You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create effective visual elements for your live stream or webinar. Visual aids offer many benefits to virtual events and can provide clarity and improve engagement for your virtual audience.
Do I need to use visual aids when I’m presenting online?
Have you ever wondered why children’s story books have pictures? It’s because children (especially those that don’t read yet) have short attention spans for books and pretty much everything else.
Pictures are a visual aid that help to build interest and a connection to the story we’re telling. Think back to the stories you learned from books as a child. Do the pictures still stand out in your memory?
As we grow up, our expanded will power enables us to sit through boring experiences without tricks to keep us captivated, but that doesn’t mean the tricks, like using stimulating visual aids, stop working.
While some presenters may have the skill to deliver a compelling and engaging presentation without slides or graphics, they are a rare breed and they have dedicated time to honing their craft in order to do so. Until you reach that level of expert presenter prowess, there are several reasons why you will want to use visual aids in your live stream or webinar.
Common benefits of visual aids
Visual aids bring the following benefits to your virtual audience:
- Clarify and reinforce crucial information
- Keep your audience engaged and focused on the content
- Make your presentation more dynamic
- Create memorable moments in your presentation
- Illustrate complex concepts or ideas easily
Used in combination with verbal explanations and storytelling, visual aids can be an extremely effective way to reinforce information for your audience and create lasting impressions.
How do I ensure my visual aids are effective?
Use high-quality images: The images and graphics you use should be clear, crisp, and well-designed. Poor quality images can create distraction by taking attention from your presentation and erode your credibility.
Keep it simple: Don’t try to pack too much information into a single slide or image. Use simple, clear graphics to convey one important point at a time. Limit the amount of text and bullet points on the screen to keep the attention on your content.
Rehearse with your visual aids: Ensure that your visual aids are working properly; you need to know the pacing and flow. This will help you to present more confidently with your slides and visual aids.
Keep it moving: Avoid resting on a static image or slide for too long as this can encourage your audience to look away or start to multitask. Slides and visual aids should transition to the next within a minute of being displayed to maintain visual engagement.
Use relevant graphics: Choose visual aids that convey meaning and are relevant to the content of your presentation. Using charts or graphs will help to illustrate data-heavy information while carefully selected pictures can create lasting impressions that support your message.
Slides can’t replace you: Your audience wants to connect with you, not your slides. Visual aids are most effective when you use them to supplement and augment your content. They cannot make up for other missing elements of your presentation and delivery.
Stop the screen share: You don’t have to use a visual aid or slides at every moment of your presentation. Some presenters do very well without them. Use visual aids only when their addition is beneficial.
Visual aids that aren’t slides: While slides are the most common visual aid used in virtual presentations, you may also consider using short video clips or physical props to augment your presentation. Green screen and virtual background technologies can place your video over your content or put you “on location”. Video filters and avatars can add a bit of fun to your presentation.
Summary
We hope that these recommendations will provide you with some inspiration and logical opportunities to enhance your presentations. Choose the options that are accessible to you and avoid complications. As always, keep it simple for your ease and best outcomes.
We’d love the opportunity to assist you with your virtual events. Please contact us for ideas or to work with our team of experts.
