THE KEY QUALITIES OF A VISUAL AID Poor

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. 5 m, 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 12 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 A 3 or A 4 paper. The following is based on using A 4 paper. The thinnest line EVER acceptable is 0. 5 mm, but for simple graphs and diagrams, 3 or even 4 mm 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. 5 mm high. Most lower case text should be a 56 mm and upper case at 7 -9 mm. • • 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 10 m 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; 17 cm x 17 cm, instead of A 4 – 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 2 m x 2 m – Coloured lines can be drawn easily, but coloured areas need special preparation