The Importance of Visual Aids

Advertising executive Frederick R. Barnard once said, “One look is worth a thousand words.”^[1] Visual presentation can be powerful, as advertisers like Barnard have known for a long time. Visual aids can make your presentation more memorable, more moving, and easier to understand. However, it’s precisely because of the power of visuals, and the ubiquity of images in our advertisement-saturated media environment, that you have to be discerning and selective in their use.

Why Use Visual Aids?

Visuals can:

• spark interest
• build emotional connections
• clarify your words
• explain abstract ideas
• help draw conclusions
• increase audience understanding

For instance, a speaker may show stacks of books to represent the amount of data storage in a speech about the evolution of computers. Another speaker may demonstrate the proper use of ear plugs by distributing ear plugs, showing how to insert them, and then blasting an air horn in a speech about preventing hearing loss in order to make the value of ear protection more memorable and concrete. Done well, simple, visible, relevant, memorable, and audience-focused visual aids can have a profound impact on your audience and your overall message.

Visual aids can be an important part of conveying your message effectively since people learn far more by hearing and seeing than through hearing or seeing alone.^[2] The brain processes verbal and visual information separately. By helping the audience build visual and verbal memories, they are more likely to be able to remember the information at a later time.^[3]

If you can find a visual aid to complement what you’re saying, you will help your audience understand the information you are presenting and remember your message. For example, a speaker might show the proper and improper ways to bow when being introduced in Japan while at the same time talking about the movements and also displaying a slide with the appropriate angles and postures for bowing. By using multiple modes in concert with each other, the message is strengthened by the pairing of words, images, and movement.

Not just any visual will do, however. Each visual should be relevant to your message, convey an important point, be clearly understandable, and be visible by your entire audience. Visuals should be used to make concepts easier to understand and to reinforce your message. They should illustrate important points that are otherwise hard to understand.^[4][5][6]

Use visuals for speeches about processes, products, or demonstrations of how to do something, such as a diagram of how email is delivered in a speech about computer security. Use visuals when you need to explain things you cannot see because they are hidden or abstract, like a model of your internal organs in a speech about gastric bypass surgery. Use them when you need to grab your audience’s attention or stir their emotions. A speaker could use a photo of a starving child and a bag of rice that represents the daily calorie intake of a poor child in a speech about food insecurity to create a visceral reaction in the audience. Use images to tell a story or create a visual metaphor.

Visual metaphors are useful when trying to evoke an emotion, such as showing an image of someone running or diving into a pool when you want to evoke action on the part of your audience. The images convey the message to “get going” or “dive in.” When talking about numbers or statistics, use visuals to provide context, comparison, and to help your audience understand the meaning of data. Done well, graphs can help make patterns or trends in the data much more comprehensible to your audience.^[7]

Does Your Presentation Need Visuals?

Although visuals are powerful tools in public speaking, make sure to consider what type of visual aid will best serve your purpose and if you even need a visual aid at all. Select a visual aid that adds to your presentation in a meaningful way, not one that is merely something pretty to look at or a substitute for thorough preparation.

Visuals are not there for you to hide behind when you are in front of your audience. Because of the tendency for novice speakers to use visuals as a crutch in their speeches, it has even been suggested that beginner speakers be forbidden from using visual aids while they are learning to present.^[8]

Visual aids serve a unique role in a presentation, and you should consider the specific purpose and desired outcome of your speech when determining if, when, to what extent, and in what format you use visual aids.

Here’s a quick checklist to decide whether visual aids are a good idea for your presentation:

1. Are the visuals you have in mind relevant to your topic?

In some cases, visuals are required. If you’re presenting on the artist Amy Sherald, it makes good sense to show examples of her work. However, in a speech on the reasons why U.S. citizens seem to prefer football over baseball, and you’re just putting up a slide for the sake of having something on the screen, you should reconsider. Everyone loves a good photograph or image, but if it doesn’t relate to and enhance your message, it will not help.

2. Are the visuals appealing and suitable for the occasion?

A quick search for “bad PowerPoints” reveals how distracting bad visuals can be. Even worse are visuals are visuals that are inappropriate for the setting or offensive to the sensibilities of your audience?

3. you keep the information simple enough for your viewers to grasp quickly?

If you need complicated text, data, facts, or figures, it might be a better option to give your audience a handout they can peruse later.

4. Can all your viewers see your visuals from anywhere in the room?

If there’s no projector, for instance, just holding up your laptop isn’t going to work. Not being able to see the visuals easily is frustrating for everyone.

5. Can you count on the technology to work? Do you have time to set it up and practice using it?

Spending 15 minutes trying to fix the A/V setup is a highly counter-productive way to start your speech.

While there are many possible reasons to use visuals in your presentation, your guiding principle should be: does this visual make the message clearer or more memorable? If you answer with a resounding “YES!” then work on visuals for your speech.

Learning how to create effective visuals that resonate with your audience is important for a quality presentation. Understanding basic principles of how visual information is processed alone and in combination with audio information can make or break your visuals’ effectiveness and impact. Incorporating visuals into your speech that complement your words, rather than stand in place of them or distract from them, will set you apart from other presenters, increase your credibility, and make a bigger and more memorable impact on your audience.