Presentation Zen [43]
You can see the picture superiority effect used widely in marketing communications, such as posters, billboards, brochures, annual reports, etc. The effect should be kept in mind too when designing slides (images and text) that support a narrative. Visual imagery appears to be a powerful mnemonic tool that helps learning and increases retention compared, say, to witnessing someone read words off a screen.
Going Visual
Images are a powerful and natural way for humans to communicate. The key word here is natural. We are hardwired for understanding images and using images to communicate. There seems to be something inside of us—even from a very young age—that yearns to draw or otherwise show the ideas in our head through imagery (drawings, paintings, photography, etc.).
In 2005, Alexis Gerard and Bob Goldstein published Going Visual: Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision-Making and Profits (Wiley). Gerard and Goldstein urge us to use visuals to tell our story or prove our point. The authors are not talking about using imaging technology because it is “cool” or “modern.” Going visual is about using images to improve communication and business. For example, you could write about or talk about how a recent fire impacted production, but wouldn’t it be far more powerful to send pictures with a smaller amount of text (or spoken words) to describe the situation? What would be more memorable? Which would have more impact?
A traditional slide which duplicates the presenter’s words. More of a reading test than a visual.
This slide serves to enhance the presenter’s spoken words much better. The photo has impact and the point is made clearly. Which slide is more memorable? And since people are not reading, they can actually listen to you. (Photo of shark from iStockphoto.com.)
Ask yourself this: What information are you representing with the written word on a slide that you could replace with a photograph (or other appropriate image or graphic)? You still need text for labeling, etc. But if you are using text on a slide for describing something, you probably could use an image instead more effectively.
Images are powerful, efficient, and direct. Images can also be used very effectively as mnemonic devices to make messages more memorable. If people cannot listen and read at the same time, why do most PowerPoint slides contain far more words than images? One reason, historically, is that business people have been limited by technology. Visual communication and technology go hand in hand. In 2008, however, most people do have the basic tools available—for example, digital cameras and editing software—for easily placing photos in slides.
No more excuses. It just takes a different way of looking at presentations. It takes the realization that modern presentations with slides and other multimedia have more in common with cinema (images and narration) and comics (images and text) than they do with written documents. Today’s presentations increasingly share more in common with a documentary film than an overhead transparency.
Where Can You Get Good Images?
Getty Images may have the best quality and the greatest selection of images for presentations, but what if you cannot afford to make a slide presentation costing hundreds or thousands of dollars in stock image fees? In this case, low cost, royalty-free “micro-stock” images are an alternative. The site I recommend most often is iStockphoto.com. Most of the images used in this book are