The author's chapter on visual aids makes me cringe when I think about the many poster and presentation projects I have helped students with over the years. Teachers have requested explicit power points that kill presentation because they are too word dense, colors and animations that distract and confuse, and images that obstruct meaning. I have watched Prezis whose movements make me nauseous to watch. Posters have needed to look like research projects with text in many colors and fonts that are difficult to read. I think teachers do this because they want to add variety that will engage students or posters to hang on the walls for open house, but what they really want is an essay or test or worksheet of some sort.
To create meaningful visual aids, students need to know that they enhance a presentation or deliver a single, simple message. If we do not keep this as the critical focus, we teach them bad habits that are likely to harm students later on. No one in a debate wants someone to appear with a paper mustache that was created for the express purpose of having a visual aid per requirement for the activity. (Yes, I saw a student do this.) The guidelines that the author sets forth are as valid for advertisement, commercial poster creation, and debate candidate visuals as for classroom activities. The four guidelines that are put forth for visual aids are:
- relevance- relate to the topic at hand
- importance- not repeat what the speaker will say and indicate or highlight something critical
- accessibility- at the level of the audience AND big enough, clear enough and visually appealing
- simple- KISS; not too many words, colors, fonts, arrows or animations; not distracting