THE KEY QUALITIES OF A VISUAL AID Poor visual aids will offend the audience

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THE KEY QUALITIES OF A VISUAL AIDPoor 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

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GUIDE TO THE PREPARATION OF VISUAL AIDS FOR
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• Produced by
• IOM Communications Ltd and
• The Institute of Materials

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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.

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LINES LETTERSTYLESCOLOURS 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 hand-drawn 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 5-6mm 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.

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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