Mastering Visual Aids: Three Golden Rules for Effective Presentations (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: How do you make use of visual aids? Now, what exactly are visual aids? Visual aids, there are many different kinds. First one, you have what we call an image, a static image. Number two, moving images. That means a video. Number three, an object or an installation. Something that you can hold on to, something they can put on display. When it comes to using visual aids, what are the three golden rules that we need to take note of? Number one, the litmus test is whether or not that particular visual aid helps me to advance my message. That's the key question, the golden question we have to ask ourselves all the time. If I use this visual aid, is it going to be distracting for the audience members or is it going to help me? Not distract the audience, but it's going to help me advance the audience level of understanding. I remembered someone who took up a $50 note and started to crush it. The person threw it on the floor and then stepped on it and asked the audience members, would you still be interested in this $50 note? Would you still want it if I were to give it to you? Everyone said yes. And that particular person used that visual aid to prove a point that even for a $50 note, I can crush it, I can throw it on the ground, I can step on it, I can spit on it, but it still does not lose its value. Likewise, as a human being, no matter what others say of us, no matter how others try and crush us, that shouldn't change the value of who we are as an individual and the intrinsic value that we have. So that's a very powerful use of visual aid because it advances learning and the understanding of the audience. Golden rule number two for visual aid is whether or not you are interacting with the visual aid. Because you see, the moment you have a visual aid up here, the audience members' attention, they're going to be distributed. Some over here looking at the visual aid, some on you. What you want to do is to be able to interact with the visual aid at times. See this visual aid as your partner. Like for instance, if I have a visual aid, my PowerPoint presentation, I will say, if I may draw your attention to point three on my PowerPoint slide. If I do that, that transition phrase is going to help me draw audience attention there. This is what we call directing. It's like you are seeing that visual aid as a partner. Golden rule number three is to make sure that less is more. It doesn't mean that you have more words on your PowerPoint presentation slide. It's going to be better than with fewer words. What you want to take note of is the rule of 369. On a single PowerPoint slide, three main points, six sub points, and no more than nine words per point. That would be useful. If you can use fewer words, even better. Take note of these three golden rules and you'll be on your way to become a powerful presenter with visual aids.