Visuals are your brains native language

Compare these slides

Here are two slides that make the same point. Which one appeals to your emotions better?

The first thought that came to your mind on seeing the text heavy slide was, “It looks COMPLEX". You hesitated to read through the text. Even if you did, it wasn’t easy to process it straight away.

The second slide gave you the idea instantly. The image of the dead bird triggered your emotions. You were compelled to read the caption. You were absorbed in the slide. 

Our mind thinks in visuals

The reason is - as humans, our mind thinks in the language of visuals. We learnt to draw long before we learnt to speak. 

 

Even now, our mind translates words into visuals before processing its meaning.

As a presenter...

What does this information mean to you as a presenter? 

Yes. When you present your idea visually, it gets understood faster, and retained longer than when it is presented just with words.

Even better – show your ideas in visuals, and support them with verbal explanation. This way, you engage multiple senses of your audience, which increases the retention of your message by as much as 65% (as per Cognitive load theory).

However, there is a slight hitch here. Using visuals in your slides is easy. But, using the RIGHT visuals is not. I know of so many cases where presenters have killed their presentations with inappropriate visuals. Since visuals attract the attention of your audience faster than words, wrong visuals can directly lead you to disaster.I have seen a lot of people use it the wrong way, read this article to see why.

How to use visuals – the right way? You’ll learn the answers to all these questions in my subsequent posts. Happy selling!