Creating a truly visual presentation involves more than simply adding visuals to your text slides. We have examined the need for visuals in presentations extensively in previous posts because it’s scientifically proven that most learning and comprehension is effective when performed visually, but that’s really only half the battle.
If your presentation contains visuals to emphasize specific points, you are well on your way. However, to really hammer home the significance of your presentation you need to properly sequence your visuals; that is, reveal them step by step rather than all at once. Without the proper sequencing, you risk overwhelming your audience. The data that the visual is meant to convey will not be properly absorbed and the effectiveness of the visual itself will be reduced.
Let’s look at an example that visually demonstrates this:
Here’s a slide about changing business strategy with all of the points the presenter is going to make, including the subsequent talking points, shown all at once.
One can see the relationships of how the proposed change in strategy effects different aspects to the business, however there is so much to take in all at once that it becomes difficult to decide where to focus during the presentation. The speaker could be talking about “Corporate Culture,” for example, while some in the audience are reading the points under “Efficiency.”
Now, here is the same slide illustrating the same information through the same visual, but revealed sequentially so that the audience can fully understand the nature of the change and the relationship of the main discussion topic and progressively drilling down into the finer detail. As the speaker moves onto the next point, the next set of topic boxes is revealed. This keeps every one focused and on track.
Slide with original visual showing the first sequence of information:
Same slide with original visual showing the first and second sequence of information:
Same slide with original visual showing the first, second and third sequence of information:
Same slide with original visual showing the entire visual:
As you can see, the audience has time to absorb the mind map in sections as the speaker makes the points. Your audience is far more engaged during the presentation, and since they have been systematically lead through each point they leave with an augmented sense of comprehension and satisfaction.
So the next time you are tasked with creating a presentation, remember to plan and create the presentation visually, but also be sure to sequence the visuals for your audience for full effectiveness.
To learn how to sequence your visuals properly using SmartDraw, and revolutionize your next presentation, be sure to read our white paper entitled, “How SmartDraw VP Reinvents PowerPoint®.”
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