You work hard crafting your presentations to paint a picture in your participant's minds. You choose your words carefully to deliver just the right message. To augment this, to really drive home your point, you include – or should include – pictures, graphs, and other visual aids.
A very common form of presentation aid is the PowerPoint presentation. For those who don't know, this is a highly dynamic slideshow you can easily create and present from your computer. As you progress through your notes, you click through slides that show exactly what you're talking about.
There are a few tips you should know about PowerPoint. First of all, "less is more". Even if the PowerPoint is thrown up on a big screen with a projector – and especially if it's only shown on a laptop – you don't want to inundate your participants with too many visual details. A particularly crowded slide will take time and thought to decipher, dragging attention away from what you are saying. Keep your slides austere and simple. Avoid using bullet points, but if you have to, keep the number of them down to two or three.
When you use pictures, make sure they get your point across in one glance. Like a crowded PowerPoint slide, a busy picture will distract or worse, convey the wrong ideas. With video, take the time to really inspect your footage. Is it too long? Are there too many cuts, unnecessary effects, or extras that don't add to your presentation? Your video should be like your speech: carefully crafted, succinct, and to the point.
Graphs are unique pictures that can convey a big message in one glance using simple shapes, colors, and numbers. Here are 3 choice graph tips from Seth Grodin of Seth's Blog:
- One Story
A graph is to augment your message. You want it to proclaim in one glance that what you've been saying is correct. Or, as Seth says, "There is no room for nuance here. You don't have nuance in the other parts of your presentation, and it doesn't belong here. If the facts demand nuance, don't use a graph, because you won't get nuance, you'll get confusion."
- No Bar Charts
Bar charts are often used mainly because they are the first option when you elect to insert a graph. However, while a bar chart can convey your message, it does so in the wrong way. This ties with Seth's first point: "The correct use of a bar chart is to show how several items change over a period of time. This, of course, demands nuance."
- Have Motion
You show a graph to demonstrate how things relate to each other or how they have progressed over time. To really make this pop, add motion. "It's simple: create two slides. The first one shows where the data used to be, the second one, on the same axes, shows where it is or where it's going. Motion. Establish the first slide. Make your point about your source and its validity. Then press the advance button. Boom."