Many people tend to struggle with presentations. Part of this problem stems from the widespread fear of public speaking. However, that doesn't provide the full picture, as even people who are fairly confident speaking to a room full of people can still struggle with presentations.
Problems concerning presentations are often caused by the way people go about creating them. While the information you're presenting is important, you'll also have to take how you deliver that information into consideration. Think about it, if you were just planning to relay a wall of text to get your message across, then wouldn't an email have sufficed?
So how do you improve presentations? Well, as the title suggests, if you want to make an effective presentation, visual aids are a huge part of it. This article will be talking about what visual aids are, why they're important, and how they can make your presentations better.
What is visual aid in a presentation
Before we go on and discuss why visual aids are important and how to make an effective presentation, let's first talk about what visual aids are. To put it simply, visual aids are images that summarize, supplement, and simplify information. These can range from graphs and tables to videos and photos that are added to your presentation.
And while this may sound simplistic, nothing could be further from the truth, as creating visuals to support and explain information has turned into an entire profession in itself. In fact, skills in graphic design are highly sought after as the demand for graphic designers is estimated to grow by 13% this year.
Indeed, visual communication continues to be a top priority for companies streamlining their operations, both to the public and internally. The demand for people who can create and deliver such presentations is only expected to increase— but the field is ever-changing. Students taking up digital media degrees today will find themselves training to become specialists who understand both technology and design. With businesses adapting their strategies to the digital landscape, it’s no longer enough for budding professionals to only know the inner workings of their dedicated software. This applies to both internal and external communications and should be evident in the visual presentations that are delivered by this new breed of professionals.
Why visual aids are important in presentations
It's time to answer the all-important question: why are visual aids essential in presentations? While it's easy to assume that the reasoning behind this is purely aesthetic, it goes deeper than that. You'll encounter different kinds of learners in the workplace: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. This means that people take to certain stimuli differently. Some people will learn best when listening, while some people learn through visuals.
Around 65% of the population are visual learners, so from a statistical standpoint, adding visual aids allows you to cast a wider net when it comes to helping people absorb and internalize the topic of your presentation.
Another reason why you'd want to add visuals to your presentations is that it helps prevent them from being too wordy. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is a cliché, but that doesn't make it any less true. Visuals can help you summarize complicated information by turning it into an infographic or a simple graph.
How to make a presentation more effective with visual aids
So how does one make an effective visual presentation? When deciding on your visual presentation ideas, the key is to keep things balanced. More images and visual aids will not automatically make your visual presentation more effective. So rather than stuffing as many infographics as you can into your presentation, look for parts that need to be simplified.
Go through your presentation and try to keep an eye out for particularly wordy sections. Once you've spotted these, see if they can be summarized with the help of visual aids. Doing so will make your presentation feel a lot less cumbersome for your audience, which will go a long way into helping them take in and understand the information.
Beautiful.ai understands the importance of visual aids, which is why we offer a free image library with hundreds of thousands of quality images, icons, and logos within the product. Simply search for an image directly from your slide, without ever having to leave the presentation. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, or have a specific brand image to include, it’s easy to import and upload your own assets with the click of a button. Plus, with our new Dropbox integration, now anyone can access their shared Dropbox assets and seamlessly incorporate them into slide templates with Beautiful.ai to create stunning on-brand presentations.
If you're looking for more tips on how to give and make effective presentations, check out our article on seven time-saving tips when creating a presentation!