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More than 20,000 years ago our ancestors gave us arguably one of
the first nonverbal communication examples.
We're not there to talk to them, but
just by watching of these hundreds of images we can picture their everyday life.
We know what they care about and we know what they were scared of.
20 something years ago, we can still smell the crayons in our bedroom.
We wanted to communicate by drawing spaceships or flying unicorns.
It felt so natural.
And sometimes, we honor our own ancestors drawing on the living room wall.
>> [LAUGH] >> Moving in to today,
I don't think there's been a time where we've used more visual
communications to engage to other people.
Last week one of the biggest tech companies have this IPO,
and they did not file as a snap social network.
They file as a camera and image company.
By now, you can get how strong are visuals and the power of visuals.
And, there's many ways to illustrate that, but
if we have to pick a really simple example, we'll probably go this way.
Does anybody wants to answer that question?
>> [LAUGH] >> You seem pretty excited to do that.
>> The visual just seems so much easier to understand.
>> Can you elaborate on that?
>> I can try.
Giving a presentation can be nerve-wracking.
After focusing all of our attention on getting the verbal communication right,
we sometimes just decide to skip the visuals.
I'm here to tell you why that is a bad idea.
Visuals are incredibly important and powerful.
Going back to the example on the screen.
Going back to the example on the screen, do you recognize that the image is just so
much easier to understand because our minds
process visual information much more efficiently than we process words.
In fact, more than 90% of the information transmitted to our brain is visual.
And even more impressive our brain processes images
60,000 times faster than it does words.
That is very powerful.
CJ don't you want to take advantage of the power of visuals in your next
presentation?
Visual aids- >> [LAUGH]
>> Can help your audience understand and
remember the content that you discuss.
Visuals provide emphasis to what you say.
According to a study by the US Department of Labor
you can increase your audience's retention level significantly,
by appealing to more than one sense at the same time.
Three days after a presentation, a person that
only listened to the presentation remembered only 10% of the information.
While the person that experienced both the verbal and
the visual aspect of the presentation, remembered 65%.
I, for example, will never forget the content of Eric's mid-term presentation
because I remember one specific slide where he compared himself to Suzan.
That will always stick with me.
We retain visual Information
much more efficiently because images go directly into our long-term memory,
while words have to be processed by our short-term memory.
Images can create emotional reactions, allowing us
to connect the emotions to the content, and remember it better.
But visuals are not only better for your audience.
They're better for the speaker themselves as well.
The use of visual aids influences the perception of the speaker.
A speaker that is using visual aids is perceived as better prepared,
more dynamic, more credible and 43% more persuasive according to 3M.
Now that is powerful, and we should all take advantage of that.
Sorry, I forgot what I wanted to say.
Actually, In moments when you forget what you say,
and you forget your train of thought, visuals or
slides can serve as a reminder to what you want to say.
Similar to a minister keeping a flash card in his Bible,
a speaker can use slides to remind himself what he or her wants to say.
Now I want to tell you please remember visuals are incredibly powerful and
incredibly important both for the speaker and for your audience.
>> Thanks Toby, I certainly understand the power of visuals in presentations but
how do I actually do that?
I am no designer.
In fact, my artistic abilities peaked in third grade art class.
So luckily, we've distilled four simple strategies from Nancy Duarte's persuasive
presentations that even us business types can handle.
And every framework needs a catchy acronym, so here's ours.
STAC, just because these
four strategies are the building blocks of your visual communication.
We'll take this one at a time.
S, Storyboard one idea per slide,
T, create slides people can get in Three seconds, A,
Arrange visual elements with care.
Finally, C, avoid visual Cliches.
Let's start with S: Storyboard one thought per slide.
Storyboarding is a way to organize a sequence of visuals and concepts.
TV and movie producers like Allison use this
production to make sure their shots are in a logical sequence.
Presenters can also find this helpful to determine what they're going to say and
how they're going to say it before we open our PowerPoint.
This does not have to be a difficult process.
You can just jot down your ideas on stickies or a piece of paper.
In fact here's the storyboard we created for this presentation.
>> [LAUGH] >> It's important
to limit yourself to one thought per slide.
Each idea deserves its moment in the sun.
And its fine to use simple text and images, your doodles
are absolutely fine, because this is not meant to take a lot of time.
Which actually leads me to strategy number two.
T, create slides people can get in Three seconds.
This is important because research shows that audiences can only process one string
of information at a time.
So every second your audience is reading your slides is time they're ignoring you.
Research also shows that audiences find extra visual elements distracting,
which reduces your impact as a presenter.
Effective sides should pass the glance test.
Which means if your side was a billboard and
your audience was driving down the highway,
they should be able to understand your main message with only a glance.
We have three tips to create slides that pass this glance test.
First, start from scratch.
Instead of using the defaults that PowerPoint has like the titles and
text boxes, start with a blank slate and
only add elements as needed for your presentation.
Like here, Toby started with a clear graph that illustrated his main point.
Which leads me to tip number two.
Limit your text.
Like the five or six words that are on this side.
And finally, tip number three, coordinate your visuals, limit yourself to one or
two fonts, use a consistent color palette, and
make sure your images are of a consistent style.
This is important to make sure your slides are easily digestible and
understood quickly by your audience.
And now I'll hand it over to Dana to share our final two tips.
>> So let's talk about the third strategy the A which is
to Arrange your slide elements with care.
So how are we doing that?
Actually you can direct your audience in a way that you like to.
And we have three techniques we would like to share with you under this slide.
The first technique is that you should be very intentional with
the flow within one slide.
For example, in this slide we would like you to focus on the bigger picture first,
and then the text.
Let's see the next slide.
The effect is exactly the opposite.
Here, we would like you to focus on the text first, and then the bigger picture.
The second technique we would like to share with you is to use contrast.
Human eyes are drawn to things that stand out.
So it's very important for
us to create contrast for people to know where we should focus.
And how are we creating contrast?
We can create that by creating variations in the shape,
size, proximity and color of one single element.
Let's see here, our focus is on the pencil which is placed upside-down.
And we can use this slide to share the story of how you're not afraid of
standing out from the crowd.
The third technique is to make good use of the white space.
>> [LAUGH] >> I know, perhaps like me,
you value every single space on a slide and like to make full use of it.
But actually, white space has power.
So I encourage you to resist the temptation to fill up your space
with every single word.
Because additional content can actually distract your audience.
See here, I guess we are having a great example
of illustrative power of white space.
Because we are lacking no white space.
For the very philosophical answer that Jake always gives us in class.
>> [LAUGH] >> Since we
have all ready discussed about how we are arranging slide elements, so
what kind of image or visuals we should use on slides?
Our suggestion is that the fourth strategy, to avoid visual Cliches.
How are we doing that?
Whenever you think about the concept you would like to illustrate,
the first visual that comes to your mind, please just forget it.
Why?
Because that is something that everyone can think of.
If everyone can think of, what is creation in that?
Right?
So let's try a few examples.
What is the first visual that comes to your mind when we talk about partnership?
>> Handshaking.
>> Exactly thank you so much for participation.
>> [LAUGH] >> A handshaking in front of globe, but
actually that is very cliche, that is not, depends, so.
What we would suggest here is to use a visual of a reef ecosystem,
which demonstrates partnership in a lively way.
Let's try another one.
When we talk about security, what is the first image that comes to our mind?
>> [CROSSTALK] >> Yeah I guess so, but for
me it's what I'm doing 100 times every day, swiping my security card to get into.
But, why not use an image of Doberman?
>> [LAUGH] >> Who has a unique ability to not only
protect his family but also anticipate the danger and threats.
>> So by talking a little bit about history,
we talk a little bit about science, and we show you a catchy framework.
We hope that you can find that inner designer everyone has.
To bring it out in your future business presentations.
Saying that, we would like to open it for questions now.
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