentation. Complete the following steps on your own sheet of paper.

• Revisit the list you brainstormed for Note 14.12 “Exercise 3” in Chapter 14 “Creating Presentations: Sharing Your Ideas” , Section 14.1 “Organizing a Visual Presentation” and the annotated outline you developed for Note 14.17 “Exercise 4” .
• Analyze the two different types of visual aids: images and informational graphics. Identify at least two places in your presentation where you might incorporate visual aids.
• Evaluate the purpose of the visual aid. Does it create emotional impact, or does it organize information? Is the visual effective?
• Determine whether you will be able to create the visual aid yourself or will need to find it.

Creating Original Visual Aids

You will include original visual aids in your presentation to add interest, present complex information or data more clearly, or appeal to your audience’s emotions. You may wish to create some visual aids by hand—for instance, by mounting photographs on poster board for display. More likely, however, you will use computer-generated graphics.

Computer-generated visual aids are easy to create once you learn how to use certain office software. They also offer greater versatility. You can print hard copies and display them large or include them in a handout for your audience. Or, if you are working with presentation software, you can simply insert the graphics in your slides.

Regardless of how you proceed, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Create visual aids with purpose. Think carefully about how they will enhance your message, and choose a form that is appropriate for your content.
• Strive for quality. You do not need the skills of a professional photographer or designer, but do take time to make sure your visual aids are neat, attractive, and legible. Proofread for errors, too.

Using Software to Create Visual Aids

You can use standard office software to create simple graphics easily. The following guidelines describe how to work with word-processing software and presentation software.

Working with Photographs

Most personal computers come equipped with some basic image-editing software, and many people choose to purchase more advanced programs as well. You can upload photographs from a digital camera (or in some cases, a cell phone) or scan and upload printed photographs. The images can then be edited and incorporated into your presentation. Be sure to save all of your images in one folder for easy access.

Creating Tables

To create a table within a word-processing document consult your software program’s help feature or an online tutorial. Once you have created the table, you can edit and make any additional changes. Be sure that the table has no more than six to seven rows or columns because you do not want to compromise the size of the text or the readability. Aligning with precision will help your table look less crowded. Also, the row and column titles should spell out their contents.

Creating Graphs

Figure 14.8

Pie charts and bar and line graphs can also be created using standard office software. Although you can create these graphics within a document, you will need to work with both your word-processing application and your spreadsheet application to do so. The graph should visually explain the data using colors, titles, and labels. The use of color will help the audience distinguish information; however, avoid colors that are hard on the eyes, such as lime green or hot pink. The title should clearly state what the graph explains. Lastly, avoid using acronyms in the titles and other labels.

Creating Graphics in an Electronic Presentation

If you plan to work only with hard copy graphics during your presentation, you may choose to create them as word-processing documents. However, if you are using presentation software, you will need to choose one of the following options:

• Create your graphics using the presentation software program.
• Create your graphics within another program and import them.

Standard office presentation software allows you to create informational graphics in much the same way you would create them within a word-processing application. Keep the formatting palette, a menu option that allows you to customize the graphic, open while you use the software. The formatting menu provides options for inserting other types of graphics, such as pictures and video. You may insert pictures from an image bank available within the program, or insert images or video from your own desktop files. Shape your use of multimedia in accordance with the message your presentation is trying to convey, the purpose, and your audience.

Creating Visual Aids by Hand

Most of the time, using computer-generated graphics is more efficient than creating them by hand. Using office software programs helps give your graphics a polished appearance while also teaching you skills that are useful in a variety of jobs. However, it may make sense to use hand-created visual aids in some cases—for instance, when showing a 3-D model would be effective. If you follow this route, be sure to devote extra time to making sure your visual aids are neat, legible, and professional.

Flip charts are inexpensive and quick visual aids used during face-to-face presentations. The flip chart can be prepared before, as well as during, the presentation. Each sheet of paper should contain one theme, idea, or sketch and must be penned in large letters to be seen by audience members farthest away from the speaker.

Writing Captions

Any media you incorporate should include a caption or other explanatory text. A caption is a brief, one- to two-sentence description or explanation of a visual image. Make sure your captions are clear, accurate, and to the point. Use full sentences when you write them.

Captions should always be used with photographs, and in some cases, they can be useful for clarifying informational graphics, which represent qualitative data visually. However, informational graphics may not require a caption if the title and labels are sufficiently clear. For other visual media, such as video footage, providing explanatory text before or after the footage will suffice. The important thing is to make sure you always include some explanation of the media.

In this exercise, you will begin to develop visual aids for your presentation. Complete the steps in this exercise—and enjoy the chance to be creative. Working with visuals can be a pleasant way to take a break from the demands of writing.

• Revisit the ideas you developed in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Choose at least two ideas that you can create. ( Note: If you are using software to develop a slideshow presentation, count this as one of your self-created visual aids. Include at least one other self-created visual aid, such as an original photograph, within your slideshow.)
• Get creative! Take your photographs, construct a 3-D model, create informational graphics, or work on your presentation slides. Develop good working drafts.
• After you have completed drafts of your visual aids, set them aside for a while. Then revisit them with a critical eye. First, check any text included with the graphic. Make sure your facts are correct, your words are clear and concise, and your language is free of errors.
• Next, evaluate how well your aids work visually. Are they large enough to be seen and read from a distance? Are captions and labels easy to find? Are photographs of reasonably high quality? Ask someone else for feedback, too.
• Begin making any needed changes. As you proceed through the rest of this section, continue to revisit your work to improve it as needed.

Collaboration

Please share the first version of your visual aids with a classmate. Examine what they have produced. On a separate piece of paper, note both the elements that catch your attention and those that would benefit from clarification. Return and compare notes.

Testing and Evaluating Visual Aids

Regardless of how you create your visual aids, be sure to test-drive them before you deliver your presentation. Edit and proofread them, and if possible, show them to someone who can give you objective feedback. Use the following checklist.

Checklist 14.1

Visual Aid Evaluation Checklist

• Visual aids are clearly integrated with the content of the presentation
• Photographs and illustrations suit the overall tone of the presentation
• Images and text are large and clear enough for the viewer to see or read
• Images are shown with explanatory text or a caption
• Informational graphics include clear, easy-to-read labels and headings
• Text within informational graphics is easy to read (Watch out for wordiness and crowded text or a font that is too small and hard to read.)
• Formatting choices (color, different fonts, etc.) organize information effectively
• Any text within graphics is free of errors
• Hyperlinks within slides function properly
• Display text for hyperlinks is concise and informative (Never paste a link into a slide without modifying the display text.)

Writing at Work

Office software includes many options for personalizing a presentation. For instance, you can choose or create a theme and color scheme, modify how one slide transitions to the next, or even include sound effects. With so many options, students and employees sometimes get carried away. The result can seem amateurish and detract from, rather than enhance, your presentation.

Remember, you are delivering a presentation, not producing a movie. Use the customization options to help give your presentations a consistent, polished, appearance. However, do not let these special effects detract from the substance of your slides.

Using Existing Visual Media

Depending on your topic, you may be able to find images and other graphics you can use instead of creating your own. For instance, you might use photographs from a reputable news source or informational graphics created by a government agency. If you plan to use visual aids created by others, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Set a purpose before you begin your search. You will search more efficiently if you start with a general idea of what you are looking for—a line graph of unemployment rates for the past twelve months, for example, or a video clip of the most recent State of the Union address.
• Filter out visual aids that are not relevant. You may come across eye-catching graphics and be tempted to use them even if they are only loosely related to your topic, simply because they are attention getting. Resist the temptation. If the graphic is not clearly connected to your point, it does not belong in your presentation.
• Read carefully. In addition to reading labels, headings, and captions, read any text that accompanies the visual. Make sure you understand the visual in its original context. For informational graphics, make sure you understand exactly what information is being represented. (This may seem obvious, but it is easy to misread graphic information. Take the time to examine it carefully.)
• Evaluate sources carefully and record source information. When you look for visual media to complement your presentation, you are conducting research. Apply the same standards you used for your research paper. Choose reliable sources, such as reputable news organizations, government and nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions. Verify data in additional sources. Finally, be sure to document all source information as you proceed.

Searching Efficiently for Visual Media

You will probably find it most efficient to use the Internet to search for visual aids. Many students begin by typing keywords into a search engine to locate related images. However, this search technique is not necessarily efficient, for several reasons:

• It often pulls up hundreds or even thousands of images, which may be only loosely related to your search terms.
• It can sometimes be difficult to understand the image in its original context.
• It can be hard to find copyright information about how you may use the image.

A more efficient strategy is to identify a few sources that are likely to have what you are looking for, and then search within those sites. For instance, if you need a table showing average life expectancy in different countries, you might begin with the website of the World Health Organization. If you hope to find images related to current events, news publications are an obvious choice. The Library of Congress website includes many media related to American history, culture, and politics.

Searching this way has the following advantages:

• You will often find what you are looking for faster because you are not wasting time scrolling through many irrelevant results.
• If you have chosen your sources well, you can be reasonably certain that you are getting accurate, up-to-date information.
• Images and informational graphics produced by reputable sources are likely to be high quality—easy to read and well designed.

If you do choose to use a search engine to help you locate visual media, make sure you use it wisely. Begin with a clear idea of what you are looking for. Use the advanced search settings to narrow your search. When you locate a relevant image, do not download it immediately. Read the page or site to make sure you understand the image in context. Finally, read the site’s copyright or terms of use policy—usually found at the bottom of the home page—to make sure you may use the material.

If you are unable to find what you are looking for on the Internet consider using print sources of visual media. You may choose to mount these for display or scan them and incorporate the files into an electronic presentation. (Scanning printed pages may lower the quality of the image. However, if you are skilled at using photo-editing software, you may be able to improve the quality of the scanned image.)

Inserting Hyperlinks in an Electronic Presentation

If you are working with images, audio, or video footage available online, you may wish to insert a link within your presentation. Then, during your presentation, you can simply click the link to open the website in a separate window and toggle between windows to return to your presentation slides.

To insert a hyperlink within your presentation, click on insert in the toolbar and then select hyperlink from the menu. Doing so will open a dialogue box where you can paste your link and modify the accompanying display text shown on your slide.

Copyright and Fair Use

Before you download (or scan) any visual media, make sure you have the right to use it. Most websites state their copyright and terms of use policy on their home page. In general, you may not use other people’s visual media for any commercial purpose without contacting the copyright holder to obtain permission and pay any specified fees.

Copyright restrictions are somewhat more ambiguous when you wish to download visual media for educational uses. Some educational uses of copyrighted materials are generally considered fair use —meaning that it is legally and ethically acceptable to use the material in your work. However, do not assume that because you are using the media for an educational purpose, you are automatically in the clear. Make sure your work meets the guidelines in the following checklist. If it does, you can be reasonably confident that it would be considered fair use in a court of law and always give credit to the source.

Checklist 14.2

Media Fair Use Checklist

• You are using the media for educational purposes only.
• You will make the work available only for a short period and to a limited audience. For instance, showing a copyrighted image in a classroom presentation is acceptable. Posting a presentation with copyrighted images online is problematic. In addition, avoid any uses that would allow other people to easily access and reproduce the work.
• You have used only as much of the work as needed for your purposes. For video and audio footage, limit your use to no more than 10 percent of the media—five minutes of an hour-long television show, for example. Image use is harder to quantify, but you should avoid using many images from the same source.
• You are using the media to support your own ideas, not replace them. Your use should include some commentary or place the media in context. It should be a supporting player in your presentation—not the star of the show.
• You have obtained the material legally. Purchase the media if necessary rather than using illegally pirated material.
• Your use of the media will not affect the copyright holder or benefit you financially.

By following these guidelines, you are respecting the copyright holder’s right to control the distribution of the work and to profit from it.

In some fields, such as teaching, job applicants often submit a professional portfolio to a prospective employer. Recent college graduates may include relevant course work in their portfolios or in applications to graduate school. What should you do if your course work uses copyrighted visual media?

This use of media is acceptable according to fair use guidelines. Even though you are using the work for your personal professional advancement, it is not considered an infringement on copyright as long as you follow the additional guidelines listed in the previous checklist.

Crediting Sources

As you conduct your research, make sure you document sources as you proceed. Follow the guidelines when you download images, video, or other media from the Internet or capture media from other sources. Keep track of where you accessed the media and where you can find additional information about it. You may also provide a references page at the end of the presentation to cite not only media and images but also the information in the text of your presentation. See Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” for more information on creating a reference page.

Write captions or other explanatory text for visual media created by others, just as you would for media you created. Doing so helps keep your audience informed. It also helps ensure that you are following fair use guidelines by presenting the media with your commentary, interpretation, or analysis. In your caption or elsewhere in your presentation, note the source of any media you did not create yourself. You do not need to provide a full bibliographical citation, but do give credit where it is due.

In this exercise, you will locate visual aids created by others and continue developing the work you began earlier. Complete these steps.

1. Revisit the ideas you developed in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Choose at least two ideas for which it would make more sense to find the visual aid than to create it yourself. 2. Use the search tips provided in this section to locate at least two visual aids from reputable sources that you can use. Prepare them for your presentation by adding clarifying text as needed. Be sure to credit your source. 3. Incorporate the visual aids you created in Note 14.26 “Exercise 2” and Note 14.32 “Exercise 3” into your presentation. This may involve preparing physical copies for display or inserting graphic files into an electronic presentation.

4. Take some time now to review how you will integrate the visual and verbal components of your presentation.

• If you are working with presentation software, refine your slides. Make sure the visual approach is consistent and suits your topic. Give your text a final proofread.
• If you are not using presentation software, review the annotated outline you created in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Update it as needed to reflect your current plan. Also, determine how you will physically set up your visual aids.

Key Takeaways

• Visual aids are most effective when they are chosen with the purpose and audience in mind. They serve to add emotional impact to a presentation and to organize information more clearly.
• Visual aids should always be clearly related to the presenter’s ideas. Captions, labels, and other explanatory text help make the connection clear for the audience.
• Like writing, developing the visual components of a presentation is a process. It involves generating ideas, working with them in a draft format, and then revising and editing one’s work.
• Visual aids can be divided into two broad categories—image-based media and informational graphics.
• Widely available software programs make it relatively easy to create visual aids electronically, such as photo images, charts, and graphs.
• When using visual aids created by others, it is important to apply good research skills, follow guidelines for fair use, and credit sources appropriately.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

BUS607: Data-Driven Decision-Making

Visual Aids

Read this article on visual aids. Pay attention to the purpose, emphasis, support, and clarity section. Take notes of techniques to improve presentations using clarity and simplicity. Also, focus on how to prepare visual aids.

Purpose, Emphasis, Support, and Clarity

When you look at your own presentation from an audience member's perspective, you might consider how to distinguish the main points from the rest of the information. You might also consider the relationships being presented between ideas or concepts, or how other aspects of the presentation can complement the oral message.

Your audience naturally will want to know why you are presenting the visual aid. The purpose for each visual aid should be clear, and almost speak for itself. If you can't quickly grasp the purpose of a visual aid in a speech, you have to honestly consider whether it should be used in the first place. Visual aids can significantly develop the message of a speech, but they must be used for a specific purpose the audience can easily recognize.

Perhaps you want to highlight a trend between two related issues, such as socioeconomic status and educational attainment. A line graph might show effectively how, as socioeconomic status rises, educational attainment also rises. This use of a visual aid can provide emphasis, effectively highlighting key words, ideas, or relationships for the audience.

Visual aids can also provide necessary support for your position. Audience members may question your assertion of the relationship between socioeconomic status and educational attainment. To support your argument, you might include on the slide, "According to the U.S. Department of Education Study no. 12345," or even use an image of the Department of Education Web page projected on a large screen. You might consider showing similar studies in graphic form, illustrating similarities across a wide range of research.

Clarity is key in the use of visual aids. One way to improve clarity is to limit the number of words on a PowerPoint slide. No more than ten words per slide, with a font large enough to be read at the back of the room or auditorium, is a good rule of thumb. Key images that have a clear relationship to the verbal message can also improve clarity. You may also choose to illustrate the same data successively in two distinct formats, perhaps a line graph followed by two pie graphs. Your central goal is to ensure your visual aid is clear.

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness

Using Visual Aids

• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

Giving a class presentation can be stressful under the best of circumstances. However, the effective use of presentation software to organize and structure the content of your work can help ease your anxiety because the content is already organized and ready to be seen by your audience. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you develop your presentation.

Using Presentation Software Effectively

• State no more than three main points on a slide . Slides that have too many words on them are not effective because audience members feel they have to hurry and read everything before you move to the next slide. This means they're more focused on finishing reading the slide than listening to what you are saying. Remember that the slides are intended to supplement and enhance what you are saying, not to replace it.
• Give your audience time to take notes . Pausing briefly before moving to the next slide also gives you the opportunity to collect your thoughts before continuing to the next point. This is important if a slide has a lot of information or the content is especially important.
• Don't read from the slides! Audience members really, really hate this. Summarize or explain what's on a slide. Only selectively read direct quotes or statements when you want to highlight something important or to emphasize a significant or complex issue.
• Make sure your audience can see the screen . Think about where are you standing. Do not stand in front of the screen. If there is no angle where everyone can see, then move around before moving to the next slide [for example, point to something for emphasis].
• Don't overcrowd your slides with too much detail . Using bright colors, pictures, and graphics can make your slides more interesting, but be aware of the fact that certain color combinations can be very hard to read from a distance. It may look fine on a computer screen, but projected in a large format, it can be overwhelming to the eye.
• Remember that PowerPoint or Prezi may look great, but if the technology goes wrong, it's a good idea to print out a handout as a backup just in case. If the audience is too large to do this, ensure that your notes are sufficiently detailed so that you can talk about your topic with out relying on the slides.
• I know you may be tempted to spend more time on producing creative graphics than on the actual talk, but remember: if your talk is poor, no amount of fancy graphics will save it!

Visual Guidelines for Presentation Slides

Pictures or other illustrations are used for the following reasons:

• Illustrative -- provides a visual representation of a specific element of the presentation [e.g., "This graph shows population growth in the neighborhood over the last ten years...."].
• Complementary -- adds new information or context to the subject matter of the presentation [e.g., "This photograph of newly installed benches shows how more parents are gathering to socialize in the courtyard before school lets out...."].
• Explanatory -- not only represents an element of the presentation, but it offers explanatory information about that element or it provides a specific example [e.g., "This photograph of a vacant lot shows how trash accumulates in the open spaces of low income neighborhoods that the city's waste management department often ignores...."].
• Decorative -- no direct relation to the content of the presentation but the graphics does provide an attractive or engaging visual element [usually not referred to during a presentation unless the audience reacts to it in some way]. However, do not overuse decorative graphics because it can be distracting.

NOTE:   The use of funny cartoons, silly pictures, or other attention-grabbing graphics can help your audience feel more comfortable and engaged by adding some humor to your presentation. However, don't over do it! Under most circumstances, there will be a level of professionalism expected in how you present your work. This doesn't mean that your presentation should be bland and tedious , but always keep in mind that funny graphics are no substitute for good content; overdoing it can distract to the point of annoying your audience [think of this in terms of the person who tells the same joke over and over again].

Guidelines for Presentation Slides

Below are basic guidelines to remember when composing your presentation slides. Most of this is common sense, but cutting and pasting text, moving things around, and revising content over time can create errors, so keep these general guidelines in mind when reviewing the final draft of your presentation.

• Use the same text colors and fonts throughout; display graphic images in the same style
• Keep the background consistent and subtle
• Be sure the text contrasts well with the background
• Generally use no more than six words per a line
• Generally use no more than six lines per a slide
• Avoid long sentences unless it is an important quotation
• Larger font or bolded text indicates more important information
• Font size generally ranges from 18 to 48 point
• Fancy or cursive fonts can be hard to read
• Words in all capital letters are hard to read
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms
• Limit punctuation marks

NOTE:   Strategies to highlight a particular point during your presentation include capitalizing text, bolding text, or using a bright [but readable] color to contrast against the regular text. It's also appropriate to use italics to convey a direct quote. However, follow the general rule that less is more; use short declarative statements or as few words as possible to convey the meaning of what you are saying. Unlike research papers, presentation slides do not have to adhere to strict sentence grammar and paragraph rules.

Additional Advice

Handouts are a great idea if your audience isn't too big, but you don't want to spend a lot of time distributing them or having audience members distracting each other while they pass around a pile of materials [or trying to find a link to them]. If you do use handouts, think about whether you want to distribute them before or after your presentation. If possible, arrive early so you can place a copy on each chair. Another strategy to save paper is to leave a card on each seat listing the web site where the audience can access the content online. Use a link management platform like Bit.ly to shorten long URLs.

It is always a good idea to include space on the handout for people to take notes, a list of references, and your contact information so people can review them later or contact you if needed. You could also include some follow-up questions for discussion in your handouts [they can be referred to after the presentation to prompt questions from the audience or to spark a discussion]. Finally, if your handout is more than one double-sided page, staple them together before distributing so audience members aren't distracting themselves with trying to count whether they've got all the pages.

Using the Whiteboard

If there is a whiteboard behind you, put your name and contact information on the whiteboard. However, do this before your talk begins because writing on a board is time-consuming and you will have to turn your back on the audience and break your eye contact, which is never a good idea. If you must use a whiteboard at other points during the presentation, come prepared with the right markers [black or dark blue] and write words in large, legible handwriting so that people can read it from a distance [it is best to print rather than using cursive]. And, of course, remember to write things off to the side so you don't block people's view of what you just wrote while you're speaking!

Know the Space

If possible, know the room from the perspective of facing your audience before you give your presentation. The front of a classroom or auditorium feels very different from where you sit as a student. Also, if necessary, check the lighting so you avoid fiddling with the lights before your presentation. If available, it's best to darken the lighting above you, but keep the lights lit above the audience; the contrast helps your audience read the slides by eliminating glare. It is also useful to have someone sit at the very back of the room to give you get a sense of how loud you should talk if you can't use a microphone and how big you should write if you use a whiteboard behind you.

Appersona, Jennifer M.,  Eric L. Lawsa, and James A. Scepansky. “An Assessment of Student Preferences for PowerPoint Presentation Structure in Undergraduate Courses.” Computers and Education 50 (January 2008): 148-153; Bedford, Erin. Preparing Presentations With PowerPoint. GradHacker Blog. Inside Higher Education; Kountouzi, Barbara. PowerPoint DO's and DON'T's. Biomedical Library. University of Pennsylvania; Creating and Using Overheads. Kosslyn, Stephen M., Rogier A. Kievit, Alexandra G. Russell, and Jennifer M. Shephard. “PowerPoint presentation Flaws and Failures: A Psychological Analysis.” Frontiers in Psychology 3 (July 2012): Article 230; Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation: Quick Guide. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Giving an Oral Presentation. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra; Hallewell, Madeline J. and Natasa Lackovic. “Do Pictures `Tell' a Thousand Words in Lectures? How Lecturers Vocalise Photographs in Their Presentations.” Higher Education Research and Development 36 . (2017): 1166-1180; Inoue-Smitha, Yukiko and Shuyan Wang. “College-based Case Studies in Using PowerPoint Effectively.”  Cogent Education 3 (2016 ): 1-15.

Mayer's Twelve Principles of Multimedia Learning

Richard Mayer describes twelve research-based principles on the design and organization of multimedia presentations that support student learning. Although intended for faculty who are using prerecorded multimedia tools for class lectures, these principles can also be adapted to help students who are designing slides as part of their class presentations. Collectively, these principles provide a way to critically evaluate the overall quality of the multimedia elements used during your presentation. Think about these as you practice giving your presentation.

• COHERENCE PRINCIPLE – people learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included. This relates to the idea that you should present only the information the audience needs to know; be concise and avoid unnecessary text or visual effects in your slides--including transitional effects from one slide to the next--that could distract from the essential elements of your presentation.
• SIGNALING PRINCIPLE – people learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added. This can relate to highlighting key points during your presentation and using visual effects [highlighting text, bold text, arrows, etc.] to emphasize what your audience needs to pay attention to. If there is a lot of text, the audience will have trouble discerning what information is most important and how it is organized.
• REDUNDANCY PRINCIPLE – people learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text. This can relate to the idea that using narration and graphics [e.g., a film clip] should be enough to relay the information to the audience. The rationale is that your audience may focus on the printed word rather than the relevant portions of your graphics. Presenting with graphics, narration, and on-screen text can be overwhelming for the audience.
• SPATIAL CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE – people learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen. This can relate to aligning the space between your text and visuals on the screen in such a way that they clearly relate to each other. Your audience will better understand what you are presenting if the text and visuals clearly correspond to each other.
• TEMPORAL CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE – people learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively. This relates to talking about content on your slides at the same time you are showing the information to the audience rather than showing the information then talking about it or vice versa.
• SEGMENTING PRINCIPLE – people learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit. This principle is based on the idea that your audience will learn the content better if your presentation is broken up into clear segments rather than a continuous stream of information. Make sure to embed [on screen or verbally] cues when you are transitioning from one piece of information to the next.  This helps your audience process each part during the presentation. 
• PRE-TRAINING PRINCIPLE – people learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts. This relates to the idea that learning is more efficient if you already know the basics. If your presentation uses unfamiliar or technical terms, concepts, or theories, begin by defining them before introducing the rest of your content.
• MODALITY PRINCIPLE – people learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text. In general, your audience will understand the content better from visuals and spoken words than from visuals and printed words. This does not mean you should not use text on a slide but, if there are visuals and too much text, your audience may be overwhelmed.
• MULTIMEDIA PRINCIPLE – people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. In general, images and text are more effective than text alone. Too much text can be overwhelming and your audience will probably focus on reading the text rather than listening to you during the presentation.
• PERSONALIZATION PRINCIPLE – people learn better from multimedia lessons when words used during a presentation are in conversational style rather than formal style. This relates to the verbal part of your presentation. Practice using a more informal, conversational voice than a formal voice because research shows that using a conversational voice will improve the audience's overall engagement and ability to understand the content.
• VOICE PRINCIPLE – people learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice. T his principle is also most relevant to evaluating recorded lectures , but it can be modified to think about how to use language as a means of setting the audience at ease.
• IMAGE PRINCIPLE – people do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen. This principle is also most relevant to evaluating recorded lectures, but it can be modified to think about how you physically present information. Don't just stand there; use methods of non-verbal communication, such as, gesturing, eye contact, moving around, or conscious use of facial expressions, to help engage your audience.

Mayer, Richard E. "Research-based Principles for Designing Multimedia Instruction." In Applying Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science Into the Curriculum . Victor A. Benassi and Catherine E. Overson, eds. (Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire Scholar's Repository, 2014), pp. 59-70;  Mayer, Richard. Multimedia Learning . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001; Mayer, Richard E., Julie Heiser, and Steve Lonn. "Cognitive Constraints on Multimedia Learning: When Presenting More Material Results in Less Understanding." Journal of Educational Psychology 93, 1 (2001): 187–198 ; DeBell, Andrew. How to Use Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia [Examples Included]. Water Bear Learning Inc., 2020.

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Types of Visual Aids

Generally, speakers want to utilize more active visuals than passive, but the ratio of active to passive visuals will depend upon the topic of discussion.

Poster Boards, Flip Charts, and Tri-Folds

Poster boards have their time, place, and purpose, but when attempting to establish credibility, speakers need to think critically about the impressions each visual aid imparts on the audience.

A poster board made at home with markers and cut-outs from a magazine simply will not do the job; a professionally printed poster has a more likely chance of creating a positive impression. However, creating such posters are fairly expensive in comparison with other visual options, so use a poster board or tri-fold as a last resort or when no other option will suffice. For example, a poster would likely work well at a convention or trade show, which would allow passers-by to stop and review information for themselves, up close, at their leisure. They could also work in a smaller meeting with limited access to electronic media. Everyone in the meeting could easily view the poster, but for larger audiences and rooms, however, posters simply will not work.

Static Displays

A static display offers a visual accompaniment to the presented information, and serves mostly as a passive visual aid. For example, while delivering a biographical speech on a well-known author, a speaker could set up a static display of some of her or his most popular books on a table near the center of the room. This adds value to the presentation because it adds listener interest and reinforces the speech’s subject matter.

Graphs/Charts

Graphs and charts present a highly effective method for showing an audience how statistics and figures affect them personally. As with maps, remember to keep them simple and clear, allowing the listeners to digest all the information at once.

A pie chart uses regions of a circle to show how the proportion of each component represents the whole. Use this type of graph to show how elements relate to one another, giving the audience an idea of size and relationship.

A line graph is a useful type of visual aid to show trends over time. An effective line graph must have a clearly labeled x- and y-axis, along with data labels showing how the numbers change over time.

A bar graph effectively demonstrates quantity relationships between items (as with pie charts) and and how things can change over time (as with a line graph). Bar graphs present a method for potentially detailing a large and complex amount of information using a single image.

Physical Objects

An object, whether large or small, can bring an element of presence to the visual presentation of information. It is one thing to present a picture of the topic of discussion on a two-dimensional screen, but it is another to allow the audience to physically see the object in question.

For example, in a speech on breast cancer and early detection, a student utilized a set of marbles of varying sizes to show the audience the scale of real-life tumor sizes when discussing breast cancer detection. The student walked the samples around the room as she talked, allowing listeners to see what she discussed, before returning to the front of the room, where she displayed the very same marbles using a picture on the screen. Had this student only used the visual on the screen, the audience may have had difficulty formulating a sense of proportion when discussing the size of the items in question. Since size represented the most important characteristic of the visual aid, this student thought critically about how best to present it.

Avoid passing around physical objects during the speech unless absolutely necessary. When most listeners receive an object, their attention span is broken momentarily, causing them to miss out on potentially important information in the speech. Instead, as in the example above, presenters could walk around with the object, still allowing everyone the opportunity to see it, but maintain focus on the speaker.

Helpful Hint

When using video or audio clips, try to keep the clip length to less than 10% of the total amount of time for the speech. For a 10-minute speech, keep the total time of clip(s) to one minute or less. For an hour, keep them to less than 10 minutes total.

Video/Audio

If one believes the old saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words ,” then a brief video clip can be worth 100,000 words! For example, if delivering a speech about the importance of supporting a specific charity, look into the charity to determine if they have a brief promotional video or commercial to supplement the main talking points within the presentation.

When using a clip, preface it with some sort of introduction, pointing the audience in the right direction and priming them to watch for or listen for specific information. Also, avoid talking over the sound in a clip, as competing for the audience’s attention during such a viewing could prove difficult at best.

Handouts or Leave-Behinds

A handout is something, usually printed material, given to audience members to remind them of what they learned during the presentation. Sometimes, these are called “leave-behinds.” For example, in a speech on the science behind chocolate chip cookies, the speaker might want to hand out a copy of a favorite recipe. If speaking on donating blood, a handout might include a summary of the steps involved and where audience members can go to donate blood. Regardless of the leave-behind, be sure that, as with physical objects, that they do not get passed out during the speech, as they can create an unneeded distraction.

Note to Self

Messages that Matter: Public Speaking in the Information Age - Third Edition Copyright © 2023 by North Idaho College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Organizing Academic Research Papers: Using Visual Aids

• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Executive Summary
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tertiary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Annotated Bibliography
• Dealing with Nervousness

Using Visual Aids

• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• How to Manage Group Projects
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Essays
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Acknowledgements

Tips for Using PowerPoint Effectively

• State no more than three or four main points on a slide [slides that have too many words on them are a big turn-off]. Remember that the slides are intended to supplement and enhance what you are saying, not to replace it.
• Give your audience time to take notes from your slides . Pausing also gives you the opportunity to collect your thoughts before moving on to the next point.
• Make sure your audience can see the screen . Think about where are you standing. Do not stand in front of the screen. If there is no angle where everyone can see, then move around before moving to the next slide [for example, point to something for emphasis].
• Don't overcrowd your slides with too much detail . Using color, pictures, and graphs can make your slides more interesting, but be aware of the fact that certain color combinations can be very hard to read from a distance.
• Remember that PowerPoint may look great, but if the technology goes wrong, it's a good idea to print out a handout , or have some traditional overheads as a backup just in case.
• I know you may be tempted to spend more time on producing PowerPoint graphics than on the actual talk but remember: if your talk is poor, no amount of fancy graphics will save it!

Text Guidelines for PowerPoint Slides

• Use the same colors and fonts throughout; select graphic images in the same style
• Keep the background consistent and subtle
• Generally use no more than six words per a line
• Generally use no more than six lines per a slide
• Avoid long sentences
• Larger font indicates more important information
• Font size generally ranges from 18 to 48 point
• Be sure text contrasts with background
• Fancy fonts can be hard to read
• Words in all capital letters are hard to read
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms
• Limit punctuation marks

Handouts are a great idea if your audience isn't too big [you don't want to spend a lot of time distributing handouts]. Think about whether you want to distribute them before or after your presentation. It is always good idea to include your references on a handout so that people can review them later. You could include some follow-up questions for discussion in your handouts as well.

Using the Whiteboard

If possible, put your contact information on the whiteboard before your talk begins, otherwise, you will have to turn your back on the audience and break your eye contact with them, which is never a good idea. Writing on a board is also time-consuming. Use alternative visual aids wherever possible. If you really must use a whiteboard, come prepared with the right pens and write in large neat handwriting, so that people can read it.

Know the Space

Know the room from the front before you have to give your presentation. The front of a classroom feels different from the seats you are normally used to. Also, check the lighting so you avoid fiddling with the lights before your presentation.

Creating and Using Overheads . Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation: Quick Guide . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Giving an Oral Presentation. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.  

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Module 6. Oral Presentations

12.3 visual aids, visual rhetoric.

The term rhetoric is often misunderstood. Perhaps as a result of being applied to political speeches and advertising, the word is sometimes associated with dishonesty. That’s not what real rhetoric is about. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, the science of using specific techniques, such as rhetorical appeals and figurative language, to inform and persuade, and perhaps even to change someone’s mind.

traditional rhetorical appeals

The Greek philosopher Aristotle characterized three main rhetorical tactics:

• Ethos: the reliance on the character or spirit of the speaker or writer to persuade an audience. “I’m ethical, honorable, and trustworthy; therefore, you should believe what I am telling you.”
• Logos: the use of logic or reason in an attempt to persuade an audience. (*Note: this is not the same thing as a company logo.)
• Pathos: the attempt to elicit an emotional response, such as pity, to persuade an audience to believe something or take an action.

Visual rhetoric includes the application of these rhetorical principles to communication in a visual medium. What emotions, desires, or arguments does the image below bring to mind? Of course your personal knowledge, awareness of world events, ethics, and prejudices—the lens through which you view the world—will shape your immediate response, but regardless of this, an image like the one below usually does elicit a response.

“Baby Weddell Seal” © Samuel Blanc [CC BY-SA 3.0]

We can use rhetorical elements—including ethos, logos, and pathos—not only in writing and speaking, but whenever visual communication comes into play, such as in slideshows.

SLIDESHOW BASICS

Even the most dynamic speakers often make use of visual aids to accompany their presentations and help illustrate their ideas. Just as using graphics in documents enhances the documents and engages readers, having well designed visuals as part of an oral presentation makes your presentation more interesting and pulls your audience in. Visual aids also help you organize your presentation and stay on track, and help the audience retain information.

Slideshows such as PowerPoint and Google Slides are the most common form of visual aid used in presentations, so a great deal of discussion has been focused on the pros and cons of this tool. While there are many other presentation tools available, PowerPoint is a workplace standard, so it would be wise to gain proficiency with it. The key concept to remember is that your visual aids should supplement and illustrate what you want to say to your audience rather than being the sole focus of your presentation.

SLIDESHOW TERMINOLOGY

When designing a slideshow for a presentation, it is helpful to be familiar with key terminology.

• Deck: the entire slideshow presentation (all the slides in the presentation).
• Gloss: what the speaker says about each slide. The speaker should not simply read what is on the slide. Slides should have minimal text in the form of key words and short bullet points. A slide might include key quotations. The speaker should elaborate on what is written or shown on the slide.
• Slide: one page of the presentation (Below, Figure 12.1 shows one slide from the deck above) with the various elements identified.

Figure 12.1. PowerPoint slide with annotations. Keithonearth, [Bicycle image embedded in slide]. CC BY-SA 3.0.

• Slide Titles: usually at the top of the slide, the titles acts as “headings” indicating the topic to be discussed in each slide.
• Body Text: written text on the slide, often in the form of bullet points or key terms. This text should be kept to a minimum (key words/phrases; quotations you want to read out loud). Don’t write your “script” in the slide’s body text.
• Exhibits: illustrative graphics on the slides that are glossed in the presentation. You should discuss graphics and explain what is important about them.
• Decorative Graphics:  slide motifs, themes, and other non-essential images that add visual appeal to the slides, but do not illustrate substantive ideas.
• Notes:  this is the section underneath the slide where you can write notes you want to cover in your gloss. The audience will not see the notes section.

EFFECTIVE USE OF SLIDESHOWS

Microsoft introduced PowerPoint in 1990, and the conference room has never been the same. But a fundamental problem—text-heavy, unfocused, overlong presentations—has dulled the initial enthusiasm for the software. If you are sure that a visual presentation will provide something necessary to your audience, keep the number of slides and the amount of text on each slide to a bare minimum. Think of a slide presentation as a way of supporting or augmenting the content in your talk; don’t let the slides replace your content.

If you plan to read your slides to the audience, abandon that plan. It’s considered one of the single most annoying things a presenter can do. Excessively small text and complex visuals (including distracting animations) are frequently cited as annoyances.

Try to design your slides so that they contain the information that your viewers might want to write down; for example, good presentations often contain data points that speakers can’t just rattle off or quick summaries of key concepts. If you can’t explain how the slides add value to your presentation, don’t use them.

Slides overloaded with text and/or images will strain your audience’s capacity to identify important information. Complex, distracting transitions or confusing (or boring) graphics that aren’t consistent with your content are worse than no graphics at all.

To get a feel for what may annoy your audience, try Googling “annoying PowerPoint presentations.” You’ll get a million hits containing helpful feedback and good examples of what not to do.

slideshow revision checklist

Use these tactics to create useful, effective slideshows.

• Simplicity is best: use a small number of high-quality graphics; limit text to bullet points. Don’t think of a slide as a page that your audience should read.
• Chunking helps: break your information up into small bites for your audience, and make sure your presentation flows well. Think of a slide as a way of reminding you and the audience of the topic at hand.
• Remember Repetition: slides should have a consistent visual theme, including font choice.
• Think big: use a minimum 24-point font. Anything smaller will not be visible from the back of the room.
• Practice: software is only a tool, and the slide projector is not presenting—you are.

In technical communication, slideshows and document graphics are not the only visual media you may use. Pamphlets, posters, billboards, videos, and other kinds of displays can also work to convey your message. Considering how to present ideas visually can be as important as determining what to say.

Below are some resources to help you design visual information in a rhetorically effective way:

Visual Rhetoric page from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

Rule of Thirds (Wikipedia)

Color theory (Tiger Color)

Psychology of Font Choices (The Daily Egg)

Using design guidelines from the graphics chapter—CRAP in particular—and the visual rhetoric principles discussed above will help you design consistent, helpful, and visually appealing slides. But all the design skill in the world won’t help you if your content is not tightly focused, smoothly delivered, and visible. The same rule that applies to using graphics in documents applies to creating effective slides: keep it simple.

• This chapter is a derivative of Technical Writing Essentials by Susan Last, licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 International License. Located at : https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike . License Terms : Technical Writing Essentials by Kim Wozencraft is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise indicated.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > 5 reasons to use visual aids for speeches and presentations

5 reasons to use visual aids for speeches and presentations

A whopping 65 percent of humans are visual learners . This makes sense, considering the brain processes visual information about 60,000 times faster than text.

It also explains why it’s so important for speakers to incorporate compelling visual aids into their presentations . Impactful visuals help us communicate our ideas and messaging more effectively—no matter what type of audience we are trying to reach.

Here are 5 facts that drill home the importance of visual aids when it comes to delivering a memorable presentation or speech.

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1. Presentation visuals grab an audience’s attention—and keep it

Human beings are naturally curious creatures but we have a short attention span—and it’s gotten worse in our current era of information overload and non-stop scrolling. When listening to a speech or presentation, audience interest peaks around the 10-minute mark and then drops precipitously depending on the content and communication style of the speaker. (A Ben Stein soundalike drolling on about duality quantum algorithms? Godspeed.) That’s why so many experts insist on capping lectures at 15 to 20 minutes or mixing up the format with 20-minute blocks. Interesting visual aids can help you do that.

They spark interest when the brain is feeling fatigued, making it easier to receive and process complex information. Think of each new visual or animation as little shots of adrenaline—capturing the waning attention of an audience and re-energizing the room. This can be especially effective when embedding picture polls, or visuals that require audience members to pull out their phones and interact with the content you’ve presented.

2. Presentation visuals make complex ideas easier to understand

Not everyone computes information at the same speed. Infographics make data-heavy presentations more digestible—breaking statistics and other figures or timelines into bite-sized chunks. They’re also more persuasive. According to a study conducted at the Wharton School of Business, 67 percent of audience members were more convinced by the content of a verbal presentation with accompanying visuals versus 50 percent with a verbal-only presentation.

3. Presentation visuals build emotional bridges with the audience

They say a picture is worth a thousand words—it’s cliché but true. Images make viewers feel things that words cannot and give presenters a way to connect with their audience on a more visceral level. (Yes, even if your audience is a bunch of humorless academics.) Instead of listing off dull facts about global warming, pop in a few slides depicting recent floods or forest fires to drive home your point. Powerful imagery, including 3D effects and visually appealing templates , resonate with audiences and makes them care more deeply about what you’re saying.

4. Presentation visuals help audiences retain information

Researchers have found that people who are asked to recall information after a three-day period retained just 10 percent of what they heard during an oral presentation, 35 percent from a visual presentation, and 65 percent from an oral presentation with visuals. You’ve worked too hard preparing your address to have the audience walk away remembering only a tiny fraction of what you said. Embracing visuals will improve the odds by six times.

5. Presentation visuals keep your speech on track

Peppering your presentation with visual aids will help you organize your talking points, avoid off-topic rambling, and even jog your memory if you get hit with a bout of stage fright.

But remember: While thoughtful visuals will make a speech or presentation much stronger, they won’t save you if you show up unprepared. The purpose of a visual aid is to engage the audience, boost their understanding of your content, ignite an emotional response, and help you convey important messaging—but it is never a substitute for preparation .

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Why Do We Need Visual Aids in Tech Writing?

A few days ago, I bought a new smartphone—one of the new flashy models which contains more bells and whistles than I could ever need. I am decently comfortable with new-age devices, but this one had me scratching my head. I just could not figure out how to insert the second SIM card along with the memory card. After much tinkering, I decided to give the official user guide a shot. Only after I looked at the booklet and studied the visual instructions did things start making sense. I was finally able to complete my task.

Visual elements in technical documentation help end users absorb complex information, understand new concepts and finish their tasks faster.

Types of Visual Aids

There are different types of visual aids that tech writers can add to enrich the  content.

• Charts and Diagrams: Flow charts help users to understand processes from start to end. By having a pictorial representation, users can grasp the process and ensure that they do not miss out on any of the key steps. Sample flow chart .

• Infographics: Oftentimes, it is crucial to highlight certain calculations and values in the documentation. Having them in tables or paragraph format might make users overlook them due to the information overload. Infographics make it easier to visualise data. Sample infographic .

• Videos and GIFs: Explainer videos, with or without voiceover, are excellent resources for users to quickly learn about products, concepts and procedural steps. Sample video

• Screenshots: Product UI images that help the user connect the instructions to the interface. Sample screenshots

4 Reasons Visual Aids Are Important

• Simplifies complex content

The most important reason to add visual aids such as screenshots and diagrams is to break the content into smaller, understandable pieces. This simplification enables the user to grasp the concepts better. The visual cues help them to relate to the ideas better.

For example, in the aviation industry, flight manuals come with detailed diagrams and images to ensure pilots and other officials can absorb the information well. Another example is a map that helps users navigate or understand the layout of complex buildings.

2. Improves retention

Our minds are able to retain details when it is displayed to us in visual form. The usage of vivid colours and shapes helps our brains to store information. Studies have shown that people are more likely to remember information when it is presented in a visual format. Compared to text, images are processed by the human brain at a speed 60,000 times faster. Furthermore, visual information accounts for 90 percent of the information that is transmitted to the brain.

3. Saves time

Some users are visual learners. Sometimes users do not have enough time or do not want to put in the effort of going through lengthy text. They want to quickly get the information they need to go ahead and get the job done. 

In fact, at Razorpay, when we conducted feedback sessions with users to understand the efficacy of our documents, we realised that users preferred watching our dashboard videos rather than reading the steps. Videos definitely help in faster dissemination of information.

4. Improves accessibility

Adding visual elements makes your documentation accessible to a wider audience. For example, readers who may struggle with written language can benefit from the use of visual aids such as images, diagrams, or videos. 

In the case of visual impairments, visual aids can provide alternative ways of presenting information through braille, tactile images, or audio descriptions.

Ending Notes

When selecting a visual aid, it is critical to consider the purpose of the writing, the target audience, and the type of information. Visual aids are powerful tools for writers looking to enhance content clarity, engagement, and memorability. When used effectively, visual aids can add an element of creativity and interest to a piece of writing, making it more enjoyable for readers to engage with. 

Start using visual aids to enhance the communication process and improve the overall quality of your writing.

Principal Tech Writer at Razorpay who loves to read, write and drink copious amounts of coffee.

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Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better Case Study

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Increase credibility, create dramatic effect, gaining and maintaining attention, powerpoint of no return.

Visual aids are the objects, programs, and/or people and animals that are used to make a presentation better. A visual aid may be just visual, plain print, or audio-visual, to contain sound. The various forms of visual aid used in the world today include, video recordings, graphs, PowerPoint presentations and people. This case study discusses the importance of appropriate visual aids usage in the day to day life of people in different professions.

Visual aids are used to show professionalism in various fields of practice (Eline, 1984). A lawyer, for example, uses visual aids such as tapes and police reports while presenting his/her cases in court. If a lawyer does not present appropriate hard evidence for his case, his credibility is questioned. Hard evidence sometimes includes people and medical reports which are visible and which promote clarity in the presentation of a lawyer’s case. In the broadcasting of news, the news presenters support their story by use of clips from the scene from which the story was developed. In case a story is not supported by visual aids their credibility is risked because people will not just take their word for it.

In the field of business, visual aids indicate professionalism in a field study and proposal. When submitting the study or proposal to the stakeholders concerned, one should provide the proper samples of the data which led to their analyses. A person who provides graphs, pictures, people and multimedia materials to support their argument is considered to be professional. The people who do not support their arguments are considered unprofessional, and their proposals may be dismissed on the basis of lack of credibility.

The use of visual aids creates a dramatic effect on the presentation in that it makes it appealing (Eline, 1984). A lot of people may find it more appealing to watch news on the television than to have then broadcasted through the radio transmitters. The television transmission gives an extra touch to the story by presenting the appropriate pictures and multimedia clips to support their presentations. In a business firm’s conference hall, the introduction of supporting visual aids such as influential people who have succeeded in the topic being discussed provides an extra touch to the presentation. The use of video clips and other multimedia materials during presentation make it intriguing and understandable.

The use of properly prepared visual aids kills the monotony of listening to one’s presentation, increasing the attentiveness of the listeners (Eline, 1984). This is done by occasionally diverting the attention of the listeners from the speaker to something that is not only entertaining, but which also enriches the topic of presentation. In the scene of broadcasting the attention of the audience is held by their curiosity to see what really happened and this curiosity is satisfied by the visual aids presented for each story. In a court of law, the judge’s and jury’s attention is caught and maintained through the presentation of arguments backed up by hard evidence such as witnesses.

In business firm presentations whereby proper visual aids are used, the presentation is not only interesting but also enriching. As a result, the attention of the audience is captured and the effect of what the presenter is putting across increased. In the absence of these visual aids the presentation is likely to be more boring and have less effect on the stakeholders. With use visual aid the attention of the audience is shifted between the presenter and the visual aids thus promoting understanding.

The use of PowerPoint slides for presentation has proven to be ineffective especially while used inappropriately. To ensure the appropriate of power points slides as visual aids to enhance a presentation, ample preparation and careful usage are essential. The presenter should be having ample knowledge on how to use slides to avoid giving the wrong impression to the audience, he must know what he is doing and how to do it. PowerPoint slides are visual aids and are supposed to enhance the presentation not down play it. Ensure that you are well informed on the topic as the slides are intended for summary (Guffey & Almonte, 2009).

The PowerPoint slides created should be made to capture the audience by being interesting. They are supposed to enhance the presentation and make it better not worse. The slides should thus be interesting and relevant to the topic of presentation. Only the appropriate information should be used on the slide and any other information considered not appropriate for the slide should be presented in other medium of communication. It is very important to remember that the power point presentation is supposed to complement the presenter and thus the major means of presentation should be through speech and paralinguistic (Guffey & Almonte, 2009).

Visual aids are powerful in enhancing a presentation if used the correct way. They increase the credibility of the presenter in what he does, create an extra touch on the presentation and help with audience attention. The correct choice of what visual aid to use to present what information is important and should be carefully handled. The main means of presentation should not be forsaken for the visual aids but should be enhanced through them.

• Eline, L. (1984). How to Prepare and Use Effective Visual Aids. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development.
• Guffey, M. E., & Almonte, R. (2009). Essentials of Business Communication. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
• Presentation: Critique of Microsoft PowerPoint
• Effective Communication and PowerPoint Presentation
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• The Five Factor Model: Technology Acceptance
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• The iPad Tablet as Technological Needs
• IPod Product as a Media Devices Market Development
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IvyPanda. (2022, January 13). Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-use-of-visual-aids-as-objects/

"Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better." IvyPanda , 13 Jan. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/effective-use-of-visual-aids-as-objects/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better'. 13 January.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better." January 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-use-of-visual-aids-as-objects/.

1. IvyPanda . "Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better." January 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-use-of-visual-aids-as-objects/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Effective Use of Visual Aids as Objects to Make a Presentation Better." January 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/effective-use-of-visual-aids-as-objects/.

Visual Aids Essays

Topic: kindergarten teachers’ perception, experiences and challenges using visual aids for children with autism, popular essay topics.

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Graduate Writing Center: Creating Effective Figures and Visual Aids

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Presenter: Marie Payne, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Graduate Writing ConsultantThis workshop focuses on strategies for designing effective figures and visual materials. The workshop will also introduce different software packages that can be used to create high-quality figures and offer further resources for learning these programs.

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Technology to Help With Visual Impairments

In this article

There have been various technological advances to help people with visual impairments. Here are eight advancements you might be interested in if certain tasks are becoming more challenging due to vision loss:

• Magnifiers. Handheld or stand magnifiers can be used for reading small texts and certain hobbies. Electronic magnifiers that can also zoom, change color, or read text.
• Glasses. There are telescopic glasses that can help you see distant objects. Special glasses can also subtly change how an image falls on the eye for people with central vision loss.
• Screen readers. These are programs that can read text on websites, emails, and digital books
• Voice activation. Voice-activated features and voice recognition software can help people with low vision type, make calls, or read articles.
• Smartphones. Most smartphones have magnifiers and other apps to help people with low vision or vision loss.
• Smart glasses. High-tech glasses can provide even higher magnification, read text aloud, and help you navigate the world around you.
• Braille displays. If you read Braille, these devices connect to your computer and translate what’s on-screen into refreshable Braille dots you can feel.
• Smart canes and apps. These use sensors and GPS to let you know about things in your path and help you find your way outdoors.

Tips for Using Assistive Technologies

There are many great tools to help you manage visual impairments and aid you in your daily life. The most important thing to remember is that a device is only helpful if it matches your needs and lifestyle. 

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Talk to your eye doctor. They can recommend the most helpful tools based on your vision.
• Try before you buy. Many places selling these tools will let you test them out first to ensure they’re right for you.
• Practice. Sometimes, learning to use a new device takes a little practice. Many eye clinics and community centers offer classes to help.

Should You Use Assistive Technologies?

Before considering assistive technologies, you should ask yourself what tasks you struggle with and what your goals are with assistive technologies. Do you need something that you can take everywhere or something you can use at home?

Knowing what you need help with can give you some direction on what you need. You should also consider if it’s something you can easily learn and practice with.

Additionally, you don’t have to worry about price. Many insurance plans, vocational programs, and organizations exist to help people obtain assistive technology.

The Role of Assistive Technologies in Daily Life

Assistive technology can help people with visual impairments or vision loss navigate their daily lives. AI cameras can help you recognize signs, obstacles, and even faces. 

AI can be highly customizable to address your specific needs. Additionally, voice recognition software can feel like having a personal assistant that can help you read, write, check the weather, etc.

Smart glasses can also help you read, boost contrast, and magnify text. These can be convenient for daily tasks like grocery shopping, paying bills, and other errands.

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• Kaur, K. & Gurnani, B. “ Low Vision Aids. ” Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, 2023.
• Perrault et al. “ Visual Impairment and Low Vision Aids-A Comparison between Children and Adults. ” J Pers Med, 2023.
• Vasconcelos, G. & Fernandes, L. “ Low-Vision Aids. ” American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2015.
• Mishra, S. “ Assistive Technologies for Visual Impairment Enhancing Access to Library Resources. ” University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 2023.
• Mashiata et al. “ Towards assisting visually impaired individuals: A review on current status and future prospects. ” Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2022.
• Hwang et al. “ Technological Opportunity Analysis: Assistive Technology for Blind and Visually Impaired People. ” Sustainability, 2020.
• Manirajee et al. “ Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired Individuals: A Systematic Literature Review (SLR). ” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2024.
• Senjam S. “ Smartphones as assistive technology for visual impairment. ” Eye (Lond), 2021.

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Guest Essay

Janet Yellen: A New Way to Make Russia’s Assets Pay for Ukraine’s Defense and Rebuilding

By Janet L. Yellen

Ms. Yellen is the secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

We are at a critical time in Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s continued assault on the country requires that we take bold and decisive action. It is time for the United States and our allies to unlock the value of immobilized Russian assets so that Ukraine can get the financial support it urgently needs.

The United States and our global coalition including the Group of 7, Europe and countries around the globe are engaged in a battle of wills with Vladimir Putin. As Russia continues to move to a permanent war footing and Ukraine faces a sizable future funding gap, Mr. Putin is betting that he can wait out the coalition until Ukraine runs out of money and bullets.

Each day Russia’s aggression continues, it threatens Ukraine’s sovereignty, our collective security and the rules-based international order that underlies the strength of the global economy and the international financial system.

Since Russian troops first amassed on the Ukrainian border, the United States and our Group of 7 counterparts have leveled sweeping multilateral sanctions to deprive Russia of money and military equipment to fuel its aggression. We have equipped Ukraine with weapons, equipment and financial support.

At the start of the war, we also immobilized approximately $280 billion of Russia’s sovereign assets held in our financial institutions so that they cannot be used to fuel Putin’s war of choice. We agreed that these assets would remain immobilized until Russia pays for the damage it has caused.

A majority of these assets now sit at a financial institution in Belgium. They are generating several billion dollars in revenue each year, to which Russia has no legal claim. The European Union has agreed to direct these windfall earnings to support Ukraine, and I applaud this plan. But this will not be sufficient to meet Ukraine’s immediate and future needs. So the United States has worked with our allies to build on Europe’s plan and go further.

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Sandoz Inc., et al.; Withdrawal of Approval of 20 Abbreviated New Drug Applications

A Notice by the Food and Drug Administration on 06/21/2024

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Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is withdrawing approval of 20 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) from multiple applicants. The applicants notified the Agency in writing that the drug products were no longer marketed and requested that the approval of the applications be withdrawn.

Approval is withdrawn as of July 22, 2024.

Martha Nguyen, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 75, Rm. 1676, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-3471, [email protected] .

The applicants listed in table 1 have informed FDA that these drug products are no longer marketed and have requested that FDA withdraw approval of the applications under the process in § 314.150© ( 21 CFR 314.150(c) ). The applicants have also, by their requests, waived their opportunity for a hearing. Withdrawal of approval of an application or abbreviated application under § 314.150(c) is without prejudice to refiling. Start Printed Page 52058

Table—ANDAs for Which Approval Is Withdrawn

Application No.DrugApplicantANDA 040118Carisoprodol, Aspirin and Codeine Phosphate Tablets, 325 milligrams (mg), 200 mg, and 16 mgSandoz Inc., 100 College Rd. West, Princeton, NJ 08540.ANDA 040291Fluorouracil Injection, 50 mg/milliliters (mL)Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC, Three Corporate Dr., Lake Zurich, IL 60047.ANDA 071849Morphine Sulfate Injectable, 0.5 mg/mLHospira, Inc., 275 North Field Dr., Building H1-3S, Lake Forest, IL 60045.ANDA 074133Metoprolol Tartrate Injectable, 1 mg/mLDo.ANDA 076648Nitrofurantoin (Monohydrate/Macrocrystals) Capsules, 75 mg, and 25 mgAurobindo Pharma USA Inc., 279 Princeton-Hightstown Rd., East Windsor, NJ 08520.ANDA 077387Ondansetron Hydrochloride (HCl) Preservative Free Injection, Equivalent to (EQ) 2 mg base/mLAmerican Regent, Inc., 5 Ramsey Rd., Shirley, NY 11967.ANDA 077582Ondansetron HCl Injectable, EQ 2 mg base/mLDo.ANDA 079039Ondansetron HCl Injection, EQ 2 mg base/mLDo.ANDA 087440Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate Injection, EQ 4 mg phosphate/mLDo.ANDA 088388Mepivacaine HCl and Levonordefrin Injection, 0.05 mg/mL; 2%ICON Clinical Research, LLC, U.S. Agent for Deproco, Inc., 4130 ParkLake Ave., Suite 400, Raleigh, NC 27612.ANDA 090578Ampicillin and Sulbactam For Injection, EQ 10 grams(g) base/vial and EQ 5 grams (g) base/vialEAS Consulting Group, LLC, U.S. Agent for Astral SteriTech Pvt. Ltd., 1700 Diagonal Rd., #750, Alexandria, VA 22314.ANDA 090579Ampicillin and Sulbactam For Injection, EQ 1 g base/vial, EQ 500 mg base/vial, EQ 2 g base/vial, and EQ 1 g base/vialDo.ANDA 090723Duloxetine HCl Capsules, Delayed-Release Pellets, EQ 20 mg base, EQ 30 mg base, and EQ 60 mg baseMarksans Pharma, Inc., U.S. Agent for Marksans Pharma Ltd., 150 Motor Pkwy., Suite 401, 4th Floor, Rm. 430, Hauppauge, NY 11788.ANDA 207266Bupivacaine HCl Injectable, 0.75%Baxter Healthcare Corp., One Baxter Pkwy., Deerfield, IL 60015.ANDA 207794Busulfan Injection, 6 mg/mLNexus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 400 Knightsbridge Pkwy., Lincolnshire, IL 60069.ANDA 209068Chlorthalidone Tablets, 25 mg and 50 mgElity LLC, U.S. Agent for Sunny Pharmtech Inc., 175 SW 166th Ave., Pembroke Pines, FL 33027.ANDA 212223Captopril Tablets, 12.5 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mgPharmobedient Consulting, LLC, U.S. Agent for Seton Pharmaceuticals, LLC, 642 North East 3rd Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304.ANDA 212287Piperacillin and Tazobactam For Injection, EQ 2 g base/vial, EQ 250 mg base/vial, EQ 3 g base/vial, EQ 375 mg base/vial, EQ 4 g base/vial, and EQ 500 mg base/vialEAS Consulting Group, LLC.ANDA 212721Cefepime HCl For Injection, EQ 1 g base/vial and EQ 2 g base/vialDo.ANDA 213552Succinylcholine Chloride Injection, 20 mg/mLNexus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Therefore, approval of the applications listed in table 1, and all amendments and supplements thereto, is hereby withdrawn as of July 22, 2024. Approval of each entire application is withdrawn, including any strengths and dosage forms inadvertently missing from table 1. Introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of products listed in table 1 without an approved new drug application or ANDA violates sections 505(a) and 301(d) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ( 21 U.S.C. 355(a) and 331(d) ). Drug products that are listed in table 1 that are in inventory on July 22, 2024 may continue to be dispensed until the inventories have been depleted or the drug products have reached their expiration dates or otherwise become violative, whichever occurs first.

Dated: June 17, 2024.

Lauren K. Roth,

Associate Commissioner for Policy.

[ FR Doc. 2024-13660 Filed 6-20-24; 8:45 am]

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