Effective Oral Presentations: Dispensing with Visual Aids

When presenting information to an audience, the presenter can choose to just do it orally without any visual aids. If he can speak very well and keep the audience awake for sometime, then, his delivery will not be wasted. Another way of presenting is by giving handouts to the audience so that they can follow what you are explaining. However, this will make some of the listeners forget about the speaker because they would assume that there's no need to listen since everything is in the handout.

There is also another way of presenting wherein visuals will be included.

Based on Pavlov's "orienting response" concept, humans can't help but look at changes in visual stimuli (DeGaetano). Applying this to a presentation, it means that the visuals have to be part of the presentation to keep the audience from drifting off. The presentation have to be properly phased in such a manner that the speaker's message will reflect what's being shown. A business presentation should be short and concise, if possible.

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The visuals that have to be incorporated into the presentation have to reflect the concept being discussed.

Maps, graphs, and tables are some of the visuals that should be part of a business presentation. Background pictures or border graphics have to be avoided since they distract from the presentation and make the presenter appear less businesslike. The visuals have to look professional and every data in it should be accurate. In the slides containing visuals, they should have a title to make it easier for the audience to follow.

A video clip can also be used to support a topic. But the presenter has to ensure that the video works, otherwise, the presentation will be halted.

More importantly, the presenter must know the topic well so that the visual aids can be effective. If the presenter will seem confuse as to a visual element's applicability, he will rapidly lose his credibility with his audience. The document design will be consistent throughout the entire document to avoid confusing the audience. The information flow will be from one related topic to another. There will be no jumping from one topic to another. Applying John Battalio's tips on designing a presentation, the final project will use the concepts of alignment, spatial relationship, contrast and repetition to create patterns.

By doing this, the audience won't need to adjust everytime a new design is being presented. Their attention will be focused on the information they are receiving. The layout will be simple and uses graphics when necessary. The graphics will be used to highlight a concept or add flavor to an otherwise dull topic. But they will be chosen with care to avoid distracting the audience from the meat of the presentation. Too much graphics can create clutter. The graphics must be meaningful, provide visual evidence and illustrative. In presenting the information, the key features will be made using bullets.

In this manner, the audience does not spend time reading what's in the slides. The explanation or additional information related to the bulleted list will be given by the presenter. The font and template's color will contrast to be more visually appealing. A black font will go well with a white background, or a background that is leaning towards yellow, but not anything dark because that would hurt the eyes. The font style would either be Arial of Times New Roman. The texts will be written in full sentences rather than phrases to convey more information rather than making the audience wonder at their meaning.

The full sentences will cover the main points, while the presenter will provide the details.

References

1. Battalio, J. Create a Design for the Slides. Preparing Presentation Slides: A Tutorial by John Battalio. Retrieved August 13, 2008, from http://bcs. bedfordstmartins. com/techcomm/content/cat_030/preparingpresentationslides/1 d. html DeGaetano, G. Visual Media and Young Children's Attention Span. Media Literacy Review. Retrieved August 13, 2008, from http://interact. uoregon. edu/MediaLit/JCP/articles_mlr/degaetano/visualmedia. html