A significant portion of the population are visual learners. That means they’ll absorb information much easier when it is presented in a visually appealing format. A visual presentation helps people digest easy snapshots of information. This avoids data dumping information on to an audience.
How do we know if our presentation is visual enough or engaging enough to capture the audience’s attention and lead to a proactive result in the end? These tips might help:
Simplicity is your friend
Before we get to the visual content, the text itself must be as concise and straight to the point as possible. Less is often more in this case. Every word placed in your presentation should be relevant and avoid repetition. Capping the number of lines on a slide can also be a useful tactic. Otherwise, the focus will go straight to reading the presentation and not listening to the one presenting it.
Visualizing data
Once you can be concise with your messaging it is important to consider how you present your data. This is where you can easily lose or gain an audience.
Visual representation of data versus simply laying data out in a spreadsheet-like format is a great way of engaging an audience and getting them excited about the information you are representing. Some ways that you can represent data is to make some numbers larger and therefore more prominent, so that they stand out and start to create some hierarchy on your slide design. Calling out relevant data allows your audience to focus on key data points in your deck.
Overall Design
If you already have branding, you want your deck to follow your existing brand guidelines. This will ensure that every presentation you give looks like it belongs to your company.
A clean presentation is a clear presentation. That means working to have the same uniform color scheme throughout your deck. Coupled with visuals and a color palette that is complementary to your brand.
Having the same font styles and sizes throughout a deck creates visual consistency and continuity. Unintentional subtle changes throughout a design can look jarring and distracting. You want your visuals to allow your audience to focus on the information and data you’re presenting and not a distracting background.
Consider keeping the visual presentation static
Consider whether slide transitions and animations add to the story you are trying to tell. Often these can be distracting to an audience.
You may want to embed a video here and there if it’s relevant to the topic. However, keep in mind that it can take away from a presentations flow and should be used sparingly.
Work with a professional for your visual presentation
If you are looking to visually elevate your presentation to be more effective, but not look like it is crammed into a template, then consider working with a design professional. A design professional can work with you to create the perfect presentation that visually represents your business and industry.
You can work with a design professional to create a presentation template that will save a large amount of time not only on your first presentation, but all subsequent presentations as well. A template will help to ensure uniform visuals every time you need to create a new presentation. This will help you focus on your content rather than visual design.