Designing Effective Visuals by Robyn Ciancia

Studies show the brain retains more information when combining visual and oral stimulation. When designing visuals for a presentation there are a few key points to keep in mind. You are not trying to distract the audience with the visuals; you are assisting the audience in understanding the presentation. Here a few tips to help when designing your visuals.

• Think of your audience first and keep in mind that the short term memory only holds 5-7 points. Keep the visual short, sweet, and to the point.

• Design the visual to assist in listening. By taking data and making a visual out of it, listeners are more likely stay involved in the presentation. Organization is key.

• The visual needs to be clear and concise enough for the audience to see. Too many bells and whistles are going to be distracting.

• Paying attention to color schemes is very important! Colors subconsciously imply different things to the human brain. A few examples are:

• White - youth, sterility, purity, neutrality. Doctors wear white coats to imply sterility.

• Black - While black can mean intelligence, classic, and new, it also is associated with death. Black is an abstract color that is also associated with mystery and rebellion.

• Red - passion and intensity. The physical human response to Red is for the heart to beat faster. It is used to highlight important points.

• Blue - confidence, stability, and security. Many service employees (such as police officers) wear blue to promote the feeling of security.

• Keep in mind the meaning of color when creating your visual. If you are giving a presentation about cleanliness in public restrooms, keep the visual clean and stark by using white, and only highlighting with red. Black would not be an appropriate all over color.

By keeping in mind these few simple tips will make sure your visuals are helpful to your audience instead of distracting.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_symbolism_and_psychology
2. http://www.plu.edu/libr/media/designing_visuals.html
3. www.ua.edu/academic/oit/frc/resources/pdf/10tips.pdf
4. http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html