October 6, 2008

Purdue expert gives do's and don'ts of visual presentations

Taggart Smith, a professor of organizational leadership and supervision in the College of Technology, says that while computer technology makes it easy to create interesting visual elements for a talk, it's also easy to create a presentation that fails to engage viewers and instead bores and confuses them.

"The biggest mistake people make is in expecting the visuals to be the presentation when, in reality, you should be the presentation," she says. "If the audience is too involved in looking at the screen, they're not looking at you, so your words have less of an impact. The goal of any visual presentation should be to enhance what the speaker says, not distract from it."

Smith, who teaches a course in meeting management, says creating good visual presentations is an important part of running successful and productive meetings.

"In the business world, if you can run meetings, you're gold," she says.

Smith offers several tips for designing and using visuals during a presentation:

* Do use bullet points.

* Do watch your word count. Long sentences should be avoided. The guideline is six to seven words per line and five to six lines per visual.

* Do use at least 18-point fonts.

* Don't turn off the lights. It's more effective for the audience to see your facial expressions when you talk.

* If handouts are used, pass them out at the end of the presentation. If the audience has them during the presentation, they will pay less attention to the speaker.

* Don't read the words on the visuals to your audience.

* All presentations should include a beginning agenda, a summary of each point, transitions between points and a closing statement.

"Open with something interesting, such as a question, make your key points, then wrap up with a brief summary of the material covered in the presentation," Smith says. "And it's best to ask the audience for questions after each point instead of at the end. That's one of the key ways that presentations can get off-track."

Smith is the author of "Meeting Management," published in 2000 by Prentice Hall.

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu

Source: Taggart Smith, 765.494.6391, smith11@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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