Transcript THE KEY QUALITIES OF A VISUAL AID Poor visual aids will

THE KEY QUALITIES OF A VISUAL AID
Poor visual aids will offend the audience
A Good slide COMPLEMENTS
and ILLUSTRATES what is to be
said. It is easy to READ and its
objectives should be OBVIOUS
•
•
•
•
•
Clear meaning
Easy to read
Nothing superfluous
Attractive
Intriguing
It does NOT:
•
CONFUSE
• FRUSTRATE
• ANNOY
• DISTRACT
• STRAIN
the audience
GUIDE TO THE PREPARATION OF
VISUAL AIDS FOR CONFERENCE
PRESENTATIONS
Produced by:
IOM Communications Ltd and
The Institute of Materials
VISIBILITY, SHAPE & SIZE,
INFORMATION & CLARITY
•
•
•
If an image is clear at 1.5m, the
equivalent slide will be clear in a
reasonably designed theatre.
A slide is normally an
accompaniment to the spoken
word and does NOT NEED to
be totally self-explanatory.
Most slides are on display for
1-2 minutes, during which the
speaker will use 90 - 150 words.
10-20 CLEAR words on the
screen is ALL the audience can
absorb whilst LISTENING to the
speaker.
•
•
Use SIMPLE, SHORT words
and avoid detail. Include
nothing unnecessary - except
perhaps a title which viewers
expect.
DO NOT REPRODUCE
REPORT diagrams, tables,
graphs or computer prints.
NEVER copy machine
diagrams.
ALL these sources must be
EDITED and REDRAWN.
LINES & LETTERSTYLES
COLOURS & CONTRASTS
•
•
•
Slides should be designed on
A3 or A4 paper. The following is
based on using A4 paper.
The thinnest line EVER
acceptable is 0.5mm, but for
simple graphs and diagrams, 3
or even 4mm is a good size.
LETTERS must not be handdrawn; use dry transfers in a
heavy rounded font. The
smallest letters MUST NOT be
less than 3.5mm high. Most
lower case text should be a 56mm and upper case at 7-9mm.
•
•
•
•
A bold RED line on a RED
background is INVISIBLE.
First choose your
BACKGROUND and then
ensure that all the colour
combinations used have HIGH
CONTRAST.
WHITE on a BLACK
background is clear but looks
old fashioned and uninteresting.
Black on white GLARES.
The BACKGROUND colour
should be pleasing to the eye;
SKY BLUE is commonly used.
OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES
•
•
•
Overhead transparencies are
easy to make and useful for
relatively INFORMAL
presentations in ROOMS up to
10m LONG.
They are EXCELLENT for
overlays and for live illustrations
or annotation while speaking.
Often they are used in
conferences because the author
has not given enough time or
effort to make proper slides!
THIS IS NOT THEIR ROLE
•
In general, the same production
rules apply to overheads but:
– The format is square; 17cm x
17cm, instead of A4
– Modern computers will print
straight onto acetate sheets
– Freehand production is
tempting but always looks poor
– Overhead projector images are
relatively poor, often distorted
and cannot be greater than
2m x 2m
– Coloured lines can be drawn
easily, but coloured areas need
special preparation