When Visuals Are Just Pointless
I’ve had to sit though some presentations recently where when it came to visuals, the presenters took cramming information in the audience’s face to a whole new level. One one projector, we had the slide deck and on the other, a demo. Pretty innocuous there, outside the typical excess text and map shock-laden diagrams. What the presenter did next was simply amazing. He pulled the paper away from his easel to reveal three 14″ x 11″ printouts of PowerPoint slides like the one to the right.
What was amazing wasn’t merely that they did this at all (that would have been bad enough). What took the cake is that he repeated this performance. He knew we couldn’t read it. He said so himself. However, he still presented it to his audience as a guide to help explain the slides on projector 1 and the tasks performed on projector 2.
In a previous article, I wrote about a couple large visuals that I created that could not be read, even by myself. However, it was not meant to be read. I was after visual impact, demonstrating a large scope of effort. What he had on his easel was intended to be a reference for the audience, but in turn ended up merely a pointless distraction.
When using visuals, it goes without saying: make sure they serve a purpose. Do you need it to gain the audience’s attention? Do you need it to help tell your story? Do you need it to help make a point? If it doesn’t fulfill its intended purpose or if it really has no purpose, then leave it out. Time is limited. Your audience knows when you’re wasting their time. If they think you’re wasting their time, they’ll tune you out.