Introduction
Visual aids are things that are of a visual form and used on top of spoken information. These help many to understand the world through reading images. They help to enhance presentations by improving the understanding of listeners on a particular topic, making an impact and creating enthusiasm. Its choice is dependent on the purpose they are to serve. Some summarize information, others emphasize what one is saying, clarify examples, engage the audience among others. One needs to think about how they will support the message to be communicated and follow what is being said to avoid confusion. For their effectiveness, one can check the equipment and the layout of the room to confirm workability. Visual aids have many benefits that are tied to the purposes they serve, and there are available in different types that may face misrepresentation issues that need to be addressed during a presentation.
Purpose Of Visual Aids
Visual aids serve various purposes when used in a presentation. They help in emphasizing ideas using sound and sight. They emphasize one’s content by assisting the audience to relate it to a tangible thing. Listeners thus learn by seeing and this is important especially when they had never seen what is being discussed. Visual aids can give a dynamic element to the argument of a speaker in persuasive speaking (Rauber, Falcao and Telea, 2018). They can help to bring facts to life and enable the audience to see the extent of a thing. They give a dimension to words and ideas and it is through them that ideas and words can manifest.
Visual aids can also enhance one’s credibility and enable a speaker to be credible himself with his speech containing credible content. This helps depict a level of preparedness in a speaker and helps magnify the content being delivered. The audience will be able to find a speaker resourceful since he/she would have taken time to find a visual aid to support the speaking, strove to make the point understandable, and increase the audience’s understanding. The awareness of the audience is thus raised to a new dimension that makes a speaker have increased perceived character, expertise, and congeniality. Visual aids serve the purpose of capturing and holding the attention of the audience. This is due to the suspicion by the audience that the speaker is well prepared thus their attention is captured. Visual aids summarize information, reduce the number of words to be spoken, show and simplify examples, emphasize what the speaker is saying, and they make points memorable.
Benefits Of Visual Aids
Visual aids help the speaker to control stage fright and reduce anxiety. When a speaker focuses on visual aids during communication, there is less concern and worry about their looks and speech. Visual aids help complement or substitute notes and so in case the speaker is worried about forgetfulness; they will be able to see the notes while speaking (Pateşan, Balagiu, and Alibec, 2018). All the speaker needs to do is to balance between looking at visuals and notes so that there can be eye contact with the audience. Visuals enable listeners to remember the speaker’s speech since they stay in one’s mind even when words fade and it is easy to remember what is seen than heard.
Types Of Visual Aids
Videos are an excellent visual aid that can be used during a presentation. Many people prefer them since they can be easily understood and can be paused for digestion of information in mind. These can enhance the understanding of listeners when they are created in a way that they inject some form of positivity into their lives and so they have to be amazing. They have to induce various kinds of emotions and should be created in such a way that they do not divert the attention of the audience from the speaker. Videos are used to ensure that images, audio, and motion are brought into a presentation.
Slides or presentations can also be used to enhance understanding during a presentation. When making presentations, the speaker has to ensure that the audience is the focus. Slides give allowance to incorporate other visual aids and so speakers can make the most of this feature to enhance the understanding of their listeners. They are easy to modify and reorganize and improve understanding when used professionally through ensuring that the background is clear and simple, use of large font size, bullet points among others. Presentations can provide handouts of diagrams that can be easily read by the audience and can contain one main point in each slide.
Flipcharts are visual aids fixed on the top border of a whiteboard and they contain large sheets of paper that are intertwined. They convey information as the speaker speaks and they help the audience to gather ideas easily especially during brainstorming sessions (Lee and Nathan-Roberts, 2018). This is due to their ability to summarize information and display permanent background information. Flipcharts can be placed where they can be easily accessed and be moved and so the speaker can avoid facing away from listeners as he can stand next to it and keep facing the audience. They can be flipped back when the points need to be consolidated and help reduce nervousness during a presentation and this contributes to the enhancement of understanding.
Ways Of Addressing Misrepresentation During a Presentation
Some misrepresentations may arise when creating and delivering a presentation and therefore they need to be addressed. Speakers need to prepare enough for the presentation as this helps in managing presentation nerves as what is in the material being presented is well known. Speakers have to familiarize themselves with the equipment and venue and conduct a risk analysis to avoid problems that may jeopardize the presentation (Pratt and Searles, 2017). Speakers should be mindful of the needs of the audience and use appropriate content through researching the audience. Effective visuals have to be used, ensure that texts are not overcrowded so that they are kept simple and achieve coherent speaking for the audience to grasp important points. Speakers have to ensure that eye contact is maintained for a personal connection with the audience.
Conclusion
Visual aids are important items that are needed in any presentation as they help in explaining information more articulately. They make presenting easy and enhance learning for the audience while adding variety that makes the presentation interesting. Different types of visual aids can be used to make the audience understand and be engaged. Enough time has to be therefore spent in planning and practicing to avoid any possible problems and misrepresentations.
Reference List
Lee, K and Nathan-Roberts, D, 2021, ‘Using visual aids to supplement medical instructions, health education, and medical device instructions’, in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 257-262.
Pateşan, M, Balagiu, A and Alibec, C, 2018, ‘Visual aids in language education’, In International Conference Knowledge-Based Organization, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 356-361.
Pratt, M and Searles, GE, 2017. ‘Using visual aids to enhance physician-patient discussions and increase health literacy’, Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, vol. 21, no. 6, pp.497-501.
Rauber, PE, Falcao, AX and Telea, AC, 2018, ‘Projections as visual aids for classification system design’, Information Visualization, vol. 17, no. 4, pp.282-305.