Chiz Web

General Recommendations:

• Practice with them!  There's nothing worse than fumbling with materials you haven't worked with ahead of time.

• Use them when they make it easier to get your point across or make a point more meaningful; in other words, often!

• However, beware overuse!   Five or six slides will support your presentation; thirty could kill it. 

• Visual means visual!  The most violated rule of visual aids is that they should be easily seen by everyone in the room.  Letters, numbers, and lines should be large and heavy with good contrast to the background color.  Check this by walking to the back of the room and looking!  Pictures from newspapers, magazines, and Internet are rarely large enough; snapshots require projection of some kind.  Some objects have details that are too small for an audience to see.

• Neat and attractive, professional.   The days of gluing to poster board are dead.  We have computers and publishing software to make it look professional.  This shows that you care enough about the message to prepare it right! 

• Plan presentation.  Decide ahead of time how the visual will be presented.  Hung? Passed around? Held in hands?  Are the materials you need to present it available and ready?  Always check the room in advance!  (Get easels, masking tape, pins, electronic equipment in advance.)  In addition:

  • Check angle for entire room to see

  • Check height, especially in relation to speaker

  • Set apart from lectern so you don't block audience view

  • Use materials strong enough to support themselves

• Pointers.  Pointing with your hand often means you block the view.  Pointers are better, but come with their own problems.  Always hold in the hand closest to the visual so you don't have to reach across your body.  Look at the visual long enough to place the pointer properly, but keep eyes on the audience mostly.  If there are large gaps between the times you use the visual, set the pointer down until you need it. 

• Timing.  When will you first show the visual?  How long will it remain in view?  If you show it too early or leave it up too long, it may distract the audience or lose its impact once you come to it in the speech.  Consider getting cover boards, or laying it down, or turning electronics off, or covering it with cloth.   Whatever happens, when you do show it, give the audience time to appreciate it. 

• Did I mention practicing with the visuals?

• When it goes wrong.  Prepare your speech with the assumption that for whatever reason the visual will fail or not be available (no projector, forgotten materials, etc.).  Don't rely on the visual--your flexibility as a speaker depends on your ability to adapt to calamity!

Types:

• Charts, Graphs, Diagrams, Maps, Posters, Pictures

• Objects, Models, and Cutaways

• Computer Presentations such as PowerPoint®

• Handouts

• Audio

• Video, Film, Overheads, or Slides

• Blackboard or Easels