a visual presentation meaning

Engage your audience with powerful visual presentations.

Visual tools are critical to have in any presentation as they’re one of the key presentation aids that will help enhance your overall presentation .

We’ll give you tips on how to develop a sense of good presentation design whether you’re using PowerPoint, Prezi, Google Slides or any presentation software under the sun. The secret to creating a great presentation does not lie in a superior software, but understanding a few universal design concepts that can applied for all types of visual presentations.

Don’t be afraid to use a few presentation templates – there are ways to make the presentation ideas in those templates your own ideas and advance it in several different ways. Let’s make your next presentation on point and designed beautifully.

Presentations Are The Visual Communication Tool To Your Story

In the age of information, people remember facts faster through stories. Keep your bullet points and information short. You can use a rule of thumb to not put more than a paragraph and 3 points per slide to start.

Make your presentation the visual component of your story, but not something your audience has to read. Something that is short and succinct on screen will capture your audience’s attention and make sure they retain the main points of your message.

This does not mean incomplete slides. A common mistake presenters make is putting too little information on a slide in the name of simplicity when in fact they’re leaving out the main context.

A well designed visual presentation has a great story behind it and a well rehearsed voice telling it as well. Engaging the audience is also a great way to associate meaning or connection to the content of your slide decks. Ask questions and tell stories while showing off a great visual presentation! Think of writing the copy like writing for social media – you only have a certain amount of characters to use and a short audience attention span.

General Tips For Visual Presentations

Before you begin creating your presentation, you first need to know what makes effective presentations – storytelling. Such presentations target the audience’s emotions leading to a stronger connection to the audience member and the main point of the presentation.

Below are some storytelling tips for your slides, but remember to keep the presentation itself simple and practice makes perfect. And again, these are more for your spoken component that accompanies the visual component. These tips can be useful because they can be applied to all your presentations in general.

Step 1 is to ask yourself who your audience is and how to convey the key message you have in mind to them. Once you settle on your message, you can start designing your slides with that direction in mind.

You may wonder how to connect with an audience with your slides. Look to your own experiences, your own speaking style and tailor your message to what you know. Not many people want to hear others recite facts with no real meaning driving the story. Ask yourself, “Why does this matter to the audience and why should they care?”.

There is a lot of trust that can be built when the audience has a genuine connection to the presenter. Overall, if you have something that can solve a problem or teach someone complex things, that is enough to form a connection with your audience.

Think of the last app you used, the last email you read or perhaps the last business you purchased from. What was the content or visual elements that pulled you in?

Are you making a PowerPoint, Prezi or other form of visual presentation but it’s taking too much of your time? Enlist the help of Presentation Geeks and consider outsourcing your presentation design . Outsourcing your presentation slides allows you to free more of your time while still getting the results of an interesting presentation. You’ll have the support of expert slide designers who know what presentation visuals work and don’t work thanks to years of presentation feedback and background knowledge.

Color Design Tips For Presentation Slides

When designing your presentation, make sure you take into consideration the colors you’re using. We’ve listed a few background color combinations you might want to consider when developing the overall slide deck and the font to use.

Color Wheel Alignments:

Primary Colors: Red, yellow, blue

Secondary Colors: Green, orange, purple

Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green

Analogous Colors: These are any three colors which are side by side on a color wheel. (Think green, lime green, yellow)

Complementary Colors: These are colors that are directly opposite of a color wheel. (Think green vs. purple, red vs. blue)

Monochromatic Colors: This is when you use one color and various shades or hues of it. It works well for minimal looks.

Color moods:

Red/Orange/Yellow: Generally these convey a sense of energy, are warm colors and catch your attention. Yellow is a happy warm color on one end and red is very striking and can warn of danger, and symbolizes importance, passion and sometimes violence.

Blue/Purple/Green: These colors are calming, reserved, elegant and often used for corporate slides. Think of how indigo blue is used for many large corporate entities. Green often is branded with earth or medical brands. Purple often conveys a sense of royalty, money and creativity.

Use The Power Of Photography Or Video

Pictures and videos are great visuals to incorporate into any presentation. Remember the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, it’s true! Photos help visualize complex information. You’ll often come across a lot of photos in research presentations as they help the audience understand examples better.

They can also save you from having to put a thousand thoughts into the PowerPoint presentation slide!

The first tip we can give to make a great visual presentation is to choose all your photos before you start. This way you can keep the consistency of the images across your slide deck and make sure they’re somewhat alike in terms of composition, mood and brand.

Use free stock photos

You don’t have to take the photos or videos yourself.

There are plenty of free resources and web pages for stock photos online – Unsplash , Pexels , Pixabay , Free Range , Creative Commons and some photos from Freepik are free to use with some accreditation.

Effective photo use

Make sure you pick an image that will focus on the main theme of the slide. One image is usually enough if the image choice is very relevant to the slide. If you have multiple photos, avoid poor or loose placement of photos all over the slide. Try to use a grid or gallery placement and it will immediately enhance the layout of the slide.

If you pick great images, making presentations can be faster. Instead of having to create an elaborate template with multiple elements, a photo with a couple of bullet points can go a long way in terms of capturing attention and making your presentation slides look professional. This is true on any presentation design platform – whether its PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.

You can also embed videos whether they’re located on your computer, YouTube, Vimeo or other major video streaming sites. If you’re feeling nervous about your presentation or have a complex message that would be hard to condense in one slide, a video is a dynamic way of conveying your message in any type of presentation.

The Typography You Use Matters

Typography is how you will arrange and present the words in your presentation. An audience can engage when text is readable, functional and works well with the other elements in the presentation. Fonts and sizing are a good place to start establishing the tone of your presentation.

Overview of Font Choices

Elegant fonts often denote a sense of luxury or lifestyle tone. Use script fonts sparingly, but as titles they immediately give this polished and high-end look. This should not be used as body text or something lengthy to read. Think about if you sent an email in that text – it would be tedious to read. However, maybe if it were a title or a way to name email, the choice may be more correct.

Corporate fonts often are traditional, serif fonts or clean sans serif fonts that evoke a sense of trust and a clear message. Think of the fonts Lato, Helvetica or Arial – they’re go-to fonts that are easy to read, and work across many systems. This is especially helpful if you are working across teams when creating content or having to approve the content, idea or visuals.

Of course, you can incorporate more stylistic or playful fonts if you want to give your presentation a personal feel. Much like the scripted font, when used sparingly but in large titles, this choice of font can be very effective at conveying a certain personality.

Adding Symbols & Icons To Your Presentation

You can consolidate information by using symbols or icons to direct your eye to information such as an arrow symbol. What if you used a symbol instead of a bullet point? Think of symbols as anchors for the eye to quickly find information. You can collect symbols off free stock sites or use the built-in ones in PowerPoint that are free to use!

Depending on if your presentation is formal or informal , you may also want to consider adding emojis! Emojis are fun ways to express different emotions and can help connect with a younger demographic.

Overall Branding, Tone of Voice & Consistency

Another tool you may have at your disposal is if your brand, business or company has brand guidelines. It will be the guide and compass to your presentation’s information that goes within it. By keeping consistent you can achieve a polished look even if it looks very simple.

Use your business voice to communicate ideas and set the tone for your presentation. Are you in an investment banking business and want people to rely on the information given to you? That would inform perhaps using blues and purples, which are calmer colors and a cleaner look. Are you an influencer who’s buying power and spending choices matter to your audience? Maybe choosing bright colors with personal touches will make the connection. Are you designing an innovative app? Maybe more interactive slides would do the trick.

Use these questions to make sure your text and tone is consistent as this is a foundation of a well articulated brand or personal identity.

Consistent Hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is how you will arrange objects and text in relation to one another to guide your user and not confuse the objects and how they should read them in your slides. Setting rules helps differentiate and prioritize what’s important in order.

Look at the difference between these two.

Snoop Dogg just launched a wine and it’s coming to Canada

Daily hive branded content | aug 11 2020, 6:30 am.

Australian winery 19 Crimes recently announced that its new Cali Red wine, created in collaboration with Entertainment Icon, entrepreneur, and hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg, will be hitting shelves across Canada later this summer.

The collaboration offers a refreshing take on celebrity partnerships as the apparent shared values and history between the brand and famous rapper make for a perfectly organic pairing.

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You can see a clear distinction in the example below:

Think of hierarchy of a form of narration or story structure. Your eye goes to the title, then to the subtitle, then to the body copy in a logical manner. Where the eye travels is one of those things we don’t think about often. But you can also utilize eye lines in photos. Is your subject in the photo looking left or right? Consider placing text to where your subject is looking and see how effectively your eye travels to that text.

We’ll look at hierarchy strictly as sizing of words for now, but note you can establish hierarchy with type, white space, alignment, etc. As a general rule of thumb, you should have consistent sizing for your Header (or title slide / slide title), your subtitles and your body text. That’s it! If the sizing in your PowerPoint is consistent, your words will look uniform and clean. Everything will be much easier to read and the eye will be trained to move each slide.

Don’t Forget Your Own Style

Also don’t forget to incorporate your own style and what kind of visuals you like. Even if your early visuals may seem simple, build up that design muscle with the basics and design techniques that look clean and consistent.

You’ll find as you design these basics, you’ll probably start noticing other visuals and things you like in other mediums and presentations. Keep a note or screenshot the presentation that inspired you. Create a mood-board that you can refer to in the future for quick idea inspiration. Copying gets a bad rap, but learning how to design something you like even if it’s a clone copy will teach you many things about design. Build a collection of images that informs everything you do: for your color scheme, your designs, the cadence of images, etc.

That being said, you can also use free stock websites like Freepik for some design layouts inspiration. Creative Market is a paid website but the site offers a ton of design inspiration. This site has design templates for what’s currently in and trending. You can subscribe to an email newsletter on either site to get bite sized design influence each day that goes straight to your inbox.

However, don’t be afraid to try something new!

Once you get to a level of comfortable designing, these new ideas will be much easier to execute with the technical knowledge you amassed when you started. You could even try using a new app to design your ideas to keep your knowledge fresh! (Keep in mind that most online apps like SlideShare use cookies to improve functionality and performance.)

Ask your friends or people at your organization to give you feedback and critique, as that’s also crucial to honing your design skills. The people around you also represent different audiences!

The above image looks boring, right?

That’s because there are no visual elements!

Powerful visual presentations can engage audiences psychologically with both the presentation itself and the energy of the presenter. By understanding a few universal design concepts, you can begin your journey creating wonderful visual presentations and becoming a better presenter ! Thanks for reading this blog post, tell us your tips in the comments below.

Author:  Content Team

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by Tom Rielly • May 12, 2020

When giving presentations, either on a video conference call or in person, your slides, videos and graphics (or lack of them) can be an important element in helping you tell your story or express your idea. This is the first of a series of blog posts that will give you tips and tricks on how to perfect your visual presentations.

Your job as a presenter is to build your idea -- step-by-step -- in the minds of your audience members. One tool to do that is presentation graphics, such as slides and videos.

Why graphics for your presentation?

A common mistake is using slides or videos as a crutch, even if they don’t actually add anything to your presentation. Not all presentations need graphics. Lots of presentations work wonderfully with just one person standing on a stage telling a story, as demonstrated by many TED Talks.

You should only use slides if they serve a purpose: conveying scientific information, art, and things that are hard to explain without pictures. Once you have decided on using slides, you will have a number of decisions to make. We’ll help you with the basics of making a presentation that is, above all, clear and easy to understand. The most important thing to remember here is: less is more.

Less is so much more

You want to aim for the fewest number of slides, the fewest number of photos, the fewest words per slide, the least cluttered slides and the most white space on your slides. This is the most violated slide rule, but it is the secret to success. Take a look at these examples.

As you can see in the above example, you don’t need fancy backgrounds or extra words to convey a simple concept. If you take “Everything you need to know about Turtles”, and delete “everything you need to know about” leaving just “turtles”, the slide has become much easier for your audience to read, and tells the story with economy.

The above example demonstrates that a single image that fills the entire screen is far more powerful than a slide cluttered with images. A slide with too many images may be detrimental to your presentation. The audience will spend more mental energy trying to sort through the clutter than listening to your presentation. If you need multiple images, then put each one on its own slide. Make each image high-resolution and have it fill the entire screen. If the photos are not the same dimensions as the screen, put them on a black background. Don’t use other colors, especially white.

Your slides will be much more effective if you use the fewest words, characters, and pictures needed to tell your story. Long paragraphs make the audience strain to read them, which means they are not paying attention to you. Your audience may even get stressed if you move on to your next slide before they’ve finished reading your paragraph. The best way to make sure the attention stays on you is to limit word count to no more than 10 words per slide. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte says “any slide with more than 10 words is a document.” If you really do need a longer explanation of something, handouts or follow-up emails are the way to go.

Following a “less is more” approach is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your presentation visuals and the impact of your presentation overall. Make sure your visuals add to your presentation rather than distract from it and get your message across.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks.

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

7 Types of Visual Presentations

When it comes to delivering a presentation, visuals can be extremely helpful in getting your point across. There are many types of visual presentations that can be used to communicate your message.

This blog post will discuss seven different types of visual presentations and when they might be appropriate to use. We will also provide examples of each kind of presentation. Let’s get started!

What are Visual Presentations?

3. whiteboards, 5. infographics, 7. paper handouts, which one is right for you.

Visual presentations are a visual aid that can be used in both business and academia to help explain concepts or topics that might otherwise be difficult for an audience member to understand without seeing them firsthand.

In addition, visuals allow the presenter to provide more information than just words alone would do on their own because they provide context and give the audience something concrete to look at while listening.

There are many types of visual presentations, but we will focus on seven of the most common ones here. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to understand when each would be appropriate to use.

Slides are the most common type of visual aid. You can use slides to demonstrate your point and make it easier for the audience to follow along with what you’re saying. They are also pretty easy to prepare.

For example, a slide that shows how much money was spent on advertising last year might be useful in an annual meeting where everyone’s attention span is short or they don’t want to take the time to read a long report.

Graphs and charts are other types of visual presentation that can be used to show trends or compare data.

For example, you might use a graph to illustrate how your company’s revenue has increased or decreased over the past five years. Or, you could use a chart to compare the number of sales your company has made this year compared to last year.

Whiteboards are a great way to explain something in detail, as they allow you to draw pictures and write on them. For example, if your company is thinking about designing a new website but needs some ideas first, then using whiteboards would help everyone get their thoughts out.

One issue about using whiteboards is that they cannot be easily saved and shared with others. Moreover, as you need to write manually, it can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Videos are another type of visual aid that can be used to demonstrate a concept or show how something works. It’s beneficial when you want to show live instances of your products or services through movements.

For example, if you’re selling cars, then showing them driving around would help people get an idea of what they look like in action (and not just sitting still on a lot).

The downside to using videos is that creating one from scratch can be time-consuming and expensive, so this isn’t always feasible. In addition, videos can be challenging to follow if they are not properly edited.

Infographics are visual presentations that use images and text to convey information. They can be used in many ways, from illustrating trends or comparing data points graphically; to explaining complex concepts in an easy-to-understand manner.

Infographics are especially handy when trying to illustrate a point based on a massive number of data. For example, if you wanted to show how much data your company has collected over the past year, you could use an infographic.

Posters are used primarily in academic settings because they allow students to display their research findings at conferences or other events where the audiences are present.

For example, if someone were presenting on the use of social media in politics, they might create a poster with an image of the political landscape and then use text to explain how social media is being used.

Posters can be created using software or hand-drawing, but they should always be designed with legibility.

Paper handouts are visual aids that can be used to supplement slides or other visuals.

They can be especially useful if you want to provide the audience with additional information that isn’t easily conveyed in a slide or chart.

For example, you might use paper handouts to give the audience more details about the data shown in a graph or provide them with a list of your company’s products and services.

Now that you know about the different types of visuals, how do you decide which one is right for your presentation?

Well, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you want to make your presentation more interesting and engaging, then using slides or videos might be a good option.

However, if you need to show complex data or explain a concept in detail, charts, whiteboards, or infographics might be better.

In the end, it’s crucial to pick the right type of visual that will help you communicate your message most effectively.

While there are many different types of visual presentations, the seven we’ve outlined in this blog post should give you a good place to start when creating your own visual presentation.

Keep in mind the tone and purpose of your presentation as you select which type will work best for you. And always be sure to test out your visuals on a small audience before presenting them to a larger group. Happy presenting!

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The Science behind a Visual Presentation

Home >  PowerPoint Diagram >  Science Behind a Visual Presentation

The best way to showcase your idea is to use visual presentations. In this article, you will learn the science behind why visuals help you get across your ideas with clarity.

Visual cues are important

Your eyes are the primary source of information for your brain. You are wired to absorb far more information from visual cues than from any other senses.

A study conducted as recently as in 2008 suggests that listening skills improve when accompanied by strong visual stimuli.  (BMC Neuroscience August 12, 2008. Sound Adds Speed To Visual Perception)

Visual Communication is inborn…

As humans, we learned to communicate with pictures long before we invented words. The proof is present in the form of images in caves like the ones below:

That is why; they are quite ineffective in communicating our ideas. Even today, our mind translates words into visuals before processing its meaning.

What this means to you as a business presenter…

As a presenter, using slides helps process and retain information better.

It is not enough to use slides. You need to use them the right way, because…

Effective processing of information happens only when there is a clear link between what is being said and what is being shown. So content on slides needs to be well-coordinated with what is being said.

In this site, you’ll learn cutting-edge information about every aspect of effective slide making.

Before you learn about the right way to use visuals, it is essential to know and avoid the common mistakes made by presenters in using visuals.

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What Is a Digital Presentation & How to Get Good At It

Learn the basics of presentation decks and how to create one. Explore examples and tips to make your own deck more effective and engaging.

Dominika Krukowska

16 minute read

Short answer

What is a presentation.

A presentation is a slide-based visual storytelling aid. It’s used for transferring information and emotion to an audience with visual, vocal, and textual communication.

The purpose of a presentation is to help the audience understand a subject matter. Presentations are used in business, academics, and entertainment. They can be made in PowerPoint, PDF, or webpage format.

Why people hate presentations (including yours)

Have you ever sat through a digital presentation that felt like it was dragging on forever? Or worse, have you been the one giving the presentation when people’s eyes glazed over?

This feeling of agonizing boredom is called Death by PowerPoint, and it means losing your audience's attention. They won't remember anything you said, and probably couldn't care less.

I’m going to show you how to never again suffer from Death by PowerPoint by avoiding the common PowerPoint pitfalls, immediately engage your audience, capture their interest, and make them care.

Let's dive in!

What is the main purpose of a presentation?

The purpose of a presentation is to communicate information or ideas to an audience in a clear and effective manner. The reasons for making a presentation can be to inform, persuade, motivate, educate, entertain, or simply share knowledge or experiences.

The goal of a presentation can be to help your audience understand complex concepts, make informed decisions, or take action based on the information you present.

In business settings, presentations are often used to pitch products or services, report on progress or performance, or make recommendations to stakeholders.

What are the 2 main types of presentations?

When it comes to creating a presentation, there are 2 primary types: (1) speech presentations and (2) digital presentations (made for reading). There are key takeaways for nailing each presentation type. Take note of them if you intend to get good at both.

Reading presentations

Speech presentations

Digital presentations (Reading presentations)

Digital presentations, on the other hand, are presentations that the audience can access on their own computer or phone without the presenter being physically present. These presentations require a different set of skills and techniques to keep the audience engaged.

Essentials for improving your digital presentations:

• Written clarity is critical: Since your audience will be reading your presentation, it's essential to keep your content clear and concise. Say more with less.
• Show, don't tell: Use supporting visuals to help illustrate your points and make your presentation more engaging.
• Animation and annotation: Use animations and annotations to direct your audience's attention to the right place at the right time, keeping them engaged throughout. there are plenty of free animation software to help you create these.
• Personalization: Make your audience feel like you're speaking directly to them by personalizing your presentation. Use inclusive language and address their pain points, needs, and interests.

Speech presentations (Face to face)

Speech presentations are the classic type of presentation where a speaker presents to an audience in person. These presentations are usually given at conferences or meetings, and can now also take place virtually through platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype.

Essentials for improving your speech presentations:

• Less written, more spoken: Speech presentations are all about the spoken word, so it's crucial to avoid cramming too much text onto your slides. Focus on speaking to your audience instead.
• Body language and voice: In a speech presentation, your body language and tone of voice are essential to engaging your audience. Use humor, sarcasm, or suspense to keep your listeners interested.
• Rapport: Making eye contact and using real-time communication can help you build rapport with your audience and make them feel involved in your presentation.

What are the main types of digital presentations?

Digital presentations come in all shapes and sizes, but understanding the main types can help you choose the right format for your message.

Business presentations

Marketing presentations, sales presentations, education and training presentations, personal presentations.

Education & training

Business presentations are used for showcasing company performance updates, introducing new products or services, discussing future plans with clients and partners, or briefing investors.

Whether it's an internal meeting or an external one with stakeholders, business presentations are all about delivering a clear and compelling message that drives the company forward.

Marketing presentations are visual decks used to present your target audience, marketing strategies, and campaign outcomes to prospective clients, ad agencies, or stakeholders.

Sales presentations are decks that contain details about the features, pricing, and main benefits of your offering, and are used during in-person meetings or online sales calls. They’re designed to help sales reps close deals or land new clients.

Education and training presentations are slide decks designed to teach new concepts and best practices to a variety of audiences, including students, employees, or clients.

A personal presentation is used during networking events, business conferences, or public speaking engagements. It’s used to share your key accomplishments and demonstrate your passion and the main values you stand for.

What makes a good presentation?

A good presentation captivates by establishing trust, engaging the audience with interactive elements, and weaving data into an enthralling narrative that sparks emotions and inspires, leaving a lasting impact.

There are 3 things any good presentation must do:

1. Establish trust and credibility

Without your audience trusting you and your authority you will never get them to listen. And to really listen, some say, they have to like you.

To establish yourself as a credible source of information, use relevant visuals, stories, and examples that showcase your expertise and experience, earning the trust of your audience.

2. Interact with the audience

Static PowerPoint slides are no longer enough to engage anyone. Presentations need to be informative but also entertaining.

Therefore, incorporating interactive elements into your presentations like animations, videos, calculators, quizzes , polls, and live infographics is now essential to grab attention and keep your audience engaged start-to-finish .

3. Tell a good story

When it comes to digital presentations, it's not just about the information you share, but how you share it. That's where storytelling comes in! It's all about weaving a relatable narrative that resonates with your viewers, leaving them eager for more.

By blending your data and facts into an enthralling tale, you're not only dishing out knowledge but also sparking emotions and inspiration. It's a game-changer for grabbing your audience's attention and getting your message across effectively.example

How to create a good digital presentation?

To create a great digital presentation, you need to think beyond the slides and consider the experience you want your audience to have.

Think of your presentation as a journey that takes your audience from point A to point B - you need to ensure that every step of the way is memorable and captivating.

When creating a digital presentation, there's more to it than just putting together a few slides.

You can make it real-pretty, but to make it truly effective you need to have a clear understanding of where you want to take your audience, and tailor your content accordingly.

Good presentation example

This example shows how interactive content can make a presentation that pulls you in and makes you feel part of the journey.

What should a presentation include?

Most decks contain the following 3 elements:

• Introduction (the objectives and agenda of your presentation)
• Main body (key talking points that you want to cover)
• Conclusion (followed by a single, actionable call to action)

The specific outline of your presentation will depend on your particular use case.

Check out our dedicated guides for particular business presentations:

• What to Include in a Pitch Deck (Slides 99% of Investors Want)
• 7 elements of a great sales deck structure
• What should a one-pager include?
• What does a marketing deck include?

How to start and how to end a presentation?

Start your presentation with a strong hook that captures your audience's attention and makes them interested in what you have to say.

You can end your presentation with a thank you slide, but that would be too bad. For your words to carry beyond the last slide you’ll need to give your audience the next step.

And so, you should end your presentation with a singular, clear call to action that inspires your audience to follow through on your message.

What are the essential building blocks of a successful presentation?

Almost everyone nowadays makes beautiful presentations. But that’s not enough to make them successful.

5 key elements that every successful presentation includes:

1. Compelling (human) story: Your presentation should tell a story that connects with your audience on a personal and emotional level, making your message relatable and memorable.

Here are 5 quick storytelling tips to deliver engaging presentations:

2. Clear structure: A clear structure helps your audience follow along and understand the flow of your presentation. This can be chronological, sequential, before-after, problem-solution-resolution, or any other simple and easy-to-follow structure.

3. Problem and solution: Your presentation should address a problem that your audience faces and offer a solution that your product or service can provide.

4. Actionable takeaways: Your presentation should leave your audience with actionable steps or insights that they can use to apply the information you've presented.

5. Supporting visuals (product demo) and data visualization (graphs, charts, and infographics): Using visuals to support your presentation can reinforce your message and help your audience retain the information you presented.

6 biggest mistakes to avoid when creating a presentation

It’s easy to forget that the presentation is for your audience rather than for you. You may want to tell them everything from A to Z, but they may only want to know ABC.

It’s even easier to take for granted that the things you understand are clear to others. But for them, these things are horribly complex (look up the curse of knowledge).

1. Using too much text: Overloading your slides with text can cause your audience to lose interest and detract from your main points. Keep your text to a minimum and use visuals to reinforce your key takeaways.

2. Going too much into detail: attention is a limited resource so you can’t fit everything in a single presentation. Tell your audience only what they really want (and need) to know. Avoid any technical details or complex jargon that does not contribute to the core of your message.

3. Neglecting interactivity: Failing to include interactive elements can cause your audience to disengage. Use polls, quizzes, and other interactive tools, including email newsletter software , to keep your audience engaged.

4. Ignoring the power of storytelling: Telling a compelling story is critical to capturing your audience's attention and leaving a lasting impression. Use relatable stories and examples that support your key points.

5. Poor use of visuals: Using low-quality visuals, irrelevant images, or poorly designed charts and graphs can detract from your presentation and cause confusion. Use high-quality visuals that reinforce your key ideas and are easy to understand.

6. Lack of personalization: If you don’t tailor your presentation to your audience's needs, interests, and level of understanding, your message will fall flat. Make sure to consider your audience's perspective and adjust your deck accordingly.

You don't want your presentation to end up looking like this:

How to design a presentation?

Designing a presentation is a bit like decorating a cake - you want it to be visually appealing but also yummy to consume. You want it to leave your audience with a taste for more rather than a bad taste in their mouth.

Lucky for you there are practical steps for designing a presentation that truly wows your audience every time. There's also a more practical presentation maker for this than PowerPoint. You can use it to get much more engaging presntations.

Practical presentation design tips:

1. Choose a color scheme: Just like choosing the perfect icing color for your cake, selecting a color scheme that complements your brand can make your presentation feel more coherent. Or, if you’re pitching to a client, you can use their brand colors instead in order to impress them.

2. Use high-quality images: Using high-quality images is like adding a layer of delicious, rich frosting to your cake. It makes your presentation more visually interesting and helps support your key message.

3. Use consistent fonts: Using consistent fonts throughout your presentation can make it easier to read. Stick to two or three fonts that complement each other and use them consistently.

4. Incorporate visual aids: Visual aids like colorful sprinkles and creative cake toppers can take your cake to the next level. Similarly, graphs, charts, and infographics can help break text patterns and, therefore, make your presentation more memorable.

Check out our use-ready slide design with every type of slide you can think of designed according to our tips and best practices.

Where to find presentation templates?

Scouring the web for presentation templates can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack - it's time-consuming, frustrating, and can leave you feeling a bit lost. Most designs available look dull and samey, and are not optimized for engagement.

But don't worry, we've got you covered! Here are the best interactive presentation templates for different use cases:

Choose template by:

What tools to use to create presentations?

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all tool for creating a digital presentation. And with so many presentation tools out there, it can be hard to know where to start looking.

That’s why we've done the research for you - check out our article rounding up the best presentation software to pick the right one for your needs!

And, if you want to learn more about creating effective digital presentations, check out these posts:

• How to Make Effective & Impactful Presentations (12 Steps)
• How to Make a Multimedia Presentation (5 Easy Steps)

How to give a presentation?

Giving a presentation can be intimidating, but it's an excellent opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise. To deliver a successful presentation, you need to focus on engaging your audience, keeping their attention, and providing valuable information.

9 tips to help you give a memorable presentation:

1. Start with a strong hook

A strong opening is crucial to grab your audience's attention and pique their interest. Begin with a bold statement, a surprising fact, or a personal anecdote that relates to the topic of your presentation. This will immediately grab the audience's attention and make them want to listen to what you have to say.

2. Make your objectives and agenda clear

Engage your audience right from the start by letting them know what's in store for them. Outlining your objectives and agenda early on will keep your audience focused and ensure that they don't miss out on any crucial information. Let them know why it's important to pay attention to your presentation and what they can expect to learn from it. By doing this, you'll build anticipation and get them excited about what's to come!

3. Leverage storytelling

People love stories, and they are an effective way to connect with your audience. Use anecdotes, metaphors, and examples to illustrate your points and make your presentation more relatable. This will help the audience understand the concepts you're presenting and retain the information up to 60-70% better .

4. Ask questions, use humor, give simple directions that prove a point

Engage your audience by asking questions, using humor, and giving them simple tasks to perform that illustrate your point. This will keep their attention and make the presentation more interactive.

5. Direct the audience's attention

Use a pointer or built-in animation to draw the audience's attention to critical information. This will help them focus on what you're saying and avoid distractions.

6. Work on the delivery

Speak slowly and clearly, use positive language, and avoid reading from notes as much as possible. Use humor and engage with your audience to make the presentation more enjoyable. Ensure your body language is confident and relaxed, and maintain eye contact with your audience.

7. Add interactive elements

Incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or surveys to involve your audience and gather valuable feedback. This will make your presentation more engaging and ensure your audience retains the information presented.

8. Close with a CTA

End your presentation with a strong call to action (CTA). Inspire your audience to take the next step, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, buying a product, or visiting your website. Make it clear what you want your audience to do after the presentation.

9. Leave time for a Q&A session

Finally, leave ample time for a Q&A session. This will allow your audience to clarify any doubts and ask questions. It's also an excellent opportunity for you to engage with your audience and get valuable feedback on your presentation.

Create amazing digital presentations from templates

Creating a digital presentation that grabs your audience's attention and drives results may feel like a daunting task.

After all, a strong digital presentation can be the difference between leaving a lasting impression on your audience or falling flat and losing their attention.

It's like trying to teach a class without proper preparation - you're not giving your knowledge and expertise a chance to shine, and your audience might not retain the information you're presenting.

To make things easier, try using our customizable digital presentation templates that will help you create an engaging and impactful digital presentation in no time!

Where can I see examples of good presentations?

If you’re looking for real-life examples that drove results for other companies from different industry sectors, check out highly effective presentation examples by our clients .

Alternatively, if you want to see the best presentation examples that you can replicate to create your own, here are our dedicated guides:

• 10 Perfect Presentation Examples That Win Over Anyone
• 9 Unique Sales Deck Examples that Outsell the Rest
• 10 Top Pitch Deck Examples to Inspire Your Fundraising Efforts
• Top Product Presentation Examples That Wow Everyone
• Marketing Deck: What It Is & How to Make It Win (Examples)
• 6 Elevator Pitch Examples for Any Scenario (Ready for Use)

Where can I find good presentation templates?

If you’re looking for snazzy presentation templates, Storydoc should be your go-to place. We offer a fantastic selection of visually stunning designs to make your digital presentation pop.

All components have been designed with best practices in mind and optimized for engagement. Thanks to the built-in analytics panel, you can also check how your presentations perform in real-time.

Click on any of these categories to see the best presentation templates for your specific use case:

• One-pager templates
• Sales deck templates
• Pitch deck templates
• Business proposal deck templates
• Marketing decks templates
• Case studies templates
• Report templates
• White paper templates

What are common types of business presentations?

The most common types of business presentations are:

• Sales decks
• Pitch decks
• Business proposal decks
• Marketing decks
• Case studies

Is a presentation the same as a slideshow?

Technically, a slideshow is a type of presentation, but not all presentations are slideshows.

A presentation can take many different forms, from a speech to a product demonstration, and can use various tools, including slideshows, to deliver the message. So while a slideshow is certainly a popular choice for presentations, it's not the only option out there.

What is death by PowerPoint?

Death by PowerPoint is the phenomenon of boring, uninspired, and ineffective presentations that use an overabundance of bullet points, text-heavy slides, and monotonous delivery. It's a surefire way to put your audience to sleep and leave them counting down the minutes until your presentation is over.

To avoid death by PowerPoint, aim to create presentations that are visually engaging, incorporate storytelling, and use multimedia elements like images, videos, and interactive features. Remember, a presentation should be a tool to enhance your message, not a crutch to lean on.

What are common types of presentation delivery formats?

There are 5 popular types of presentation delivery formats to choose from:

• Powerpoint: A classic choice, PowerPoint offers a range of design and animation options to create static slide-based presentations.
• Google Slides : As a cloud-based tool, Google Slides makes it easy to collaborate with others in real-time. It's an excellent option for static team presentations and remote work situations.
• Keynote : Exclusive to Apple devices, Keynote is known for its sleek and elegant design options. It's an ideal choice for visually appealing presentations on Mac or iOS devices.
• PDF: For a simple, static, and easily shareable format, PDF presentations are a reliable option. They ensure consistent formatting across different devices and platforms.
• Storydoc : Taking presentations to the next level, Storydoc provides immersive and interactive templates that are sure to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression.

What are common types of presentation speech formats?

There are 4 common types of presentation delivery formats:

• Memorized: In a memorized delivery, the presenter memorizes the entire presentation word-for-word and delivers it without notes. This format can be effective for short presentations or speeches but can be challenging to execute for longer presentations.
• Manuscript: In a manuscript delivery, the presenter reads from a written script or teleprompter. This format is great for delivering complex or technical information but can come across as less engaging.
• Impromptu: In an impromptu delivery, the presenter delivers a presentation without prior preparation or planning. This format is often used in situations like interviews or meetings and requires quick thinking and adaptability.
• Extemporaneous: In an extemporaneous delivery, the presenter delivers a presentation using notes or an outline, but not a fully scripted presentation. This format allows for flexibility and engagement with the audience while still maintaining structure.

Why is a presentation important for my business?

Here are the main reasons why presentations are essential for your business:

• Be the expert: Presentations provide a platform to showcase your expertise and share your unique perspectives with your audience, establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.
• Build connections: Presentations provide an opportunity to connect with your audience, building relationships that can lead to future business opportunities.
• Leave a lasting impression: An engaging and memorable presentation can leave a lasting impact on your audience, increasing brand awareness and improving message retention.
• Achieve your goals: Presentations can be used to achieve business goals, from generating leads to securing funding or closing deals.

How to measure the effectiveness of a presentation?

Measuring the effectiveness of a presentation is crucial to ensure it hits the mark with your audience and achieves its goals. Here are some ways to measure the effectiveness of a presentation:

Ask for feedback: Don't be afraid to ask your audience for feedback after the presentation, either through surveys or live feedback. This feedback can provide valuable insights into what worked well and what could be improved, helping you refine your approach for future presentations.

Monitor engagement: Keep a pulse on engagement metrics such as views, shares, or the average reading time if the presentation is delivered online. These metrics can give you a sense of the level of interest generated by the presentation and which parts resonated with your audience. Our own presentation maker comes with built-in analytics tracking and reporting .

Track business outcomes: If your presentation is designed to drive business results, track metrics such as lead generation, sales, or conversion rates to assess its effectiveness in achieving these goals.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

Perfect Presentation Examples That Win Over Anyone

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Home Blog Design What is Visual Communication and How Can It Improve Your Presentations

What is Visual Communication and How Can It Improve Your Presentations

Look around; how is the world communicating with you? Is there music? Are your shoes pinching your heel? Are there a million visual triggers trying to get your attention? We don’t have a crystal ball to answer the first two questions, but the third is a definite YES. What’s behind it? It’s visual communication.

Visual communication is the magic behind all the visible things in the world that tell stories, share information, and attract interest. As a person who makes presentations, you own the power of visual communication to impact, inform and attract your audience with visuals. All you need is the knowledge and the tools to make it work.

In this guide, we’ll share essential facts you need to know about visual communication and how they can help improve your presentations.

Table of Contents

Visual Communication Strategy

Visual communication design.

• Why is Visual Communication Important for Presentations?

7 Types of Visual Communication Techniques in Presentation Design

• How to Use Visual Communication at Work Beyond Presentations

Final Words

What is visual communication.

Simply put, visual communication is the practice of communicating through the sense of sight. In a more profound sense, It democratizes communication in general because with visuals, there’s less need for language or translation.

But what does visual communication do? It tells stories through images, video, illustrations , and anything the audience can see.

Visual communication sits at the top of the list of effective communication strategies and designs for all industries and fields. It’s in all the conversations about marketing, community building, and the future of work. If your presentation design still hasn’t embraced the need to thrive on visual communication, it’s time to fix that.

A visual communication strategy is key to a presentation’s overall mood and message. To create a visual communication strategy, follow the same steps as any communication strategy, and develop them simultaneously. 

To give you an idea of the scope of influence of a visual communication strategy, consider all the advertisements you see regularly. Regarding the most successful ones, their visual qualities have been minutely strategized to inspire emotional reactions from you. 

Do you want to get reactions when making your presentations ? Use a visual communication strategy to create an overarching visual quality for your presentations’ slides. 

FYI: Professionals building visual communication strategies include; brand specialists, marketing strategists, content designers, UX/UI designers, publicists, art curators, and anyone that understands how important planning and strategy are for every project.

Once a visual communication strategy is in place, it’s time to take care of the visual communication design. This is the actionable part of the process; the strategy is the plan, and the design is the creation. 

Visual communication design is essential for your presentations. You’re telling a story with your information, and visual techniques will help you add interest. Even a text section can have visual communication techniques applied. For example, the font, spacing, and layout.

Your visual communication strategy will help you choose the proper visual layout, data visualizations, and graphics for the presentation slides. 

Why Is Visual Communication Important for Presentations?

If you aren’t aware, storytelling is a massive factor in effective presentation design. To achieve it, you can’t depend on text content; you need visuals to support the information and create connections with the viewer. On a presentation slide, what’s better? A bullet point list or an infographic widget composition? The answer to this question would be the most visual option, in this case, the infographics .

Surely you’ve heard of “Death by PowerPoint.” It’s the perfect example of how visual communication influences the audience. In this case, how can it go wrong and get undesired effects? Humans create emotional and memorable connections with everything they see. As soon as a presentation proves to be a drab PowerPoint, your audience clocks out and checks their phone.

Thankfully, visual communication harnesses many benefits for your presentation designs:

• Ideas and concepts are easier to understand and transmit in visual form.
• Visuals deliver information faster and more directly.
• A good visual communication strategy is attention-grabbing and engaging.
• Visual elements and characteristics make an impact on the viewer.
• A strong visual component improves the credibility of the message.

Visual communication is vital in presenting a slide deck to an audience. Your outfit, body language, and poise all matter. The audience isn’t just looking at your presentation; they’re looking at you. Take the time to expand your presenting skills by practicing, trying new things, and improving your confidence.

Visual communication techniques are the puzzle pieces of successful content. They are so important that there are psychological applications for all of them.

Here’s a quick list to give you an idea of their importance.

1. Shapes 

Shapes have subliminal, subconscious, and even cultural perceptions. The shapes you choose to include across the slides will set the tone for the entire presentation. For example, circles represent completeness, triangles represent up and forward motion, lines represent connection, and rectangles represent stability.

2. Colors 

In design, colors are the trigger for emotion in content and visualization. Each color has a meaning and an association. Combining colors to create palettes is a practice in mood and emotional communication through vision. If a presentation is all blue and gray, it feels corporate, a vibrant color combination feels happy and inspiring. Muted and desaturated colors feel calm and inviting.

3. Typography 

The way letters look brings a sense of meaning from content to the eyes—from text to visual. There are two main font types; serif and sans serif. Serifs are more serious, while sans serifs are friendlier and easygoing. On top of that, each type has a personality that emanates through the content. The visual style of the typography in your presentation must match energetically with the tone and message of both visual and textual content.

4. Infographic elements 

Infographics are the poster boy for visual communication. Data visualization and information design are at the core of data stories and exciting business communication. Data viz graphics simplify complex ideas that can take up lots of text space in a presentation slide. Your regular charts and graphs can fall through the cracks if you don’t add a good dose of visual communication strategy and design. 

5. Photography and Illustration

Photography and illustration are classic tools for storytelling. Every slide can be easily turned into a pictorial presentation to tell your story, and you have the power to structure it how you want. Be wary of stock photography; overused images will negatively affect your presentation. Custom imagery adds integrity and uniqueness that only a visual communication strategy can achieve.

When using icons in your presentation templates , remember to keep a visual unity between them. Icons can also tell a story from slide to slide in your presentation. Stay consistent in terms of style, color, size, and positioning.

7. Layout & Visual Hierarchy

Viewers use their eyes to see, read and understand your content. When the layout is designed in a way that helps them absorb the information subconsciously, engagement is seamless. It’s as simple as following visual hierarchy and placing elements in the viewer’s line of sight in a Z or F reading pattern.

How To Use Visual Communication At Work Beyond Presentations

Visual communication doesn’t stop at presentations. There are countless other ways to incorporate visual communication at work. Here’s a—not complete—list of the design practices that embody visual communication.

• Infographics
• Visual guides
• Flowcharts and processes
• Employee training
• Internal communication
• Work attire
• Body autonomy

If someone can see it and understand it, it can be communicated visually. Take advantage of that and harness the power of perception, association, and emotional response. 

In visual communication, it’s important to remember that first impressions matter. Your presentations and the message they deliver depending on the value of the visuals throughout the slides. Discover more techniques for improving your presentations in the SlideModel blog . Learn how to incorporate SlideModel templates into your PowerPoint slide decks and leave your audiences satisfied and informed.

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A division of bold new directions training, what is the importance of using visuals when giving a presentation.

While preparation and delivery are critical components of a successful presentation, the visuals you use throughout your presentation are equally important. Science and research suggest that nearly 75% of learning occurs through sight, which is why visuals are a necessary tool for effective presentations. When used properly, visual aids can help your audience connect to the topic and understand it’s message. There are many types of visual aids including slideshows, videos, handouts, and props, all of which can help reinforce your main message. Here are a few reasons why visuals play such a significant role in presentations.

Enhance Your Presentation Listening to a speaker talk for a lengthy period of time is enough to put anyone to sleep. Visuals help to add that extra element of interest to the presentation. No matter the topic, you can always make it more interesting with visuals. Visual aids help to grab the audiences’ attention by enabling them to see colorful representations of your message.

Maintain Audience Attention In a world where just about everyone has a cell phone or tablet with them at all times, it can be extremely difficult to capture and maintain people’s attention. With the swipe of a finger they can be checking emails, browsing the web, or checking sports scores so it’s incredibly important to do everything you can to capture their attention. High quality visuals can significantly increase the chances of your audience paying attention to you rather than staring at their phone.

Images Help People Understand When you throw mountains of text at your audience, it can be nearly impossible for them to understand the material. Images are important because they help to clarify your points. Our brains process images much faster than text, meaning that the best way to help your audience understand the material is through visual aids.

Visuals Help with Long-Term Memory Visual images make a long-lasting impression on our minds, increasing the chances that your audience will remember the information. Research shows that the combination of visuals along with text increases one’s ability to remember the information for a longer period of time. If you want audiences to remember your material long after your presentation ends, it’s best to incorporate some good visuals.

Visuals Can Inspire The ultimate goal of any presentation is to inspire your audience. You want them to take something away from your presentation and actually do something with the information you give them. Visuals resonate with people in a way that text and words alone cannot. Great visuals have the power to move people and inspire them.

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What Is Visual Communication and Why Is It Important

Written by: Brian Nuckols

Visual communication is a way to communicate ideas graphically in ways that are efficient and help to convey more meaning. It’s a critical element of any content marketing strategy. 

This is because visuals can help to evoke emotions in your audience, provide stronger examples for your message and so much more.

There are at least three crucial reasons to incorporate visual elements into your content creation process. Let's get started.

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit chart templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Why Is Visual Communication So Important?

A common challenge we face with creating content is that we put resources into exceptional work that fails to make the impact we want. 

How can we avoid this and make sure the content we’re creating makes the impact we need? There are three core challenges at the root of this problem.

• Limited attention 
• Difficulties remembering your content
• Failure to understand what you’re trying to say 

First we’ll explore how to address these challenges. Afterwards, we’ll unpack concrete ways to launch effective visual communication strategies.

Visual Communication Addresses Three Core Challenges

In the modern content landscape, we have some challenges that can prevent us from having as much impact as we want. There are 3 particular challenges that visual communication helps us address. 

Challenge 1: Limited Attention

The first challenge we need to overcome is the limited attention span of your audience. 

According to the classic 2015 study by Microsoft, the average human has an 8 second attention span. 

In the years since, attention spans have been narrowing. According to a 2019 study in Nature Communications the lack of attention trend is accelerating. 

Since we know distractions are a problem, we want to explore how visual communication can help us make our content as distraction-proof as possible.

The good news is that visual communication helps us to transform our content into a distraction-proof, problem-solving tool. 

Because the likelihood of distraction online is often correlated with the quality of visual information in your content, the use of visuals helps them refocus and return to the main ideas in your content.

Infographics are also one of the best examples of asynchronous communication . For example, guide your audience through a step-by-step process using the infographic template below.

Challenge 2: Remembering the Content

The second challenge businesses face with readers is making sure that you stick out in their memory. Something to keep in mind is that the content ecosystem is filled with awesome work. It’s a competitive space.

From my own experience, I often come across wonderful content that I save for later. 

However, because there is so much great material, I find myself returning only to the strongest visual content.

Ready to utilize strong visual content like infographics in your content? Use an example like the one below to help readers remember concepts you’ve written about. 

Visual communication has two crucial benefits when it comes to memory. 

First, it increases the likelihood that your content will create long term memories in your readers. That way, your readers will reflect on what they read and come back later for more content.

Additionally, strong visual communication will increase reading comprehension and memory while your readers are still reading the content. This is critical because it allows them to experience more insights and epiphanies. 

It’s crucial to keep them following along if you want them to experience breakthroughs on the problems they’re looking to address. 

Visuals support these insights because they summarize the critical points you want to communicate. This helps readers to make their own connections applying your ideas to their unique situation. 

Help your readers connect with your content by using this modern design concept map.

Why does visual communication work so well for creating connections for your readers?

It’s because our brain loves processing images. Warning... For the next 75 words we will discuss neuroscience. 

Our brain has an important area called the visual cortex. It's a large area in the very back, and it's the part of the brain responsible for processing images.

But there's another area called the Broca’s area that is much, much smaller. That’s responsible for reading words. 

We want to make it easy on our readers and help them access that huge region of the brain as opposed to making them struggle. 

Neuroscience lecture complete. 

There are additional reasons why word-heavy content makes it hard on readers. 

When we see the word, “tree,” we have to generate our own imaginary representation of the word based on our memories. This is because words are abstract. 

The word itself is just a placeholder for everything we know about trees. If we make our readers generate meaning from abstraction after abstraction they will become exhausted and go back to Slack, Instagram or email.

You can use Visme to create a number of visuals to help amplify your message. 

Create fun infographics centering with this step-by-step process infographic template.

Concept Maps

Illustrate concepts and share your biggest ideas with this concept map template. 

Transform your best-performing content into an engaging presentation with the visual identity template. 

Charts and Graphs

Present your research with a sleek pie chart using the template below.

Process Diagrams

What are your readers’ biggest challenges? What content can you create today that helps them move closer to their goals and create positive visual memories? 

Visually represent the steps involved in a problem solving process using our process infographic template. 

Challenge 3: Understanding if the Content is Meaningful

The third challenge to focus on when it comes to visual communication is whether or not your readers will find the content meaningful. Because there is so much content out there, and we read more everyday. 

Tech Jury compiled some provoking stats about content creation on the internet. 

• In March 2019, over 4.4 million blog posts were published every day.
• Over 409 million people read more than 20 billion pages on WordPress each month in 2020.
• There were 488.1 million blogs on Tumblr in January 2020.
• The median average time spent reading an article is 37 seconds.

With this in mind, how do you create memorable content that sticks out from the crowd?

The first thing to understand is why readers don’t remember the content they consume.  We are all bombarded with information and we have to make decisions about what to filter out. 

If you use visual communication effectively, your readers will flag your content as meaningful and apply your insights to their life. What does that look like in practice? 

First, we have to understand the concept of coherence. 

Aaron Antonovsky developed the concept of coherence to understand why people respond to stressful situations so differently. 

What is the difference between folks who get anxious from stress and those who flourish under the pressure? 

It has to do with how much confidence someone has that their environment is predictable. 

Coherence is a mix of optimism and control.

This means two things for your content. First, if you bombard your readers with a bunch of information, it can actually decrease their coherence and create frustration.

Secondly, if we present information skillfully our content will help readers solve their biggest problems. 

What are the most important questions you can answer for your readers? Illustrate your ideas and increase their coherence with the Principles of Learning template below.

How to Put Visual Communication Strategies Into Your Content Today

Now that we’ve learned about the three common challenges that visual communication addresses, let’s explore how we can start putting visual communication strategies into practice today. 

Visual and Kinesthetic Imagery

The first way to put visual communication strategies into your content is to use more visual and kinesthetic imagery. 

A common mistake we make with content is using too much text. This is a problem because text heavy content ignores the 5 senses. 

Don’t forget that your readers have a whole domain of experience outside of the voice in their head that reads content. 

Research shows that senses are connected to memory retrieval .

Using content that provokes the senses is a practical strategy to help readers remember and fully understand your content. You also want your readers to have a more vivid mental picture of your content and brand. 

One of the low hanging fruits with visual communication is to connect your strategy with VAK theory .

The theory helps us understand how different people process and learn information . 

VAK stands for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (tactile). The theory states that individuals prefer to learn through blending these sense channels as opposed to focusing on just one.

Let’s explore how visual communication helps us to blend the visual and kinesthetic styles. 

Kinesthetic Imagery (AKA Kinesthesia)

Kinesthetic images engage the feeling of movement. It deals with full-body sensations, such as those experienced during exercise. 

• Rushing water
• Feet pressing against the ground 
• Pounding hearts 

These are all examples of kinesthetic imagery. 

Fitness and outdoors adventure brands make great use of kinesthetic imagery. However, this is a tactic many other businesses ignore. 

No matter what our industry we have customers that utilize the kinesthetic sense to make sense of the world.

Ready to translate your next content success story into a visually compelling graphic? Get the process started with our flowchart template! 

Visual Imagery

Additionally, we can use visual imagery to help readers who need visuals to help make sense of things.

We want to pay attention to things like: 

How do we use these elements in our visual communication strategy?

We can get some inspiration from the world of filmmaking. Think about how certain movies have impacted your emotions. 

We might focus on the story, characters, and memorable moments in the film to try and understand this. However,  underneath the surface the decisions about color are making a huge difference. 

Let’s take a look at how directors and artists used orange colors to evoke certain moods in their films. 

Now, contrast how the use of blue brings up an entirely different emotional reaction.

With this in mind think about the emotions your brand colors are likely to evoke. 

The above chart can help us think about where our brand style is likely to take readers emotionally. When we layer in visual communication using visual and kinesthetic imagery we can create a powerful experience for the reader. 

Think about the emotions and experience you want to deliver to your audience. Insert your brands colors and biggest ideas into our Venn diagram template. 

Data Storytelling

Now that we know more about how to communicate visually with graphics that promote  kinesthetic and visual imagery we can focus on what types of subject matter work well with visual communication. 

For many brands, data storytelling is a great way to do this. We want to tell non-fiction stories that will be applicable to our audience.

Here’s a great video from Visme’s Make Information Beautiful series on data storytelling. 

Okay, so with that in mind what’s a definition for data storytelling? It’s a process of analyzing real data and transforming it into a compelling story that drives a particular action. 

Before we start brainstorming ideas to create our own compelling stories let’s examine some common examples for inspiration. 

Example 1: Trends

Earlier, we discussed how coherence is a blend of control and optimism. One way we can help our readers increase their coherence is by helping them analyze the trends in industries they care about. 

One way to do this is by making a list of your favorite industry leaders. What predictions are they making? Compile their predictions and look for data that confirms or denies their ideas. 

After you find something the experts agree on, search for data to investigate this trend. 

We can use the following sources to collect data to investigate trends. 

• Industry reports 
• Open source data 
• Qualitative research 

When you’re ready to share your findings, use a line graph template from Visme like the one below.

Example 2: Rankings

Another way to use data storytelling is to display rankings. Visuals that rank options based on particular criteria can be enormously helpful to your audience.

Common criteria are: 

• Ease of use 
• Functionality 
• Popularity 

There are a few options when it comes to the creation of the ranking system itself. 

• Develop your own subjective ranking system 
• Repurpose an existing ranking system in a more compelling visual
• Crowdsource responses 

This is an excellent opportunity to serve your audience. 

What are their biggest problems? What solutions are they using to solve these problems? Can we create a ranking visual that will help them make decisions more effectively? 

Display your ranking system using a comparison report. 

Example 3: Draw Comparisons

Another way to use data to create compelling visuals is by making comparisons .

Comparisons tell a story about two opposites. You can ask questions like:

• Do we invest in inbound marketing or sales? 
• Do I write a blog post or make a youtube video ? 
• Should we hire an editor or videographer? 

Comparisons can tell a side-by-side story between either polar opposites, or very similar things. 

A common type of comparison includes decision making tools like cost benefit analysis or pros and cons list.

Do your readers or ideal customers have complex decisions to make? Use a pros and cons infographic template to help them understand their options. 

Create Compelling Visual Narratives with Visme

We’ve discussed how visual communication addresses core challenges in content marketing and how we can utilize strategies to address them. Ready to take action? Visme can help anyone develop a visual communication strategy. 

Limited Attention

Concerned about limited attention of your audience? Summarize the main points of your best performing articles and post them on social media to drive engagement. 

Learning and Memory

It’s not easy to standout in today’s content ecosystem. A stellar visual communication strategy is necessary if we want to create meaningful content. 

Systematically break down your audiences biggest problems in a visual presentation. 

The philosophy of coherence is a concept that shows us how valuable reducing frustration can be for the health of our audience. 

As a bonus, if we can help them do just that the science says they’re likely to find our content meaningful. Create a white paper that makes an impact on your audiences well being. 

Too often, we create content that fails to engage the full sensory experience of our audience. When we do decide to utilize visual imagery our chances of success skyrockets. 

Activate the kinesthetic and visual sense of your audience with a colorful infographic. 

Stories are an ancient technology for generating meaning and sharing wisdom.

By delivering the stories that live inside our data we can communicate important insights in a compelling way. Create a chart in Visme and take the next step on your data storytelling journey. 

Get Started With Visual Communication

It’s your turn! Get started with a template , and dive into the world of visual communication. Share your creation with me on Twitter and use #MyVisme!

Create beautiful content your audience will love.

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About the Author

Brian Nuckols is a writer working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He enjoys communicating visionary ideas in clear, action oriented language. When he’s not working on content for a transformative company you can find him analyzing dreams, creating music, and writing poetry.

How to create visual presentations and eLearning

• Written by: Richard Goring
• Categories: PowerPoint design , Visual communication
• Comments: 4

Most presentations are a cascade of text-heavy Death-by-PowerPoint slides, while online learners suffer the torture of wading through page after page of brochures converted to click-through-eLearning. However you look at it, a wall of text doesn’t work to engage people or compel them to action, so it really can’t be effective. That’s why most people now recognize that using visuals is the way to go. But how do you create visual presentations and eLearning that works? We think there are six steps you need to follow.

Step 1. Understand the audience

To know how to make a presentation effective, you need to understand the person on the receiving end and also decide what you’re trying to achieve. Are you trying to inform the audience of something – i.e. give them information they don’t have and help them understand it. Or persuade them to do something or change their behaviour – i.e. convince the audience the reasons to act in a certain way are stronger than the reasons not to. (Selling is typically a subset of this).

And it’s worth noting that a lot of the time, when you’re trying to inform people of something as your primary objective, you’ll also need to do at least a little persuasion, to get them to believe that your information is valid, valuable, and worth acting upon. Likewise, if you’re persuading people, you need to inform your audience so that they understand enough to be able to buy into your ideas.

When informing, you should have a clear idea of what exactly you are trying to inform about, and note it down in a couple of words so that you can easily refer back to it throughout the process.

If you’re persuading people, the same thing applies, but more specifically, we find it most helpful to think about this in terms of how the audience will benefit. What’s in it for them?

The options are many and various, but something short and punchy helps you to focus your story on what’s important to your audience and will make the story worth listening to.

Step 2: Identify key message or story

Now you need to decide what information to present to your audience in order to achieve your goal. And assess how much your audience already know about the topic, so you don’t repeat unnecessarily.

Typically, anything you’re attempting to visualise into a visual presentation has a lot of detailed content with relatively little structure. So to help, we recommend you simplify down to the core message in a nicely structured way that’s easy to understand, which then helps you to pick out what detail is most important and how to bring everything together.

Then take the necessary pieces of information and organise them into a story that flows, so it’s easy to follow. Often the framework of Problem -> Solution -> Impact is a good one to follow.

• Problem sets up the context and shows why this is something people need to know and pay attention to. It helps to frame the rest of the story.
• Solution is the details of what happens, or how something works.
• Impact is the end result – that will often lead to the outcome that your audience will achieve.

Step 3: Identify key objects

The next job, within these short sentences, is to identify the objects that are crucial to telling the story.

Person, role, company – Typically these are physical things, like objects or people. You can easily spot some of these – any mention of people, groups of people, job roles, or companies, could be represented by a photo of someone, or a silhouette, or a logo.

Object, product – You may have things that aren’t people, but are still easily recognizable entities, like objects – a computer, a phone, a bicycle, a hippopotamus – or a product or service, which might be a little bit more abstract, like ‘consulting’ or ‘water treatment’ – but still a concept that you can easily put a label on. Pretty straightforward visually, you could use an icon if you just want to get across the idea of a deliverable, or a photo of the product, or a label of the product or service, or you might even have a logo for it, especially if it’s something fairly abstract.

Quote – If you want to show a direct quote from someone, try to keep it short and to the point. It should really speak for itself, which means you’re going to have to keep quiet and let the audience read it.

Location – Then you might have locations – a point on a map, like a city, or maybe a type of building, like a hospital or office tower, or it could be an office floor plan. It could be something more abstract like an objective or a target you’re aiming towards.

Data, measurable – And then you might be able to pick out some data, like figures, percentages, dates, costs, that sort of thing, or some kind of measurable quantity, which are similar but they’re more vague – concepts that you can quantify, but that don’t really have any ‘number’ attached to them – things like a level of risk, or confidence, or effort.

That’s a starter gallery of different types of key objects. What these things all have in common is that they can all be represented with some sort of visual device that can be easily recognized, so you don’t have to do too much explanation and the audience doesn’t spend too long trying to figure out what it is. You might be using pictures, or icons, or labels to represent these things to create your visual presentation, or they might make up part of a diagram, which is what we’re going to look at in the next part of the process.

Step 4: Establish relationships

Once you know what’s involved in the story, start to look at the relationships between each of the key objects, and how they interact, which will give you the layout of the slide, the framework, or the diagram. There are plenty of options, but there are a few reliable regulars that you can draw on.

First you’ve got your different types of graph , which will probably be the first choice if you’re showing data. You could make an XY graph , two axes, and the data might be bars or lines, or an XYZ graph that shows a three dimensional data set, which might shrink or stretch across the three axes.  A pie chart , to show proportions – this might be useful if you have percentages, as long as they all belong to the same category. Or you could have a Matrix arrangement, showing where elements are placed in different regions.

Then you’ve got a few ways of laying out elements that are distinct from one another. If you’ve got a sequence of dates in your information, a timeline might be a good choice, or if you haven’t you could just show a process diagram . You might just want to lay out the elements in a two dimensional space , or play around with the proportions to make a three dimensional scene , to add focus in on some elements and put others in the background. A hierarchy arrangement can show how elements are ranked in layers, useful for organization diagrams , or you could use a mind-map style layout to show connections between one big idea and a few other ideas that are linked up to it, or to each other.

A few other options for showing how things relate to one another might be a cluster or Venn diagram , to show connections or intersections between ideas, a jigsaw if you’ve got a number of things that fit together to form a larger picture, or just to get the idea across that a couple of things are well-suited to one another, and if you’re talking about a causal relationship, where one thing directly affects another, a balance diagram might work well, or a sequence that shows a push-pull relationship between two things.

This is a fairly small selection of the types of layouts you could come up with to create a visual presentation or eLearning, and a lot of slides might use two or more of these at once in order to get a complex idea across. To work out which ones to go for, you’ll have to look at your information and think about how you’d explain it, the order you’d point to your key objects, and how those key objects are related to one another. Crucially, you also have to think about the overarching message that the slide is supposed to be getting across, which you established in steps 1 and 2.

Step 5: Create visuals

Now is the time to bring everything together. The individual key objects that you’ve got, with the layouts that show the relationships between them. Think about the order you want the story to be told, which will inform the layout of your visual slides, but also the sequence in which you’ll want to use the individual elements. And animations are a real help here, as they can pace the flow of information and ensure that you keep the audience focused on the right thing at the right time. They can also be a key part of actually telling the story, to make things happen, change elements, and emphasize the relationships between your key objects.

So if you’re introducing new ideas you can add things onto the slide. If you’re simplifying a diagram or removing things you don’t need, you can remove . You can make things grow , or shrink to show changing amounts, or changing importance, and you can make things move around to new locations. If you want to combine elements together you can merge them into one, or connect them together. You can highlight something that’s especially important, for your key message, and show something being passed along from one person to another, or data being transferred. You can also change something into something else, by replacing it.

Again, there are countless examples of these, and you’ll probably want to use a few of them for each slide, but this should give you a few good ideas of ways to move your key objects around, change the relationships, and end up with the right kind of visual punchline. These things can all be done with native PowerPoint animation (and check our animation articles  and masterclass schedule for a lesson on animation if you’re not already a master at it!).

Step 6: Design

What you should have now is an idea or sketch of everything that’s going to happen on your slide to tell the story. You ‘just’ need to bring it to life and share your ideas. That’s not always an easy task, but if you check out this post by my colleague Bethany on some practical tips to achieve good presentation design , this post on some of our favorite websites for free design resources , and this one on presentation design in general, you’ll have a good head start. And of course the various PowerPoint tutorials and master classes are a wealth of information to help you out.

And if you’d like to see some examples of presentations that we’ve developed using these ideas, and then created in PowerPoint, you can draw inspiration from our presentation portfolio , showing you that pretty much anything is possible in PowerPoint.

Richard Goring

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By applying some key principles of presentation design, you can make your PowerPoint design really standout and deliver both a more ‘popping’, but also more effective presentation.

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Thank you very much, you are helping me to understand how to produce presentations so my students will want to see and learn from.

Great Estrella, lovely to hear that it’s working so well.

Its really helpful, thanks for providing such informative data in a unique way.

Just came across this while searching for Colour-Vision-Deficient-friendly PowerPoint tips. Aside from giving excellent advice, it’s wild that you’ve got graphics of what looks like Coronavirus in an article from 2017 – did you know something we didn’t 🙂 ?

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how to give the perfect presentation

Using visuals in your presentation, how to design memorable presentations.

Visuals can impact your presentation dramatically.These images, photos, objects, charts, diagrams, tables, graphs or illustrations have the potential to make or break your presentation. Used sloppily, they can damage your credibility and reputation. Designed wisely, they can strengthen your verbal message and enable you to achieve your objective. Why? Because a picture really is worth a thousand words.

According to research done by Professor Albert Mehrabian, a leading communications expert, we take in about 55% of visual information, versus only 7% of textual information. This means that whenever possible, you should use visuals such as photos, charts, graphs, and tables in your presentation. Also, eliminate sentences unless you are showing a quotation. Reduce the number of words or bullet points you use on your slides.They only distract your audience members and encourage them to read the slides, instead of listening to your words.

Hi-Tech or Low-Tech?

Today’s rapidly evolving technology enables us to add strong state-of-the-art audio-visual elements to our presentations. When planning a presentation before a huge audience, consult with your technical team (or, at least, your teenagers!) to come up with the best options. Yet, hi-tech technological components are not always the answer. In meeting rooms around the world, millions of people give presentations every day with or without the aid of laptops and powerpoint software. Remember the purpose of the visuals is to add interest and enhance your message. Yet, you are still the star, the primary focus. No amount of technology can cover up a poor performance.

Handling Equipment & Visuals

When you handle the equipment and visuals, you are still performing for your audience. Make sure you remain calm when using unfamiliar equipment or solving technical glitches. Remember the audience is watching and listening to the way you treat technicians and assistants. Speak respectfully to all who come up to help you. Practice, to ensure you can move confidently and seamlessly between your speech and your visuals, without fuss or delay. Rehearse the visual part of your presentation, just like other parts of your speech.

Benefits of Visuals

A study at the Wharton Research Centre also revealed that participants remembered 50% of the visual information, but only 5% of the bulleted points. Visuals can help you clarify points, reinforce your message, and create greater interest and enthusiasm for your subject. What’s more, visuals encourage audience interaction and provide a change from just hearing, to seeing and hearing.

As a presenter, you can be more relaxed and active when you show a slide. You may walk around, gesture, or point out key relationships in the information you are presenting graphically. Visuals take some of the attention off you and allow people to focus on your information. In this way, they are beneficial to you and your audience. According to research, audiences retain 10% of what was presented orally, 35% of what was presented visually alone, and 65% of what was presented visually and orally. The bottom line is that incorporating visuals can add to your bottom line.

Developing Visuals

Visuals include a variety of communication tools such as flip charts, overhead transparencies, slides, and videos. Powerpoint slide presentations are often the most popular, though not always what’s necessary. What you use depends on the size of your audience. If you are presenting for up to 50 people, you could use boards, flipcharts, overhead transparencies, handouts, and slides. If you are presenting for about 125 people, it is best to stick to overhead transparencies and slides. If you are presenting for 125 people or more, use slides alone.

When considering which type of visuals to use, take into account time and cost factors. Determine the number of times the slides can be used. Decide if professional development is necessary.

Plan a maximum of one transparency for every five minutes of your presentation. Don’t run after your visuals by trying to pack in too many in a short period of time. Let your visuals support your message and not the other way around.

If you are planning to develop your own visuals, keep the following points in mind:

• Emphasize only one thought or comparison on each slide. If you include more than one message, it may confuse your audience.
• Number your slides in case they get mixed up.
• Keep visuals brief and simple.
• Create visual material that is bold and easily seen from a distance.

Remember that research has shown that people remember most when there is only narration and graphics. In other words, they learn less when there is narration alone and they learn less when there is narration, graphics, and text. Check the effectiveness of your visuals by seeing if they can tell the story without added written information.

Environmental Influences

Lastly, remember that many of us are sleep-deprived. Try to keep some lights on during the presentation or it will be too easy for even the most well-intentioned audience members to doze off comfortably and miss all your hard work!

I put a lot of information on my slides. I need it so I won’t forget what to say, even though I’ve spoken English all my life. What can I do about that?

Start by reducing the number of words on the slides slowly. Soon, you will discover that it’s easier to speak when you don’t have to read every single word. Since you’re an English speaker, you only need a few key words to help you elaborate on the subject. Don’t get caught up in thinking you have to deliver the information only in a certain way. Accept the fact that each time you speak the words may be different but the message will come across just the same. I’m sure you can do it.

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Being able to speak in public can change your life! Presentation Prep is your complete, free guide to delivering speeches, lectures, and presentations more successfully and confidently. Whether you're a native English-speaker who suffers from public speaking anxiety, or a non-native speaker who needs guidelines for presenting to international audiences, this site will give you everything you need. Presentation Prep is written by Rebecca Ezekiel, an experienced corporate trainer who specializes in the areas of communications, presentations, and cross-cultural skills. Her online English language training videos are watched by millions of students worldwide.

What is visual communication, and how can it revolutionize your workflow?

From emojis to GIFs and video calls to presentations, visuals have a strong influence on our everyday lives. But how can we use visual information as a communication process—and can this help productivity? Find the answers to these questions in this guide to visual communication.

In modern life, we’re surrounded by visuals—phone calls have been swapped for FaceTime and Zoom, social media is long past the days of text-only posts, and marketing has become increasingly reliant on images, videos, and illustrations to capture audiences’ attention.

These visual elements are also being adopted in communication strategies, particularly in the workplace. New digital technologies, such as screen capture tools for sharing information asynchronously , are harnessing the power of visual communication to help teams work in more flexible and productive ways.

In this article, we’re going to explain how you can use visual communication to improve team collaboration and streamline workflows. But first, let’s dive into the different types of visual communication and why visual information is so important.

What is visual communication?

Put simply, visual communication is the process of conveying meaning—be it ideas, instructions, data, or other kinds of information—through graphics rather than text or audio. For many, this is a more efficient and accessible way of sharing knowledge and adding context than written communication.

Visual communication can be achieved in a variety of different ways. Examples of visual communication include:

• Videos and photos
• Graphs, charts, infographics, and other types of data visualization
• Maps (such as mind maps and content maps)
• Illustrations and graphic design
• Slide decks and presentations
• Screen capture and recordings

These types of visual assets are commonly used in social media and content marketing, to communicate ideas and information where more text-heavy formats fail to make an impact.

Why is visual communication important?

According to research, 50% of people are visual learners , and prefer visual content to learn information more effectively. This means that visual communication doesn’t just matter in the workplace—it’s beneficial for wider society as well.

Presenting information visually allows you to convey your message with more impact than text can achieve. A visual communication strategy should be an essential part of your business activities—especially your content marketing .

Visual elements are crucial in the content creation process. On certain social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, text content simply doesn’t have the same impact as images and videos.

According to research, our collective attention span is narrowing and the always-on nature of digital life presents all kinds of distractions. Visual communication helps you cut through the noise and get your message across through high-quality, memorable content.

These aren’t the only reasons why visual communication is important. This form of communication:

• Attracts attention and boosts engagement
• Evokes stronger emotions from your target audience
• Improves information recall
• Saves time, as information is relayed faster and more efficiently
• Solidifies brand identity, ensuring a shared experience and a unified message

How visual communication can improve your workflow

It can be difficult to connect teams working remotely —and often it seems easier to set up a quick meeting over a video call to collaborate on ideas or discuss projects. But any virtual-first worker will tell you that video meetings can sometimes actually waste time rather than improve productivity.

With an effective visual communication strategy, you can reduce unnecessary meetings . The use of visual elements and visual aids enables you to relay complex information—such as instructions for using certain tools, or the specifics of a new project—in a more focused, engaging, and digestible way. In turn, this helps to streamline your workflows and simplifies any decision-making processes.

Because there are so many different types of visual communication, you can get creative with how you share information and collaborate with clients and colleagues. With innovative new technologies, you’re no longer restricted to pie charts and presentations for creating and sharing a visual message. 

In fact, visual communication can benefit your business in all kinds of ways:

• Make the employee onboarding process quicker and more efficient with narrated screen captures in Dropbox Capture
• Use Capture to create GIFs that explain organization systems, programs, and training tools
• Take screenshots of ideas and sources of inspiration to share with your team and refer back to when it’s time to use them
• Host async meetings to keep workflows on track and avoid wasting time in unnecessary or unfocused meetings!
• Tools like Dropbox Replay help you give clearer feedback, as you can pinpoint specific points of improvement in videos using on-screen markups

Tips for implementing visual communication in the workplace

The best visual communication strategy for your team will depend on a few different things, including the team size and goals. To facilitate this process and make the most of the benefits of visual communication, there is a range of things you can do.

Consistency is key

Firstly, you’ll need to be consistent with the styling and branding of your visual assets—and not just for external resources such as marketing materials. Value quality over quantity, so that everything you produce achieves its potential impact. Create templates , video tutorials, and brand guidelines, and ensure everyone on your team knows where these are stored and how to use them when creating visual elements. 

Don’t forget narrative

Additionally, you’ll want to consider your storytelling strategies and how you can weave narrative into the visual materials you create. For both internal and external communications, this will come down to knowing your audience. It may be beneficial to build audience personas in collaborative tools like Dropbox Paper , to guide your strategy for customer-facing content.

Prioritize ease of use and accessibility

Introducing software that is too complicated to use could discourage your team members from adopting visual communication into their day-to-day work. Make sure you only use collaborative tools that are accessible to everyone—this includes how you organize your visual assets. 

With Dropbox Capture , you can create screenshots, GIFs, or simple videos recorded right on your screen. Your creations will be saved to your Dropbox account , where you can easily share them with your colleagues to watch or review on their own time. 

Create team folders for templates, training videos, meeting minutes, and other communications, so that everyone in your team has access to the visual materials they need when they need them.

Harness the power of visual storytelling

With Dropbox Capture , you can clearly say what you mean without scheduling anything. Replace lengthy emails and meetings, streamline your onboarding and support processes, and walk through ideas, proposals, tutorials, and projects in a way that gives everyone the complete picture.

Say more, meet less.

Try Dropbox Capture

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14.1 Organizing a Visual Presentation

Learning objectives.

• Identify key ideas and details to create a concise, engaging presentation.
• Identify the steps involved in planning a comprehensive presentation.

Until now, you have interacted with your audience of readers indirectly, on the page. You have tried to anticipate their reactions and questions as all good writers do. Anticipating the audience’s needs can be tough, especially when you are sitting alone in front of your computer.

When you give a presentation, you connect directly with your audience. For most people, making a presentation is both exciting and stressful. The excitement comes from engaging in a two-way interaction about your ideas. The stress comes from the pressure of presenting your ideas without having a delete button to undo mistakes. Outside the classroom, you may be asked to give a presentation, often at the last minute, and the show must go on. Presentations can be stressful, but planning and preparation, when the time and opportunity are available, can make all the difference.

This chapter covers how to plan and deliver an effective, engaging presentation. By planning carefully, applying some time-honored presentation strategies, and practicing, you can make sure that your presentation comes across as confident, knowledgeable, and interesting—and that your audience actually learns from it. The specific tasks involved in creating a presentation may vary slightly depending on your purpose and your assignment. However, these are the general steps.

Follow these steps to create a presentation based on your ideas:

• Determine your purpose and identify the key ideas to present.
• Organize your ideas in an outline.
• Identify opportunities to incorporate visual or audio media, and create or locate these media aids.
• Rehearse your presentation in advance.
• Deliver your presentation to your audience.

Getting Started: Identifying and Organizing Key Ideas

To deliver a successful presentation, you need to develop content suitable for an effective presentation. Your ideas make up your presentation, but to deliver them effectively, you will need to identify key ideas and organize them carefully. Read the following considerations, which will help you first identify and then organize key ideas:

• Be concise. You will include the most important ideas and leave out others. Some concepts may need to be simplified.
• Employ more than one medium of expression. You should incorporate other media, such as charts, graphs, photographs, video or audio recordings, or websites.
• Prepare for a face-to-face presentation. If you must deliver a face-to-face presentation, it is important to project yourself as a serious and well-informed speaker. You will often speak extemporaneously, or in a rehearsed but not memorized manner, which allows for flexibility given the context or audience. You will need to know your points and keep your audience engaged.

Determine Your Purpose

As with a writing assignment, determining the purpose of your presentation early on is crucial. You want to inform your readers about the topic, but think about what else you hope to achieve.

Are you presenting information intended to move your audience to adopt certain beliefs or take action on a particular issue? If so, you are speaking not only to inform but also to persuade your listeners. Do you want your audience to come away from your presentation knowing how to do something they that they did not know before? In that case, you are not only informing them but also explaining or teaching a process.

Writing at Work

Schoolteachers are trained to structure lessons around one or more lesson objectives. Usually the objective, the mission or purpose, states what students should know or be able to do after they complete the lesson. For example, an objective might state, “Students will understand the specific freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment” or “Students will be able to add two three-digit numbers correctly.”

As a manager, mentor, or supervisor, you may sometimes be required to teach or train other employees as part of your job. Determining the desired outcome of a training session will help you plan effectively. Identify your teaching objectives. What, specifically, do you want your audience to know (for instance, details of a new workplace policy) or be able to do (for instance, use a new software program)? Plan your teaching or training session to meet your objectives.

Identify Key Ideas

To plan your presentation, think in terms of three or four key points you want to get across. In a paper, you have the space to develop ideas at length and delve into complex details. In a presentation, however, you must convey your ideas more concisely.

One strategy you might try is to create an outline. What is your main idea? Would your main idea work well as key points for a brief presentation? How would you condense topics that might be too lengthy, or should you eliminate topics that may be too complicated to address in your presentation?

1. Revisit your presentation assignment, or think of a topic for your presentation. On your own sheet of notebook paper, write a list of at least three to five key ideas. Keep the following questions in mind when listing your key ideas:

• What is your purpose?
• Who is your audience?
• How will you engage your audience?

2. On the same paper, identify the steps you must complete before you begin creating your presentation.

Use an Outline to Organize Ideas

After you determine which ideas are most appropriate for your presentation, you will create an outline of those ideas. Your presentation, like a written assignment, should include an introduction, body, and conclusion. These components serve much the same purpose as they do in a written assignment.

• The introduction engages the audience’s attention, introduces the topic, and sets the tone for what is to come.
• The body develops your point of view with supporting ideas, details, and examples presented in a logical order.
• The conclusion restates your point of view, sums up your main points, and leaves your audience with something to think about.

Jorge, who wrote the research paper featured in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , developed the following outline. Jorge relied heavily on this outline to plan his presentation, but he adjusted it to suit the new format.

Planning Your Introduction

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you learned techniques for writing an interesting introduction, such as beginning with a surprising fact or statistic, a thought-provoking question or quotation, a brief anecdote that illustrates a larger concept or connects your topic to your audience’s experiences. You can use these techniques effectively in presentations as well. You might also consider actively engaging your audience by having members respond to questions or complete a brief activity related to your topic. For example, you may have your audience respond to a survey or tell about an experience related to your topic.

Incorporating media can also be an effective way to get your audience’s attention. Visual images such as a photograph or a cartoon can invoke an immediate emotional response. A graph or chart can highlight startling findings in research data or statistical information. Brief video or audio clips that clearly reinforce your message and do not distract or overwhelm your audience can provide a sense of immediacy when you plan to discuss an event or a current issue. A PowerPoint presentation allows you to integrate many of these different media sources into one presentation.

With the accessibility provided by the Internet, you can find interesting and appropriate audio and video with little difficulty. However, the clip alone will not sustain the presentation. To keep the audience interested and engaged, you must frame the beginning and end of the clip with your own words.

Jorge completed the introduction part of his outline by listing the key points he would use to open his presentation. He also planned to show various web links early on to illustrate the popularity of the low-carbohydrate diet trend.

Planning the Body of Your Presentation

The next step is to work with the key ideas you identified earlier. Determine the order in which you want to present these ideas, and flesh them out with important details. Chapter 10 “Rhetorical Modes” discusses several organizational structures you might work with, such as chronological order, comparison-and-contrast structure, or cause-and-effect structure.

How much detail you include will depend on the time allotted for your presentation. Your instructor will most likely give you a specific time limit or a specific slide limit, such as eight to ten slides. If the time limit is very brief (two to three minutes, for instance), you will need to focus on communicating your point of view, main supporting points, and only the most relevant details. Three minutes can feel like an eternity if you are speaking before a group, but the time will pass very quickly. It is important to use it well.

If you have more time to work with—ten minutes or half an hour—you will be able to discuss your topic in greater detail. More time also means you must devote more thought into how you will hold your audience’s interest. If your presentation is longer than five minutes, introduce some variety so the audience is not bored. Incorporate multimedia, invite the audience to complete an activity, or set aside time for a question-and-answer session.

Jorge was required to limit his presentation to five to seven minutes. In his outline, he made a note about where he would need to condense some complicated material to stay within his time limit. He also decided to focus only on cholesterol and heart disease in his discussion of long-term health outcomes. The research on other issues was inconclusive, so Jorge decided to omit this material. Jorge’s notes on his outline show the revisions he has made to his presentation.

You are responsible for using your presentation time effectively to inform your audience. You show respect for your audience by following the expected time limit. However, that does not mean you must fill all of that time with talk if you are giving a face-to-face presentation. Involving your audience can take some of the pressure off you while also keeping them engaged. Have them respond to a few brief questions to get them thinking. Display a relevant photograph, document, or object and ask your classmates to comment. In some presentations, if time allows, you may choose to have your classmates complete an individual or group activity.

Planning Your Conclusion

The conclusion should briefly sum up your main idea and leave your audience with something to think about. As in a written paper, you are essentially revisiting your thesis. Depending on your topic, you may also ask the audience to reconsider their thinking about an issue, to take action, or to think about a related issue. If you presented an attention-getting fact or anecdote in your introduction, consider revisiting it in your conclusion. Just as you have learned about an essay’s conclusion, do not add new content to the presentation’s conclusion.

No matter how you choose to structure your conclusion, make sure it is well planned so that you are not tempted to wrap up your presentation too quickly. Inexperienced speakers, in a face-to-face presentation, sometimes rush through the end of a presentation to avoid exceeding the allotted time or to end the stressful experience of presenting in public. Unfortunately, a hurried conclusion makes the presentation as a whole less memorable.

Time management is the key to delivering an effective presentation whether it is face-to-face or in PowerPoint. As you develop your outline, think about the amount of time you will devote to each section. For instance, in a five-minute face-to-face presentation, you might plan to spend one minute on the introduction, three minutes on the body, and one minute on the conclusion. Later, when you rehearse, you can time yourself to determine whether you need to adjust your content or delivery.

In a PowerPoint presentation, it is important that your presentation is visually stimulating, avoids information overload by limiting the text per slide, uses speaker notes effectively, and uses a font that is visible on the background (e.g., avoid white letters on a light background or black letters on a dark background).

Work with the list you created in Note 14.4 “Exercise 1” to develop a more complete outline for your presentation. Make sure your outline includes the following:

• An introduction that uses strategies to capture your audience’s attention
• A body section that summarizes your main points and supporting details
• A conclusion that will help you end on a memorable note
• Brief notes about how much time you plan to spend on each part of the presentation (you may adjust the timing later as needed)

Identifying Opportunities to Incorporate Visual and Audio Media

You may already have some ideas for how to incorporate visual and audio media in your presentation. If not, review your outline and begin thinking about where to include media. Presenting information in a variety of formats will help you keep your audience’s interest.

Use Presentation Software

Delivering your presentation as a slideshow is one way to use media to your advantage. As you speak, you use a computer and an attached projector to display a slideshow of text and graphics that complement the speech. Your audience will follow your ideas more easily, because you are communicating with them through more than one sense. The audience hears your words and also sees the corresponding visuals. A listener who momentarily loses track of what you are saying can rely on the slide to cue his or her memory.

To set up your presentation, you will need to work with the content of your outline to develop individual slides. Each slide should focus on just a few bullet points (or a similar amount of content presented in a graphic). Remember that your audience must be able to read the slides easily, whether the members sit in the front or the back of the room. Avoid overcrowding the slides with too much text.

Using presentation software, such as PowerPoint, allows you to incorporate graphics, sounds, and even web links directly into your slides. You can also work with available styles, color schemes, and fonts to give your presentation a polished, consistent appearance. Different slide templates make it easy to organize information to suit your purpose. Be sure your font is visible to you audience. Avoid using small font or colored font that is not visible against your background.

Use PowerPoint as a Visual Aid

PowerPoint and similar visual representation programs can be effective tools to help audiences remember your message, but they can also be an annoying distraction to your speech. How you prepare your slides and use the tool will determine your effectiveness.

PowerPoint is a slideware program that you have no doubt seen used in class, seen in a presentation at work, or perhaps used yourself to support a presentation. PowerPoint and similar slideware programs provide templates for creating electronic slides to present visual information to the audience, reinforcing the verbal message. You will be able to import or cut and paste words from text files, images, or video clips to create slides to represent your ideas. You can even incorporate web links. When using any software program, it is always a good idea to experiment with it long before you intend to use it; explore its many options and functions, and see how it can be an effective tool for you.

At first, you might be overwhelmed by the possibilities, and you might be tempted to use all the bells, whistles, and sound effects, not to mention the tumbling, flying, and animated graphics. If used wisely, a dissolve or key transition can be like a well-executed scene from a major motion picture and lead your audience to the next point. But if used indiscriminately, it can annoy the audience to the point where they cringe in anticipation of the sound effect at the start of each slide. This danger is inherent in the tool, but you are in charge of it and can make wise choices that enhance the understanding and retention of your information.

The first point to consider is which visual aid is the most important. The answer is you, the speaker. You will facilitate the discussion, give life to the information, and help the audience correlate the content to your goal or purpose. You do not want to be in a position where the PowerPoint presentation is the focus and you are on the side of the stage simply helping the audience follow along. Slides should support you in your presentation, rather than the other way around. Just as there is a number one rule for handouts (do not pass them out at the start of your presentation), there is also one for PowerPoint presentations: do not use PowerPoint slides as a read-aloud script for your speech. The PowerPoint slides should amplify and illustrate your main points, not reproduce everything you are going to say.

Your pictures are the second area of emphasis you will want to consider. The tool will allow you to show graphs, charts and illustrate relationships that words may only approach in terms of communication, but your verbal support of the visual images will make all the difference. Dense pictures or complicated graphics will confuse more than they clarify. Choose clear images that have an immediate connection to both your content and the audience, tailored to their specific needs. After the images, consider using only key words that can be easily read to accompany your pictures. The fewer words the better. Try to keep each slide to a total word count of less than ten words. Do not use full sentences. Using key words provides support for your verbal discussion, guiding you as well as your audience. The key words can serve as signposts or signal words related to key ideas.

A natural question at this point is, How do I communicate complex information simply? The answer comes with several options. The visual representation on the screen is for support and illustration. Should you need to communicate more technical, complex, or in-depth information in a visual way, consider preparing a handout to distribute at the conclusion of your speech. You may also consider using a printout of your slide show with a section for taking notes, but if you distribute it at the beginning of your speech, you run the risk of turning your presentation into a guided reading exercise and possibly distracting or losing members of the audience. Everyone reads at a different pace and takes notes in their own way. You do not want to be in the position of going back and forth between slides to help people follow along.

Another point to consider is how you want to use the tool to support your speech and how your audience will interpret its presentation. Most audiences wouldn’t want to read a page of text—as you might see in this book—on the big screen. They will be far more likely to glance at the screen and assess the information you present in relation to your discussion. Therefore, it is key to consider one main idea, relationship, or point per slide. The use of the tool should be guided with the idea that its presentation is for the audience’s benefit, not yours. People often understand pictures and images more quickly and easily than text, and you can use this to your advantage, using the knowledge that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Incorporate Visual Media

Even if you do not use a slideshow to complement your presentation, you can include visual media to support and enhance your content. Visual media are divided into two major categories: images and informational graphics.

Image-based media, such as photographs or videos, often have little or no accompanying text. Often these media are more powerful than words in getting a message across. Within the past decade, the images associated with major news stories, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the Abu Ghraib prison abuses from 2004 to 2006, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, have powerfully affected viewers’ emotions and drawn their attention to these news stories.

Figure 14.1

Even if your presentation addresses a less dramatic subject, you can still use images to draw in your audience. Consider how photographs, an illustration, or a video might help your audience connect with a particular person or place or bring a historical event to life. Use visual images to support descriptions of natural or man-made phenomena. What ideas lend themselves to being explained primarily through images?

In addition, consider how you might incorporate informational graphics in your presentation. Informational graphics include diagrams, tables, pie charts, bar and line graphs, and flow charts. Informational graphics usually include some text and often work well to present numerical information. Consider using them if you are presenting statistics, comparing facts or data about several different groups, describing changes over time, or presenting a process.

Incorporate Audio Media

Although audio media are not as versatile as visual media, you may wish to use them if they work well with your particular topic. If your presentation discusses trends in pop music or analyzes political speeches, playing an audio clip is an obvious and effective choice. Clips from historical speeches, radio talk shows, and interviews can also be used, but extended clips may be ineffective with modern audiences. Always assess your audience’s demographics and expectations before selecting and including audio media.

Review the outline you created in Note 14.11 “Exercise 2” . Complete the following steps:

• Identify at least two to three places in your presentation where you might incorporate visual or audio media. Brainstorm ideas for what media would be effective, and create a list of ideas. (In Chapter 14 “Creating Presentations: Sharing Your Ideas” , Section 14.2 “Incorporating Effective Visuals into a Presentation” , you will explore different media options in greater depth. For now, focus on coming up with a few general ideas.)
• Determine whether you will use presentation software to deliver your presentation as a slideshow. If you plan to do so, begin using your outline to draft your slides.

Figure 14.2

Source: http://www.agenciabrasil.gov.br/media/imagens/2010/01/14/14.01.10RP5978.jpg/view

Planning Ahead: Annotating Your Presentation

When you make a presentation, you are giving a performance of sorts. It may not be as dramatic as a play or a movie, but it requires smooth coordination of several elements—your words, your gestures, and any media you include. One way to ensure that the performance goes smoothly is to annotate your presentation ahead of time.

To annotate means to add comments or notes to a document. You can use this technique to plan how the different parts of your presentation will flow together. For instance, if you are working with slides, add notes to your outline indicating when you will show each slide. If you have other visual or audio media to include, make a note of that, too. Be as detailed as necessary. Jotting “Start video at 3:14” can spare you the awkwardness of searching for the right clip during your presentation.

In the workplace, employees are often asked to deliver presentations or conduct a meeting using standard office presentation software. If you are using presentation software, you can annotate your presentation easily as you create your slides. Use the notes feature at the bottom of the page to add notes for each slide. As you deliver your presentation, your notes will be visible to you on the computer screen but not to your audience on the projector screen.

In a face-to-face presentation, make sure your final annotated outline is easy to read. It will serve to cue you during your presentation, so it does not need to look polished, as long as it is clear to you. Double space the text. Use a larger-than-normal font size (14 or 16 points) if that will make it easier for you to read. Boldface or italics will set off text that should be emphasized or delivered with greater emotion. Write out main points, as well as your opening and closing remarks, in complete sentences, along with any material you want to quote verbatim. Use shorter phrases for supporting details. Using your speaker notes effectively will help you deliver an effective presentation. Highlighting, all capital letters, or different-colored font will help you easily distinguish notes from the text of your speech. Read Jorge’s annotated outline.

Some students prefer to write out the full text of their face-to-face presentation. This can be a useful strategy when you are practicing your delivery. However, keep in mind that reading your text aloud, word for word, will not help you capture and hold your audience’s attention. Write out and read your speech if that helps you rehearse. After a few practice sessions, when you are more comfortable with your material, switch to working from an outline. That will help you sound more natural when you speak to an audience.

In a PowerPoint presentation, remember to have your slides in logical sequential order. Annotating your presentation before submitting it to your audience or your instructor will help you check for order and logical transitions. Too much text or data may confuse your audience; strive for clarity and avoid unnecessary details. Let the pictures or graphics tell the story but do not overload your slideshow with visuals. Be sure your font is visible. Look for consistency in the time limit of your presentation to gauge your level of preparedness.

Begin to annotate your outline. (You will probably add more notes as you proceed, but including some annotations now will help you begin pulling your ideas together.) Mark your outline with the following information:

• Write notes in brackets to any sections where you definitely plan to incorporate visual or audio media.
• If you are presenting a slideshow, add notes in brackets indicating which slides go with each section of your outline.
• Identify and set off any text that should be emphasized.

Key Takeaways

• An effective presentation presents ideas more concisely than a written document and uses media to explain ideas and hold the audience’s interest.
• Like an essay, a presentation should have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• Good writers structure their presentations on the thesis, or point of view; main ideas; and key supporting details and create a presentation outline to organize their ideas.
• Annotating a presentation outline is a useful way to coordinate different parts of the presentation and manage time effectively.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Blog Beginner Guides How to Use Visual Communication: Definition, Examples, Types

How to Use Visual Communication: Definition, Examples, Types

Written by: Midori Nediger Aug 27, 2020

With so many businesses and organizations now operating online, visual communication is more important than ever.

Whether you’re an executive looking to align your team on new organizational processes, or a marketer looking for ways to differentiate on social media, you may wonder how best to use visuals to really connect with your audience.

In this guide, I’ll give you some trade secrets from my experience as an information designer. I’ll show you how to leverage design and visual communications best practices to engage your audience while avoiding information overload.

Table of contents:

• What is visual communication

Examples of visual communication

• What are the types of visual communications
• Why does visual communication matter

How to use visual communication in the workplace

How to make your visual communications look professional, what is visual communication.

Visual communication is the practice of using visual elements to convey a message, inspire change, or evoke emotion. 

It’s one part communication design— crafting a message that educates, motivates, and engages,  and one part graphic design— using design principles to communicate that message so that it’s clear and eye-catching.

Effective visual communication should be equally appealing and informative.

Visual communication is really about picking the right elements (usually text, icons, shapes, imagery and data visualizations) to create meaning for your audience.  You can also communicate visually with video. For example, you can use a free screen recorder to show a colleague how to complete a task rather than sharing a document.

Some common visual communication strategies include:

• Using data visualization to show the impact of your work
• Using shapes and lines to outline relationships, processes, and flows
• Using symbols and icons to make information more memorable
• Using visuals and data to tell stories  
• Using color to indicate importance and draw attention

Visual communication is a powerful tool that uses images, symbols and graphics to convey information and ideas. It’s like showing someone a picture instead of just telling them a story.

Here are some examples of visual communication:

Infographics: These combine visuals and text to present complex data in a clear and concise way. For example, an infographic could show the population growth of different countries over time using a combination of charts and illustrations.

Videos: Videos can be used to demonstrate processes, explain concepts, or tell stories in a visually engaging manner. For instance, a video tutorial could demonstrate how to change a flat tire, while a promotional video could tell the story of a brand’s mission and values.

GIFs: Animated GIFs can add movement, humor, or emotion to your content. For example, a GIF of a dancing cat could be used to add a playful element to a social media post.

Emojis: Emojis can be used to express emotions or ideas in a concise and visually appealing way. For example, a thumbs-up emoji could indicate approval or agreement.

Photographs: Photographs can capture real-world scenes and tell stories or convey emotions. For instance, a photo of a child playing in a field could evoke feelings of joy and innocence.

Illustrations: Illustrations can be used to represent ideas, concepts, or emotions in a creative and visually appealing way. For example, an illustration of a dragon could be used to represent power and mythical creatures.

Diagrams: Diagrams can be used to visualize relationships between different elements or concepts. For example, a flowchart could show the steps involved in a process, while a Venn diagram could illustrate the similarities and differences between two groups.

Charts: Charts can be used to represent data in a visual format, such as bar charts, pie charts, or line charts. For example, a bar chart could show the sales figures for different products, while a line chart could illustrate the trend of stock prices over time.

What are the types of visual communications?

When you think about visual communication, your mind might first jump to design-heavy content like social media graphics or infographics .

And while visual communication certainly plays a role in those cases, there are a ton of other types of content that fall under the visual communication umbrella.

8 types of visual communications in the workplace include:

• Process Diagrams
• Flow Charts
• Charts and Graphs
• Visual Reports
• Presentations

These can look very different when used in different industries, but they all use the same visual communication strategies and design principles to accurately present information and create meaning for audiences.

Let’s take a look at some visual communication strategies used across different types of organizations.

Different types of visual communication strategies across industries

Nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit organizations often combine data visualization and visual storytelling to gain the trust of their audiences and establish the credibility of their organization. 

This might take the form of a statistical infographic or an impact report that they share with their donors and supporters:

They may also create public-facing informational posters or brochures to build awareness around their organization and foster support for their cause. 

Another place where visual communication is key for larger nonprofits is to update stakeholders on campaign or research results. These reports often combine storytelling with data visualization to inform and convince. 

Healthcare organizations

A visual communication strategy often applied in healthcare is the use of plain language and simple iconography to communicate with audiences with lower health literacy. 

For example, a public health unit might create an infographic factsheet to ensure that recommended protocols are followed, like these recent COVID-19 guidelines from Public Health Ontario:

In fact, the CDC recommends the use of visuals to boost understanding of health information for external communications in healthcare.

These types of visual guides aren’t just helpful for external communication. Similar tactics can be used to remind staff of workplace best practices, like patient safety and infection prevention practices.

Learn more: Venngage for Healthcare Organizations

Business consulting organizations

Business development organizations may use diagrams like process maps to communicate high-level strategy to clients , which can help make their value more tangible.

A simple roadmap or summary of strategy recommendations can go a long way towards communicating and aligning with clients.

Why does visual communication matter?

Visuals can help create understanding where words alone cannot. 

They can help bridge the gap between concepts and words, especially when appealing to an audience with diverse needs and backgrounds.

It’s clear that visual communication is top-of-mind for many. When we surveyed marketers about their use of visual content , 74% of the marketers we surveyed stated that more than 70% of their content contained some form of visual.

Plus, it’s been demonstrated time and time again that in addition to making information more engaging, visuals can actually help with the comprehension of information. 

But when should you consider making your content more visual?

You can use visual communication to:

• Engage your audience
• Communicate complex information
• Tell a story and convey emotion
• Simplify information
• Communicate the impact of your data

Let’s take a look at how this can apply in the workplace.

You might think that visual communication isn’t really necessary in your day-to-day work. 

But visuals, in the right hands, can be used as a tool to influence what your audience pays attention to, thinks about, and understands. 

1. How to make boring topics engaging

Creating engaging content that shows the value of your business can be a challenge when you work in a “boring” or technical industry like finance, business development, engineering or healthcare.

But it’s this kind of challenge where visual communication shines. Creating unique visuals can help you position yourself as the innovative solution in the market.

Here are some simple strategies to consider:

Use stylized icons to make technical information feel concrete and approachable

This infographic about credit card merchant processing, for example, takes advantage of a playful icon style and a modern design treatment to capture your attention and keep you reading.

This might be the perfect way to signal to young business owners that you’re different from the traditional big banks, and that you’re right for them. It feels so much more approachable than a wall of text on a web page.

Just applying some basic visual communication strategies can make this “boring” technical information a bit more accessible and relatable to your target audience —ready to boost engagement on social media, your blog, or your newsletter.

Use visual metaphors to get your audience thinking

Visual metaphors are another way to make old ideas feel fresh and exciting, and can even help foster deeper understanding of your subject matter.

The use of women running in the infographic below, for example, helps me think about NPS scores in a new way:

By allowing the visual presentation to drive how you position the value of your product or service, you can find new ways to reach your customers.

Read more: Common symbols and meanings and how to use them in design

To sum up, here are some visual communication tips for how to make boring topics engaging:

• Use visuals and icons to make technical information feel approachable
• Choose a graphic design style that will resonate with your target audience 
• Think outside of the box: use a unique visual presentation to get your audience thinking 

If your visual presentation is unique, your information doesn’t have to be revolutionary to give you an edge over your competitors.

Read more: Infographic ideas to make your information engaging.

2. How to communicate process changes and improvements

Being able to quickly re-align your team on process changes has never been more important. 

Visuals can make processes easier to understand and more memorable. They can also help boost employee alignment and engagement. 

Here’s how you can use process documentation to help align your team.

Show both high-level and low-level changes with hierarchical process diagrams

Breaking down processes into discrete visual steps can make new processes much easier to grasp.

And breaking down steps into even smaller sections can help you communicate both high-level concepts and specific details in the same place, like in this process diagram below.

Providing these process documents to employees can help quickly align teams on new strategies, like an action plan to address a crisis or a shift into a new market, while also acting as a reference point in the future.

• Provide presentation slides as a post-meeting reference guide 

With remote work becoming the norm, you likely spend many of your days in back-to-back Zoom calls. 

If you’re holding a meeting to discuss major process changes or company updates, it may be worth your while to whip up some quick meeting slides to help clarify changes and ensure your team is aligned.

Including a slide deck can help reinforce the importance of what’s discussed, and act as a reference when your team digs into their work.

Provide checklists to help your team keep track of complex processes

Providing a checklist of steps for your team to follow can help you delegate work with confidence, while giving your team the confidence to know that they’re doing things right.

Checklists are particularly helpful for communicating complex or proprietary internal processes, as they can help remove any anxiety from the process.

Build out a library of internal training documents that you can update periodically

Building out a library of training documents, while it might take a bit of time up front, can really save time and money in the long run, because a team that’s aligned is a team that’s productive.

Onboarding guides, FAQs for new employees (like the fun onboarding FAQs below), and other process documentation can all help make remote onboarding easier, and help new employees feel comfortable and in control.

HR onboarding checklists can help avoid the headache of overlooked paperwork and unclear expectations. Having one checklist for the employee and one for your HR department will help keep everyone aligned and on top of their tasks.

If you’re ramping up to hire a mass of new employees, it may even be worth rethinking the design of your offer letter . After your new employee signs, you can send on their package of matching onboarding documents.

And once you create those documents, they should be easy to update and disseminate to new and existing team members, making your job even easier.

To summarize, here are your tips for communicating process changes on the fly:

• Show high- and low-level changes with hierarchical process diagrams
• Help your team keep track of changes with checklists
• Build a library of internal training documents that you can update periodically

3. How to simplify complex information with visuals

Perhaps the most powerful use of visual communication is to simplify complex information. 

Just take this image that HubSpot posted on Twitter recently, for example. With one simple visual, they manage to position their product as the perfect solution to three problems experienced across three different teams:

This doesn’t just work for external communications on social media.

It can be the perfect approach for consultants looking to communicate their ideas and strategies to clients, in a quick and digestible way.

Or B2B organizations in technical fields looking to demystify the products and services they offer to differentiate from their competitors, without using a ton of technical language:

Or healthcare organizations looking to make recommendations clear to patients:

The four key steps for simplifying complex information with visuals are:

• Remove as much text as possible
• Use shapes like circles and rectangles to indicate groupings
• Use lines and borders to indicate flows and relationships
• Use color and size to draw attention to key information

Read More: How to Summarize Information Visually

4. How to visualize data and insights

Effective data visualization does more than just display some data from a spreadsheet.

It should communicate insights and capture ideas. It should communicate the why behind the trends.

It should help you answer the question often asked by busy people with competing demands: why should I care?

• Use the right chart for your data and your goal

The first thing to consider when visualizing data is what visual form will best communicate your insight.

At Venngage, we’ve developed the ICCOR method to help you choose the best charts for your infographic. The ICCOR method is a framework aimed to help you use a visualization type that aligns with your communication goal.

Your communication goal might be to: 

• Inform : convey a single important message or data point that doesn’t require much context to understand
• Compare : show similarities or differences among values or parts of a whole
• Show Change : visualize trends over time or space
• Organize : show groups, patterns, rank or order
• Reveal Relationships : show correlations among variables or values

Each of these different goals will be best communicated with a different type of chart.

For example, icons arrays (also called ‘pictograms’) have been shown to be more effective than bar or pie charts for communicating risk , which is particularly important for healthcare providers and public health workers who want to support good decision making in their patients.

Bar charts, on the other hand, are perfect for handling larger amounts of data and highlighting comparisons between sets of data, which might be more important for those working in finance:

For access to professional templates, and a simple editor to visualize financial information, check out: Venngage for Finance

For the full ICCOR framework, check out: How to choose the best types of charts for your data

Choosing a chart is just one part of the process. How do you actually make an impact with your data?

• Tell a story with your data to inspire your audience

A plain old bar graph won’t do much to inspire your audience. But a creative combination of charts, visuals, text, and statistics that tells a story can. 

By highlighting the right numbers and pulling in text and other visuals, you can show the impact of your organization in a more holistic way, and tell the story behind the data.

Storytelling with data is as much about crafting a narrative as it is about understanding and communicating the insights in your data. 

The first step to crafting your narrative is understanding your audience. Think about:

• What’s going on in their lives?
• What knowledge do they have on the subject?
• What context do they need from you?

Once you understand your audience, it should be easy to pull out the insights that will make an impact, and present them in an impactful way. That’s the difference between an engaging design and your standard Excel chart.

Another common practice in data storytelling is the use of icon stories to draw viewers in and make abstract ideas more concrete.

Take this report from UNICEF, for example. The simple, universal icons are combined in different ways to create and reinforce key ideas, creating an impactful report that will be memorable for readers.

• Call out key insights and action items in the data

The impact of your hard work can easily get lost in a monthly or quarterly report. 

But you can apply the design techniques typically used in infographics to make sure your efforts stand out of more traditional summative reports.

The trick is to do more with less. Get rid of data that doesn’t say anything, and emphasize the data that’s meaningful. Remove the noise to pull focus towards what’s useful.

Highlight key data points and add annotations to provide context to the most important data:

Here’s what to consider when visualizing your data and insights:

• Understand your audience and design with their knowledge in mind

Read more: Data visualization examples and best practices

If you’re not a full-time designer, one of your main concerns might be making sure your visual communications look professional. 

You want to make sure you’re producing content that elevates your brand, and inspires your colleagues, donors, and stakeholders.

Here’s what you should think about:

Establish a cohesive visual brand for any external communications

It’s critical for any growing business to establish cohesive visual branding. 

Especially for consumer-facing communications, like for your blog or social media, the quality of your visual brand signals to your customers about the quality of your organization.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to ensure your branding feels consistent. Here’s how:

• Include the same header and footer with your logo across infographics, one-pagers, reports, and flyers
• Apply your brand fonts and colors consistently across all of your collateral
• Use the same style of symbols and icons across every document

As a shortcut, you can use Venngage’s Brand Kit to add your brand logos, fonts and colors to your designs with just a few clicks.

Read more: Don’t have your brand guidelines built out yet? Learn how to choose fonts and how to pick colors for designs, first.

Repurpose and reuse designs to keep your communications consistent

Reusing and repurposing existing designs can truly be a game changer.

For one, it’ll speed up your workflow. But more importantly, it’ll ensure that you’re producing communications that are consistent and cohesive.

Did I mention yet that your communications need to be cohesive?

You can repurpose the documents you’ve created for one client or project, add different content and tweak it a bit for a new client or a different target audience, to get a ton of mileage out of a small amount of design work.

Even if you’re just creating documents to share internally, like project summaries or company newsletters, you can set yourself and your team apart by producing documents that have a consistent visual style.

The recent rapid transition to remote work has propelled visual communication from a “nice-to-have” into an integral part of communication at work. 

I hope you’ve already started thinking about how you can use visuals to amplify your communications. 

Just remember to keep these design and visual communication principles in mind:

• Use modern design and visuals to make boring information engaging and differentiate yourself from your competitors
• Simplify your information to make an impact
• Use data visualization techniques to show the value of your work
• Create designs with a cohesive visual brand and reuse them to keep your communications consistent

For help getting started with visual communication and infographics, check out this guide: How to make an infographic in 5 steps .

Discover popular designs

Infographic maker

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Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

14.2 Incorporating Effective Visuals into a Presentation

Learning objectives.

• Recognize the characteristics of effective visual aids.
• Analyze different types of visual aids and appropriate ways to use them.
• Determine how to create original visual aids and how to locate visual aids created by others.

Good communication is a multisensory experience. Children first learning how to read often gravitate toward books with engaging pictures. As adults, we graduate to denser books without pictures, yet we still visualize ideas to help us understand the text. Advertisers favor visual media—television, magazines, and billboards—because they are the best way to hook an audience. Websites rely on color, graphics, icons, and a clear system of visual organization to engage Internet surfers.

Bringing visuals into a presentation adds color, literally and figuratively. There is an art to doing it well. This section covers how to use different kinds of visual aids effectively.

Using Visual Aids: The Basics

Good writers make conscious choices. They understand their purpose and audience. Every decision they make on the page, from organizing an essay to choosing a word with just the right connotations, is made with their purpose and audience in mind.

The same principle applies to visual communication. As a presenter, you choose the following:

• When to show images or video for maximum impact
• Which images will best produce the effect you want
• When to present information using a table, chart, or other graphic
• How much text to include in slides or informational graphics
• How to organize graphics so they present information clearly

Your goal is to use visual media to support and enhance your presentation. At the same time, you must make sure these media do not distract your audience or interfere with getting your point across. Your ideas, not your visuals, should be the focus.

As you develop the visual side of your presentation, you will follow a process much like the process you follow when you write. You will brainstorm ideas, form an organizational plan, develop drafts, and then refine and edit your work. The following sections provide guidelines to help you make good decisions throughout the process.

What Makes Visual Aids Effective?

To help you get a sense of what makes visual media work, think about what does not work. Try to recall occasions when you have witnessed the following visual media failures:

• Websites crammed with so many images, flashing phrases, and clashing colors that they are almost unreadable
• Assembly instructions with illustrations or diagrams that are impossible to follow
• Photographs that are obviously (and badly) altered with photo-editing software
• Distracting typos or other errors in signs, advertisements, or headlines
• Tables, charts, or graphs with tiny, dense text or missing labels

In each case, the problem is that the media creator did not think carefully enough about the purpose and audience. The purpose of images, color, or flashing text on a website is to attract attention. Overusing these elements defeats the purpose because the viewer may become overwhelmed or distracted. Tables, charts, and graphs are intended to simplify complex information, but without clear labels and legible text, they will confuse the audience.

In contrast, effective visual elements are chosen or created with the purpose and audience in mind. Although a photo shoot for a magazine article might result in dozens of images, editors choose those few that work best with the article. Web designers and video game creators have an audience test their products before they are released, to ensure that people will understand how to use them. Understanding the function of different visual aids will help you use them with purpose.

Types of Visual Aids

Visual aids fall into two main categories—images and informational graphics. Images include photographs, illustrations and clip art, and video footage. Informational graphics include tables, charts, bar graphs, and line graphs.

These visual aids serve two purposes: to add emotional impact to your presentation and to organize information more clearly. With that in mind, read to find out how specific types of visual aids achieve those purposes.

Photographs

A striking photograph can capture your audience’s attention far more successfully than words can. Consider including photographs at the beginning or end of your presentation to emphasize your main ideas or to accompany a particularly important point in the body of your presentation. Remember that, as with other types of graphics, less is often more. Two or three well-chosen photographs are more effective than a dozen mediocre ones.

When you choose photographs, ask yourself these questions:

• What purpose does this image serve? Will it surprise the audience? Will it provoke a strong emotional response? Does it support an important point?
• Will this photograph be more effective if shown with only a caption, or does it need additional text?
• Will the audience understand what is happening in the photograph? Is the meaning immediately evident, or does the photo need some context?
• Would editing the image make it more effective? Consider using image-editing software to crop the photo, change the brightness, or make other cosmetic changes. (Do not go overboard, though. A slightly imperfect but authentic image is preferable to one that has been obviously altered.)

To illustrate the sense of helplessness people felt in the midst of tragedy, a student could use a photograph that shows fear, weariness, or defeat on the face of the photograph’s subject.

Figure 14.3

Neil Moralee – On The Scrap Heap . – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Illustrations

Illustrations, such as editorial or political cartoons, serve much the same purpose as photographs. Because an illustration does not capture a moment in time the way a photo does, it may have less impact. However, depending on your topic and the effect you want to achieve, illustrations can still be very useful. Use the same criteria for choosing photographs to help you choose illustrations.

Figure 14.4

Humor Blog – Political Cartoon about Budget Cuts – CC BY 2.0.

The style of an illustration or photograph affects viewers just as the content does. Keep this in mind if you are working with the stock images available in office software programs. Many of these images have a comical tone. This may be fine for some topics—for instance, a presentation on television shows for children. However, if you need to project a more serious tone, make sure you choose images to suit that purpose. Many free (or reasonably priced) image banks are available online.

Video Footage

Even more than photographs, video footage can create a sense of immediacy, especially if your video includes sound. Showing a brief video clip can help your audience feel as if they are present at an important event, connect with a person being interviewed, or better understand a process. Again, ask yourself the following questions to ensure you are using the footage well:

• What purpose does this video serve? (Never rely on video clips just to fill time.)
• How much footage should be shown to achieve your purpose?
• What will need to be explained, before or after showing the video, to ensure that your audience understands its significance?
• Will it be necessary to edit the video to stay within time requirements or to focus on the most important parts?

Informational graphics, such as tables, charts, and graphs, do not provoke the same response that images do. Nevertheless, these graphics can have a powerful impact. Their primary purpose is to organize and simplify information.

Tables are effective when you must classify information and organize it in categories. Tables are an especially good choice when you are presenting qualitative data that are not strictly numerical. Table 14.1 “Example of Qualitative Data Table” was created for a presentation discussing the subprime mortgage crisis. It presents information about people who have held powerful positions both in the government and at one of the investment banking firms involved in the subprime mortgage market.

Table 14.1 Example of Qualitative Data Table

Sources: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/%3Bkw=%5B3351,11459%5D ; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19gold.html ; http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/henry_m_jr_paulson/index.html?inline=nyt-per ; http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/robert_e_rubin/index.html?inline=nyt-per , http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/us/man-in-the-news-economic-adviser-from-other-side-of-the-deficit-stephen-friedman.html ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/342086.stm .

If you are working with numerical information, consider whether a pie chart, bar graph, or line graph might be an effective way to present the content. A table can help you organize numerical information, but it is not the most effective way to emphasize contrasting data or to show changes over time.

Pie charts are useful for showing numerical information in percentages. For example, you can use a pie chart to represent presidential election results by showing what percentage of voters voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, the Republican candidate, and candidates from other political parties.

Figure 14.5

Source: http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2008/2008presgeresults.pdf

Bar graphs work well when you want to show similarities and differences in numerical data. Horizontal or vertical bars help viewers compare data from different groups, different time periods, and so forth. For instance, the bar graph in Figure 14.6 allows the viewer to compare data on the five countries that have won the most Olympic medals since the modern games began in 1924: Norway, the United States, the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Austria. Bar graphs can effectively show trends or patterns in data as well.

Figure 14.6

Source: http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/all-time-standings/index.html

Line Graphs

Like bar graphs, line graphs show trends in data. Line graphs are usually used to show trends in data over time. For example, the line graph in Figure 14.7 shows changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average—an economic index based on trading information about thirty large, US-based public companies. This graph shows where the Dow closed at the end of each business day over a period of five days.

Figure 14.7

Source: http://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&startdate=May+17%2C+2010&enddate=May+21%2C+2010

In this exercise, you will begin to refine your ideas for incorporating media into your presentation. Complete the following steps on your own sheet of paper.

• Revisit the list you brainstormed for Note 14.12 “Exercise 3” in Chapter 14 “Creating Presentations: Sharing Your Ideas” , Section 14.1 “Organizing a Visual Presentation” and the annotated outline you developed for Note 14.17 “Exercise 4” .
• Analyze the two different types of visual aids: images and informational graphics. Identify at least two places in your presentation where you might incorporate visual aids.
• Evaluate the purpose of the visual aid. Does it create emotional impact, or does it organize information? Is the visual effective?
• Determine whether you will be able to create the visual aid yourself or will need to find it.

Creating Original Visual Aids

You will include original visual aids in your presentation to add interest, present complex information or data more clearly, or appeal to your audience’s emotions. You may wish to create some visual aids by hand—for instance, by mounting photographs on poster board for display. More likely, however, you will use computer-generated graphics.

Computer-generated visual aids are easy to create once you learn how to use certain office software. They also offer greater versatility. You can print hard copies and display them large or include them in a handout for your audience. Or, if you are working with presentation software, you can simply insert the graphics in your slides.

Regardless of how you proceed, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Create visual aids with purpose. Think carefully about how they will enhance your message, and choose a form that is appropriate for your content.
• Strive for quality. You do not need the skills of a professional photographer or designer, but do take time to make sure your visual aids are neat, attractive, and legible. Proofread for errors, too.

Using Software to Create Visual Aids

You can use standard office software to create simple graphics easily. The following guidelines describe how to work with word-processing software and presentation software.

Working with Photographs

Most personal computers come equipped with some basic image-editing software, and many people choose to purchase more advanced programs as well. You can upload photographs from a digital camera (or in some cases, a cell phone) or scan and upload printed photographs. The images can then be edited and incorporated into your presentation. Be sure to save all of your images in one folder for easy access.

Creating Tables

To create a table within a word-processing document consult your software program’s help feature or an online tutorial. Once you have created the table, you can edit and make any additional changes. Be sure that the table has no more than six to seven rows or columns because you do not want to compromise the size of the text or the readability. Aligning with precision will help your table look less crowded. Also, the row and column titles should spell out their contents.

Creating Graphs

Figure 14.8

Pie charts and bar and line graphs can also be created using standard office software. Although you can create these graphics within a document, you will need to work with both your word-processing application and your spreadsheet application to do so. The graph should visually explain the data using colors, titles, and labels. The use of color will help the audience distinguish information; however, avoid colors that are hard on the eyes, such as lime green or hot pink. The title should clearly state what the graph explains. Lastly, avoid using acronyms in the titles and other labels.

Creating Graphics in an Electronic Presentation

If you plan to work only with hard copy graphics during your presentation, you may choose to create them as word-processing documents. However, if you are using presentation software, you will need to choose one of the following options:

• Create your graphics using the presentation software program.
• Create your graphics within another program and import them.

Standard office presentation software allows you to create informational graphics in much the same way you would create them within a word-processing application. Keep the formatting palette, a menu option that allows you to customize the graphic, open while you use the software. The formatting menu provides options for inserting other types of graphics, such as pictures and video. You may insert pictures from an image bank available within the program, or insert images or video from your own desktop files. Shape your use of multimedia in accordance with the message your presentation is trying to convey, the purpose, and your audience.

Creating Visual Aids by Hand

Most of the time, using computer-generated graphics is more efficient than creating them by hand. Using office software programs helps give your graphics a polished appearance while also teaching you skills that are useful in a variety of jobs. However, it may make sense to use hand-created visual aids in some cases—for instance, when showing a 3-D model would be effective. If you follow this route, be sure to devote extra time to making sure your visual aids are neat, legible, and professional.

Flip charts are inexpensive and quick visual aids used during face-to-face presentations. The flip chart can be prepared before, as well as during, the presentation. Each sheet of paper should contain one theme, idea, or sketch and must be penned in large letters to be seen by audience members farthest away from the speaker.

Writing Captions

Any media you incorporate should include a caption or other explanatory text. A caption is a brief, one- to two-sentence description or explanation of a visual image. Make sure your captions are clear, accurate, and to the point. Use full sentences when you write them.

Captions should always be used with photographs, and in some cases, they can be useful for clarifying informational graphics, which represent qualitative data visually. However, informational graphics may not require a caption if the title and labels are sufficiently clear. For other visual media, such as video footage, providing explanatory text before or after the footage will suffice. The important thing is to make sure you always include some explanation of the media.

In this exercise, you will begin to develop visual aids for your presentation. Complete the steps in this exercise—and enjoy the chance to be creative. Working with visuals can be a pleasant way to take a break from the demands of writing.

• Revisit the ideas you developed in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Choose at least two ideas that you can create. ( Note: If you are using software to develop a slideshow presentation, count this as one of your self-created visual aids. Include at least one other self-created visual aid, such as an original photograph, within your slideshow.)
• Get creative! Take your photographs, construct a 3-D model, create informational graphics, or work on your presentation slides. Develop good working drafts.
• After you have completed drafts of your visual aids, set them aside for a while. Then revisit them with a critical eye. First, check any text included with the graphic. Make sure your facts are correct, your words are clear and concise, and your language is free of errors.
• Next, evaluate how well your aids work visually. Are they large enough to be seen and read from a distance? Are captions and labels easy to find? Are photographs of reasonably high quality? Ask someone else for feedback, too.
• Begin making any needed changes. As you proceed through the rest of this section, continue to revisit your work to improve it as needed.

Collaboration

Please share the first version of your visual aids with a classmate. Examine what they have produced. On a separate piece of paper, note both the elements that catch your attention and those that would benefit from clarification. Return and compare notes.

Testing and Evaluating Visual Aids

Regardless of how you create your visual aids, be sure to test-drive them before you deliver your presentation. Edit and proofread them, and if possible, show them to someone who can give you objective feedback. Use the following checklist.

Checklist 14.1

Visual Aid Evaluation Checklist

• Visual aids are clearly integrated with the content of the presentation
• Photographs and illustrations suit the overall tone of the presentation
• Images and text are large and clear enough for the viewer to see or read
• Images are shown with explanatory text or a caption
• Informational graphics include clear, easy-to-read labels and headings
• Text within informational graphics is easy to read (Watch out for wordiness and crowded text or a font that is too small and hard to read.)
• Formatting choices (color, different fonts, etc.) organize information effectively
• Any text within graphics is free of errors
• Hyperlinks within slides function properly
• Display text for hyperlinks is concise and informative (Never paste a link into a slide without modifying the display text.)

Writing at Work

Office software includes many options for personalizing a presentation. For instance, you can choose or create a theme and color scheme, modify how one slide transitions to the next, or even include sound effects. With so many options, students and employees sometimes get carried away. The result can seem amateurish and detract from, rather than enhance, your presentation.

Remember, you are delivering a presentation, not producing a movie. Use the customization options to help give your presentations a consistent, polished, appearance. However, do not let these special effects detract from the substance of your slides.

Using Existing Visual Media

Depending on your topic, you may be able to find images and other graphics you can use instead of creating your own. For instance, you might use photographs from a reputable news source or informational graphics created by a government agency. If you plan to use visual aids created by others, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Set a purpose before you begin your search. You will search more efficiently if you start with a general idea of what you are looking for—a line graph of unemployment rates for the past twelve months, for example, or a video clip of the most recent State of the Union address.
• Filter out visual aids that are not relevant. You may come across eye-catching graphics and be tempted to use them even if they are only loosely related to your topic, simply because they are attention getting. Resist the temptation. If the graphic is not clearly connected to your point, it does not belong in your presentation.
• Read carefully. In addition to reading labels, headings, and captions, read any text that accompanies the visual. Make sure you understand the visual in its original context. For informational graphics, make sure you understand exactly what information is being represented. (This may seem obvious, but it is easy to misread graphic information. Take the time to examine it carefully.)
• Evaluate sources carefully and record source information. When you look for visual media to complement your presentation, you are conducting research. Apply the same standards you used for your research paper. Choose reliable sources, such as reputable news organizations, government and nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions. Verify data in additional sources. Finally, be sure to document all source information as you proceed.

Searching Efficiently for Visual Media

You will probably find it most efficient to use the Internet to search for visual aids. Many students begin by typing keywords into a search engine to locate related images. However, this search technique is not necessarily efficient, for several reasons:

• It often pulls up hundreds or even thousands of images, which may be only loosely related to your search terms.
• It can sometimes be difficult to understand the image in its original context.
• It can be hard to find copyright information about how you may use the image.

A more efficient strategy is to identify a few sources that are likely to have what you are looking for, and then search within those sites. For instance, if you need a table showing average life expectancy in different countries, you might begin with the website of the World Health Organization. If you hope to find images related to current events, news publications are an obvious choice. The Library of Congress website includes many media related to American history, culture, and politics.

Searching this way has the following advantages:

• You will often find what you are looking for faster because you are not wasting time scrolling through many irrelevant results.
• If you have chosen your sources well, you can be reasonably certain that you are getting accurate, up-to-date information.
• Images and informational graphics produced by reputable sources are likely to be high quality—easy to read and well designed.

If you do choose to use a search engine to help you locate visual media, make sure you use it wisely. Begin with a clear idea of what you are looking for. Use the advanced search settings to narrow your search. When you locate a relevant image, do not download it immediately. Read the page or site to make sure you understand the image in context. Finally, read the site’s copyright or terms of use policy—usually found at the bottom of the home page—to make sure you may use the material.

If you are unable to find what you are looking for on the Internet consider using print sources of visual media. You may choose to mount these for display or scan them and incorporate the files into an electronic presentation. (Scanning printed pages may lower the quality of the image. However, if you are skilled at using photo-editing software, you may be able to improve the quality of the scanned image.)

Inserting Hyperlinks in an Electronic Presentation

If you are working with images, audio, or video footage available online, you may wish to insert a link within your presentation. Then, during your presentation, you can simply click the link to open the website in a separate window and toggle between windows to return to your presentation slides.

To insert a hyperlink within your presentation, click on insert in the toolbar and then select hyperlink from the menu. Doing so will open a dialogue box where you can paste your link and modify the accompanying display text shown on your slide.

Copyright and Fair Use

Before you download (or scan) any visual media, make sure you have the right to use it. Most websites state their copyright and terms of use policy on their home page. In general, you may not use other people’s visual media for any commercial purpose without contacting the copyright holder to obtain permission and pay any specified fees.

Copyright restrictions are somewhat more ambiguous when you wish to download visual media for educational uses. Some educational uses of copyrighted materials are generally considered fair use —meaning that it is legally and ethically acceptable to use the material in your work. However, do not assume that because you are using the media for an educational purpose, you are automatically in the clear. Make sure your work meets the guidelines in the following checklist. If it does, you can be reasonably confident that it would be considered fair use in a court of law and always give credit to the source.

Checklist 14.2

Media Fair Use Checklist

• You are using the media for educational purposes only.
• You will make the work available only for a short period and to a limited audience. For instance, showing a copyrighted image in a classroom presentation is acceptable. Posting a presentation with copyrighted images online is problematic. In addition, avoid any uses that would allow other people to easily access and reproduce the work.
• You have used only as much of the work as needed for your purposes. For video and audio footage, limit your use to no more than 10 percent of the media—five minutes of an hour-long television show, for example. Image use is harder to quantify, but you should avoid using many images from the same source.
• You are using the media to support your own ideas, not replace them. Your use should include some commentary or place the media in context. It should be a supporting player in your presentation—not the star of the show.
• You have obtained the material legally. Purchase the media if necessary rather than using illegally pirated material.
• Your use of the media will not affect the copyright holder or benefit you financially.

By following these guidelines, you are respecting the copyright holder’s right to control the distribution of the work and to profit from it.

In some fields, such as teaching, job applicants often submit a professional portfolio to a prospective employer. Recent college graduates may include relevant course work in their portfolios or in applications to graduate school. What should you do if your course work uses copyrighted visual media?

This use of media is acceptable according to fair use guidelines. Even though you are using the work for your personal professional advancement, it is not considered an infringement on copyright as long as you follow the additional guidelines listed in the previous checklist.

Crediting Sources

As you conduct your research, make sure you document sources as you proceed. Follow the guidelines when you download images, video, or other media from the Internet or capture media from other sources. Keep track of where you accessed the media and where you can find additional information about it. You may also provide a references page at the end of the presentation to cite not only media and images but also the information in the text of your presentation. See Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” for more information on creating a reference page.

Write captions or other explanatory text for visual media created by others, just as you would for media you created. Doing so helps keep your audience informed. It also helps ensure that you are following fair use guidelines by presenting the media with your commentary, interpretation, or analysis. In your caption or elsewhere in your presentation, note the source of any media you did not create yourself. You do not need to provide a full bibliographical citation, but do give credit where it is due.

In this exercise, you will locate visual aids created by others and continue developing the work you began earlier. Complete these steps.

1. Revisit the ideas you developed in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Choose at least two ideas for which it would make more sense to find the visual aid than to create it yourself. 2. Use the search tips provided in this section to locate at least two visual aids from reputable sources that you can use. Prepare them for your presentation by adding clarifying text as needed. Be sure to credit your source. 3. Incorporate the visual aids you created in Note 14.26 “Exercise 2” and Note 14.32 “Exercise 3” into your presentation. This may involve preparing physical copies for display or inserting graphic files into an electronic presentation.

4. Take some time now to review how you will integrate the visual and verbal components of your presentation.

• If you are working with presentation software, refine your slides. Make sure the visual approach is consistent and suits your topic. Give your text a final proofread.
• If you are not using presentation software, review the annotated outline you created in Note 14.24 “Exercise 1” . Update it as needed to reflect your current plan. Also, determine how you will physically set up your visual aids.

Key Takeaways

• Visual aids are most effective when they are chosen with the purpose and audience in mind. They serve to add emotional impact to a presentation and to organize information more clearly.
• Visual aids should always be clearly related to the presenter’s ideas. Captions, labels, and other explanatory text help make the connection clear for the audience.
• Like writing, developing the visual components of a presentation is a process. It involves generating ideas, working with them in a draft format, and then revising and editing one’s work.
• Visual aids can be divided into two broad categories—image-based media and informational graphics.
• Widely available software programs make it relatively easy to create visual aids electronically, such as photo images, charts, and graphs.
• When using visual aids created by others, it is important to apply good research skills, follow guidelines for fair use, and credit sources appropriately.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• Interactive Presentation

2024's Must-See Visual Presentation Examples to Power Up Your Deck

Anh Vu • 05 April, 2024 • 8 min read

Keep on reading because these visual presentation examples will blow your boring decks away! For many people, delivering a presentation is a daunting project, even before it turns to hybrid and virtual displays due to the pandemic. To avoid the Death By PowerPoint phenomenon, it is time to adopt new techniques to make your presentations more visual and impressive.

This article tries to encourage you to think outside of the slide by providing essential elements of a successful visual presentation, especially for the new presenter and those who want to save time, money, and effort for the upcoming presentation deadline.

Table of Contents

What is a visual presentation.

• Types of Visual Presentation Examples

How to Create a Visual Presentation

• What Makes a Good Presentation Visual?

Frequently Asked Questions

How ahaslides supports a good visual presentation.

As mentioned before, you need a presentation tool to make your presentation more visual and engaging. The art of leveraging visual elements is all intended visual aids make sense and kick off audiences' imagination, curiosity, and interest from the entire presentation.

The easiest way to create interaction between the presenter and the audience is by asking for rhetorical and thought-provoking quizzes and quick surveys during the presentation. AhaSlides , with a range of live polls , live Q&A , word clouds >, interactive questions, image questions, creative fonts, and integration with streaming platforms can help you to make a good visual presentation in just a second.

• Types of Presentation
• College Presentation
• Creative Presentation Ideas
• AhaSlides Free Public Templates

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So, what are the visual presentation examples? When providing as much information as possible, many presenters think that text-heavy slides may help, but by contrast, they may lead to distraction. As we explore the characteristics of good presentations, illustrations and graphics play an important role in delivering compelling content and turning complex concepts more clearly, precisely, and instantly to understand. A visual presentation is the adoption of a range of visual aids on presentation to ensure information is easier to understand and memorize. 

In addition, visual aids can also help to keep presenters on track, which can be used as a cue for reviving a train of thought. They build better interaction and communication between presenters and the audience, making them notice more deeply what you are saying.

Types of Visual Presentation Examples 

Some possible visual presentations include infographics , charts, diagrams, posters, flipcharts, idea board , whiteboards, and video presentation examples. 

An infographic is a collection of different graphic visual presentations to represent information, data, or knowledge intended more visually quickly and clearly to grab the audience's attention.

To illustrate quantitative data effectively, it is important to make use of graphs and charts. For both business use and research use, graphs and charts can show multiple and complex data in a way that is easy to understand and memory.

When it comes to presenting information systematically and logically, you can use diagrams. A diagram is a powerful tool for effective communication and brainstorming processes. It also is time-saving for people to read and collect information.

A poster, especially a research project poster, provides brief and concrete information about a research paper straightforwardly. The audiences can grab all important data knowledge and findings through posters. 

A flipchart and whiteboard are the most basic presentation aids and work best to supplement lecture slides. Excellent whiteboard and flipchart composite of well-chosen words, and clear diagram will help to explain complex concepts.

A video presentation is not a new concept, it is a great way to spread ideas lively and quickly attract the audience's attention. The advantages of a video presentation lie in its animation and illustration concepts, fascinating sound effects, and user-friendliness. 

In addition, we can add many types of visual aids in the presentations as long as they can give shapes and form words or thoughts into visual content. Most popular visual aids include graphs, statistics, charts, and diagrams that should be noted in your mind. These elements combined with verbal are a great way to engage the listeners’ imagination and also emphasize vital points more memorable.

It is simply to create more visual presentations than you think. With the development of technology and the internet, you can find visual presentation examples and templates for a second. PowerPoint is a good start, but there are a variety of quality alternatives, such as AhaSlides , Keynote, and Prezi.

When it comes to designing an effective visual presentation, you may identify some key steps beforehand:

Visual Presentation Examples - Focus on Your Topic

Firstly, you need to determine your purpose and understand your audience's needs. If you are going to present in a seminar with your audience of scientists, engineers, business owners… They are likely to care about data under simple charts and graphs, which explain the results or trends. Or if you are going to give a lecture for secondary students, your slides should be something fun and interesting, with more colourful pictures and interactive questions.

Visual Presentation Examples - Animation and Transition

When you want to add a bit of excitement to a slideshow and help to keep the listener more engaged, you use animation and transition. These functions help to shift the focus of audiences between elements on slides. When the transition style and setting are set right, it can help to give fluidity and professionalism to a slideshow.

Visual Presentation Examples - Devices for Interactivity

One of the approaches that improve communication between audiences and the use of visual aids is using technology assistance. You don’t want to take too much time to create well-designed visual aids while ensuring your presentation is impressive, so why not leverage a presentation app like AhaSlides ? It properly encourages participant engagement with interactive visual features and templates and is time-saving. With its help, you can design your presentation either formally or informally depending on your interest.

Visual Presentation Examples - Give an Eye-catching Title

Believe it or not, the title is essential to attracting audiences at first sight. Though don’t “read the book by its cover”, you still can put your thoughts into a unique title that conveys the topic while piquing the viewer’s interest. 

Visual Presentation Examples - Play a Short Video

Creative video presentation ideas are always important. “Videos evoke emotional responses”, it will be a mistake if you don’t leverage short videos with sound to reel in and captivate the audience's attention. You can put the video at the beginning of the presentation as a brief introduction to your topic, or you can play it as a supplement to explain difficult concepts. 

Visual Presentation Examples - Use a Prop or Creative Visual Aid to Inject Humour

It is challenging to keep your audience interested and engaged with your audience from the whole presentation. It is why to add a prop or creative visual aid to pull your audience's focus on what you say. Here are some ideas to cover it:

• Use neon colour and duotones
• Tell a personal story
• Show a shocking heading
• Use isometric illustrations
• Go vertical

Visual Presentation Examples - Rehearsal and Get Feedback

It is an important step to make your visual presentation really work out. You won’t know any unexpected mirrors may come out on D-day if you don’t make the rehearsal and get feedback from a reliable source. If they say that your visual image is in bad-quality, the data is overwhelming, or the pictures are misunderstood, you can have an alternative plan in advance.

What Makes a Good Visual Presentation?

Incorporate visual or audio media appropriately. Ensure you arrange and integrate suitable data presentation in your slides or videos. You can read the guidelines for visual aids applications in the following:

• Choose a readable text size about the slide room and text spacing in about 5-7 doubted-spaced.
• Use consistent colour for overall presentation, visual aids work better in white yellow and blue backgrounds.
• Take care of data presentation, and avoid oversimplification or too much detail.
• Keep the data shown minimum and highlight really important data points only.
• Choose font carefully, keep in mind that lowercase is easier to read than uppercase
• Don’t mix fonts.
• Printed text is easier to read than handwritten text.
• Use the visual to emphasize punctuation in your verbal presentation.
• Say no to poor-quality images or videos.
• Visual elements need to be strategic and relevant.

What well-designed visual aids should have?

To make an effective visual aid, you must follow principles of design, including contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity.

Why is it important to keep visual aids simple?

Simple ads help to keep things clear and understandable, so the message can be communicated effectively.

What is the purpose of visual aids in the classroom?

To encourage the learning process and make it easier and more interesting so students would want to engage in lessons more.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

More from AhaSlides

Effective presentations: How visual aids reinforce your message

1. Instantly turn complexity into simplicity

• show change processes
• point out a problem
• explain the processes used in the presentation
• create enthusiasm for a product launch
• introduce people
• communicate corporate values
• present experience reports

2. Diagrams to support facts

• Building up the diagrams piece by piece adds to the suspense and gets you thinking along with it.
• Diagrams over time help us put the facts in a chronological context.
• Contrasting diagrams adds context by focusing on the impact of the information.

3. Using memes as a way to lighten the mood

• They make the audience feel close to them.
• They produce the same reaction in everyone
• They lighten the mood
• They bring the lecture back into focus.
• They set the stage for the next few points.
• They show us a common issue that we all face.

4. Before and after pictures for direct reactions

• what the company logo looked like before and now,
• how website views have changed since change X,
• how much better the sales figures are since point Y was changed in the ad,
• how bureaucratic a process was yesterday and how digital and automated it is today.

5. Let the text speak for itself

Conclusion: visual aids deepen the message of every presentation, see related articles.

How reducing complexity helps us understand the world

Tips for keeping the audience engaged in video presentations

5 tips for creating explainer videos that wow your audience

Get started with simpleshow today.

• Open access
• Published: 10 September 2024

Mirror, mirror on my screen: Focus on self-presentation on social media is associated with perfectionism and disordered eating among adolescents. Results from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study

• Hilde Einarsdatter Danielsen 1 , 2 ,
• Turi Reiten Finserås 1 ,
• Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen 1 ,
• Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland 1 , 3 ,
• Vivian Woodfin 2 , 4 &
• Jens Christoffer Skogen 1 , 3 , 5  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  2466 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

135 Accesses

Metrics details

Social media use, perfectionism, and disordered eating have all increased over the last decades. Some studies indicate that there is a relationship between self-presentation behaviors and being exposed to others’ self-presentation on social media, and disordered eating. Studies also show that the relationship between focus on self-presentation and highly visual social media is stronger than for non-visual social media, hence facilitating upward social comparison. Nevertheless, no previous studies have investigated the link between adolescents’ focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, and perfectionism and disordered eating, which is the aim of the present study.

The present study is based on a cross-sectional survey from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study ( N  = 3424), conducted in 2020 and 2021. Respondents were high school students (mean age 17.3 years, 56% females) in Bergen, Norway. Multiple regression analysis was performed, where SPAUSCIS, a measure of self-presentation and upward social comparison, was the independent variable. Perfectionism and disordered eating were dependent variables. Self-reported age, gender, and subjective socioeconomic status were used as covariates, as well as frequency and duration of social media use. Regression models were performed to compare proportions across the median split of SPAUSCIS.

The multiple regression analysis showed that increased focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media were positively associated with both perfectionism (standardized coefficient 0.28) and disordered eating. A stronger association for girls than boys was found for disordered eating (standardized coefficient 0.39 for girls and 0.29 for boys). There was no gender moderation for perfectionism.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media is associated with perfectionism and disordered eating. We recommend promoting a healthy use of social media. This could be established by increasing adolescents’ ability to reflect on and think critically about self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Growing up today means growing up in a highly digitalized world where social media and online communication plays an important role in adolescents’ lives. Social media can be defined as “highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content” [ 1 , pp. 241]. Previous studies have largely focused on the temporal aspects of social media use, and some studies indicate that social media use is associated with more mental health problems and decreased well-being [ 2 ]. For example, there are reports that more time spent on social media is associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety [ 3 , 4 ], sleep issues [ 3 , 5 ], and body dissatisfaction [ 6 ]. However, not all research confirms these associations [ 7 , 8 ], and recent studies have indicated that the observed link between time spent on social media and mental health is too small to be of practical importance [ 9 ]. A recent longitudinal study found time spent on social media to be the least important factor in relation to adolescent mental health [ 10 ]. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing and almost ubiquitous concern regarding social media’s potential negative effect on mental health. Considering this, it is increasingly recognized that it is important to investigate more than adolescents’ time spent on social media, such as their usage patterns. After all, social media offers a range of opportunities, such as seeking out like-minded others or specific topics and inspiration, for example, for food, fitness, and a healthy lifestyle. Although inspirational hashtags and pictures may be positive to many adolescents, they also frequently present a “perfect” lifestyle and some of them could even be considered unhealthy inspirations.

• Self-presentation

Self-presentation on social media has been highlighted as potentially important in connection with mental health and well-being among adolescents [e.g. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Baumeister & Hutton [ 15 ] defined self-presentation as an individual practice related to how one presents oneself to others, motivated by a wish to make a socially desirable impression on others, and simultaneously, stay true to one’s beliefs and ideals. On social media, self-presentation may include presenting and sharing self-made content, posting of personal opinions, sharing online content of interest, and “selfies” and pictures [ 14 , 16 ]. An American report noted that adolescents are more engaged in self-presentation activities on social media than any other age group [ 17 ]. As increased independence from parents is an important developmental milestone for adolescents, external validation from others may be particularly important for this age group [ 18 ]. Feedback on social media posts through likes and comments, may therefore be an important source of external validation from peers. Considering this, it is likely that many adolescents put great importance on how they present themselves on social media. In addition, social media is a suitable arena for self-presenting activities, as it gives the adolescent control over what, when and how to present themselves on the platform of their choosing [ 12 ]. Functions such as likes, comments, followers [ 19 ], and other measures of engagement, which are implemented on many social media platforms in one form or another, give ample opportunity for immediate feedback on posted content. Hence, this provides cues of social desirability and direction to align future social media posts with how the adolescents prefer to present themselves on these platforms [ 12 ]. These features of social media, in addition to the ability to reach a large and varied audience, may serve to facilitate self-presentation [ 20 ].

Self-presentation behaviors [e.g. 13 , 14 ] on social media are closely connected to focus on self-presentatio n [ 12 , 21 , 22 ]. Focus on self-presentation consist of caring about how you present yourself on social media, e.g., retouching pictures before posting them, caring about having a nice social media feed or striving for positive feedback on your social media posts, and can be independent of how much or how often a person post something [ 12 , 21 ]. As such, focus on self-presentation differs from self-presentation behaviors, which have been more extensively researched [e.g. 13 , 14 ]. A study showed that many adolescents have a desire to focus less on their self-presentation on social media, but that they think it is hard to resist the pressure of having a good feed and receiving positive feedback such as likes, comments, and followers [ 23 ]. A higher focus on self-presentation has been linked to the use of highly visual social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, rather than less visual platforms [ 12 ].

Likewise, use of social media has been linked to more social comparison, and in particular upward social comparison [ 24 , 25 ]. Social comparison is the propensity to compare one’s characteristics to other people to obtain information about how we are doing relative to others [ 26 ]. Upward social comparison occurs when one compares oneself to someone perceived as better or with higher status than oneself, which may be especially prevailing on social media. One study found that social media users mostly presume that other users have better lives than themselves [ 27 ]. Moreover, following a large number of people on social media increases the reference group to which adolescents compare themselves, and may include high-status people like “influencers” and celebrities [ 28 ]. Upward social comparison has been reported to be associated with more negative feelings such as depression and lower life satisfaction [ 11 , 29 ], and more body dissatisfaction [ 30 ]. Hawes et al. [ 31 ] also found that preoccupation with appearance comparison on social media was linked to symptoms of anxiety and depression among adolescents. Thus, while self-presentation on social media may not be harmful, feedback-seeking and upward social comparison may be damaging to mental health.

• Perfectionism

In addition to being a central period for self-presentation activities, adolescence seems to be a particularly susceptible period for the development of perfectionism. Perfectionism is a personality disposition that may be defined as the tendency to set unrealistically high performance standards and striving for flawlessness [ 32 ]. Perfectionism is thought to be a disposition largely consolidated in adolescence as a part of a general identity formation [ 18 ].

Over the last 30 years, there has been an increase in perfectionistic personality traits among young adults [ 33 ]. Curran & Hill [ 33 ] hypothesize that this might be a consequence of the rise of a competitive cultural trend, and also the advent of social media in young peoples’ lives. As social media gives adolescents control over how they self-present, social media also allows them to create a (highly) specific and “ideal” image of themselves. Considering these perspectives, Curran & Hill [ 33 ] suggest that young people perceive their social context as more demanding and subsequently believe others will evaluate them more harshly. An experimental study investigating the effect of selfie taking and posting on social media on women’s mood and body image, concluded that the psychological states subsequent of posting the selfies, was related to self-consciousness and/or fear of being negatively evaluated [ 14 ]. Thus, adolescents of today may to a larger extent strive for perfectionistic self-presentation in order to secure acceptance among peers than older generations. Hewitt et al. [ 34 ] suggested the concept of perfectionistic self-presentation and argued that this is a maladaptive self-presentation style. One facet of perfectionistic self-presentation is perfectionistic self-promotion, which includes proclaiming and displaying one’s perfection [ 34 ]. Through features such as likes, comments and followers, social media may be a key arena for perfectionistic self-presentation and self-promotion, and hence a way of seeking external validation and approval in a socially acceptable way among adolescents.

A study found that perfectionistic concerns predicted longitudinal change in self-presentation and that perfectionistic self-presentation was linked to decreased well-being [ 35 ]. Hence, perfectionistic concerns indirectly affected subjective well-being through self-presentation [ 35 ]. Perfectionistic self-presentation also predicted changes in both positive and negative affect [ 35 ]. In a meta-analysis, perfectionism was found to be positively associated to different psychological disorders and symptoms, including body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders [ 36 ].

• Disordered eating

Previous research has linked disordered eating to self-presentation [ 25 ] and to perfectionism [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. A person with disordered eating will be obsessed with food and have constant thoughts about eating, body shape, weight, and food. Symptoms of disordered eating above a certain level may constitute an eating disorder according to the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5th Ed.) [ 39 ] and the International Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders (ICD-10) [ 40 ]. A meta-analysis reported that over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in the weighted means of point eating disorder prevalence from 3.5% for the years 2000–2006 to 7.5% for the years 2013–2018 [ 41 ]. The prevalence for eating disorder was consistently higher among women compared to men regardless of timeframe (lifetime, 12-months, point prevalence). In the same meta-analysis, the authors also stressed the finding that eating disorders are highly prevalent in adolescence, with an estimated point prevalence between 6% and 8% [ 41 ].

As a great deal of content on social media promotes pictures of healthy food, diets, exercise, and appearance-focused images and idealized bodies, concerns have been raised that social media may contribute to body image concerns and disordered eating, especially among adolescents [ 42 , 43 ]. A systematic review, conducted by Holland & Tiggemann [ 43 ] showed that exposure to content on Facebook, in particular photo-based activity, was positively associated with negative body image and disordered eating behaviours in children, adolescents, and young adults. Another study found similar results; more exposure to appearance-related pictures on Facebook was associated with self-objectification, weight dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and drive for thinness among girls [ 44 ].

Similarly, research indicates that exposure to others’ “perfect” self-presentations on social media may reinforce one’s own body image concerns and disordered eating [ 24 , 25 ]. Fardouly et al. [ 24 ] investigated young adult women’s appearance comparisons in different contexts in everyday life. They found that most of the appearance comparisons were made in person and on social media, and that the participants made relatively more upward appearance comparisons on social media than in person. They also found that upward appearance comparisons made on social media were associated with more body dissatisfaction than in person. In addition, upward appearance comparisons on social media yielded more thoughts about dieting than in person comparisons, but no difference in the likelihood of dieting-behaviours [ 24 ].

Furthermore, Rodgers et al. [ 25 ] found that social media use was positively correlated with higher internalization of appearance ideals, including a higher tendency to engage in appearance comparison, body dissatisfaction, muscle change behaviours and dietary restraints among both boys and girls. In addition, the internalization of social media ideals, the muscular ideals and appearance comparisons, were positively associated with body dissatisfaction, muscle change behaviours and dietary restraints. Other research has reported similar results [ 6 , 45 ]. Mclean et al. [ 45 ] found for instance, that self-presentation on social media was associated with internalization of social media ideals, and that the internalization mediated the effect of social media on appearance upward comparison and body dissatisfaction. A scoping review conducted by Dane & Bhatia [ 46 ] also reported that in cases where social media use led to eating disorder, the thin/fit body ideal internalization and social comparison often functioned as mediating pathways.

Theoretical framework, summary and the current study

The Tripartite Influence Model (TIM) may serve as a theoretical framework linking the concept of focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, with perfectionism and disordered eating [ 47 ]. The Tripartite Influence Model is a framework that can be used when exploring the relationship between social media use and body dissatisfaction. It proposes that pressures from peers, family and media makes one conform to certain appearance ideals, which can lead to internalization of body ideals, followed by physical appearance comparison with others [ 48 ]. This study’s focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, aligns with the Tripartite Influence Model’s emphasis on how media and peers (e.g. to what content that receives positive feedback from peers), may contribute to adolescents’ perception of ideal body standards. Findings indicate that higher focus on self-presentation is more strongly linked to visual social media platforms than less visual platforms [ 12 ]. This support the Tripartite Influence Model theory that media pressure, especially through highly visual social media, leads to increased body ideal internalization an upward comparison with others. Additionally, the association between social media use and disordered eating can be understood through pressure to conform to societal ideals, such as body ideals, as proposed in the Tripartite Influence Model. Perfectionism, which is linked to disordered eating [ 36 , 37 , 38 ], may be driven by similar societal pressures.

Research on adolescents’ use of social media is increasingly shifting focus away from looking merely at time spent to include potential consequences of specific aspects of adolescents’ social media usage patterns [ 2 ]. The use of social media, perfectionism, and disordered eating have all increased over the last decades [ 33 , 41 , 49 ]. Studies indicate a relationship between being exposed to how others present themselves on social media and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating [ 24 , 25 , 43 ], and some studies have also investigated the relationship between self-presentation behaviors and body dissatisfaction [ 13 , 14 , 30 ]. Moving beyond self-presentation behaviors, such as the frequency or content of social media posts, one study showed that being preoccupied with appearance on social media, was associated with increased risk for problems like appearance related anxiety and disordered eating [ 22 ]. In two previous studies, we showed that preoccupation with likes and comments, retouching photos of oneself, deleting photos with too few likes, and upward social comparison, collectively referred to as “focus on self-presentation”, was associated with more symptoms of anxiety and depression [ 12 ] and that focus on self-presentation varied significantly between adolescents [ 21 ].

Hence, the aim of the present study is to investigated the link between focus on self-presentation on social media, and perfectionism and disordered eating. Based on previous studies we hypothesize that focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison is positively associated with (i) perfectionism and (ii) disordered eating, and (iii) self-reported diagnosis of an eating disorder.

Materials and methods

Study sample.

This study is based on data from the “LifeOnSoMe” study carried out at public senior high schools in Bergen, Norway. Pupils aged 16 or older were invited to participate, giving an age range from 16 to 21 years old. Information about the survey was conveyed both by the teacher and digitally. The online web survey was conducted digitally. One school hour was set aside for carrying out the survey. The total number of eligible participants was 3,424 (mean age was 17.3 years (standard deviation 1.0)), and 56% ( n  = 1916) of the participants were girls. This study included data from two survey waves conducted in September-October 2020 and June-September 2021. For participants who responded in both waves, only their 2020 responses were used in this analysis. The response rate was 53% in 2020 and 35% in 2021. The research data was stored on secure storage facilities located at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which prevent the authors from providing the data as supplementary information, according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only researchers with approval from the Regional Ethical Committee had access. The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Committee, and is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Additional information about the study is available elsewhere [ 23 , 50 ].

Self-reported sociodemographics

The participants reported their age, gender, and subjective socioeconomic status. A small proportion of the participants did not state their age ( n  = 157). For gender, participants could choose between three options: “girl”, “boy”, and “other/non-binary”. Because too few participants (< 50) answered “other/non-binary”, these were excluded from the data set due to privacy concerns. Relative socioeconomic status was assessed by asking the participants to estimate how economically well off their families are compared to others, ranging from «very poor» (scored 0) to «very well off» (scored 10).

Amount of social media use

Two questions were included related to social media use in general: “How often do you use social media?” and “On the days that you use social media, approximately how much time do you spend on social media?”, giving an estimate of the frequency and duration of their usage, respectively. For frequency, the response alternatives were “almost never”, “several times a month, but rarer than once a week”, “1–2 times per week”, “3–4 times per week”, “5–6 times per week”, “every day”, “several times each day”, and “almost constantly”. In the present study, we differentiated between “daily or less”, “many times a day”, and “almost constantly”. For duration, seven response alternatives ranging from “less than 30 min” to “more than 5 h” were available. In the present study, we differentiate between “<2 h”, “2–4 h”, “>4–5 h”, and “>5 h”.

Independent variable: Self-Presentation and Upward Social Comparison Inclination Scale (SPAUSCIS)

The items used to assess upward social comparison and aspects of self-presentation were developed based on focus group interviews with senior high school pupils [ 23 ], and have been shown to have adequate psychometric properties in both this sample [ 21 ] and elsewhere [ 12 ]. Cronbach’s \(\alpha\) was 0.87, indicating a very good internal consistency. The results of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the SPAUSCIS have been reported in a previous publication based on the “LifeOnSoMe”-data [ 21 ]. Also, EFA and CFA was investigated in another, smaller sample of senior high school students [ 12 ]. The results from both studies strongly suggested a unidimensional scale and the fit indices from CFA were all considered good. Examples of items included in SPAUSCIS are “I retouch images of myself to look better before I post them on social media”, “I use a lot of time and energy on the content I post on social media”, and “The response I get for what I post (images/status updates/stories) impacts how I feel”. The response categories were “not at all”, “very little”, “sometimes/partly true”, “a lot”, and “very much”, coded 1–5. The mean summed score thus ranges from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating a higher focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media.

Dependent variables: Perfectionism and disordered eating

Perfectionism (edi-p).

Perfectionism was assessed by the 6-item perfectionism scale in the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) for children and adolescents [ 51 ]. The perfectionism items (EDI-P) are usually rated on a 6-point Likert scale. In the present study, however, the response options were “not true” (scored 0) “sometimes true” (scored 1), and “true” (scored 2) in accordance with the version employed in the youth@hordaland survey [ 52 ]. This yields a potential score of 0–12 when the items are summed. Previous research has found that the EDI [ 53 ] and EDI-P [ 54 ] have satisfactory psychometric properties in similar populations. Cronbach’s \(\alpha\) was 0.72 in the present study, indicating acceptable internal consistency.

Eating Disturbance Scale (EDS-5)

Symptoms of disordered eating was assessed using the Eating Disturbance Scale (EDS-5) [ 55 ]. EDS-5 consists of five questions specifically related to eating, such as comfort eating (item 2) and strict dieting in order to control ones eating habits (item 4). The response options are “not true” (scored 0) “sometimes true” (scored 1), and “true” (scored 2), and the summed scored ranges between 0 and 10. The questionnaire have shown adequate psychometric properties and convergent validity in previous research [ 55 , 56 ]. Cronbach’s \(\alpha\) was 0.78 in the present study, indicating an acceptable internal consistency.

Operationalization of EDI-P and EDS-5

For the purposes of the present study, both EDI-P and EDS-5 were used as continuous measures, as well as dichotomous variables, differentiating between low and high scores based on the 90th percentile. The chosen cut-off point is informed by previous research which suggest this to be an adequate delineation for mental health problems [ 52 , 57 ].

Diagnosis of eating disorder

For the participants participating in the study in 2020, self-reported psychiatric diagnoses were available ( n  = 1978) using a pre-defined list adapted to fit this age-group. Initially, the participants had to answer “yes” or “no” to the question “Have you ever received a diagnosis for a mental health problem?”, followed up by a list of 11 possible different diagnoses for those who endorsed the initial question. The list was based on a similar operationalization used in a large population-based studies [ 58 , 59 ]. The list contained no definition of the included disorders or conditions. For this study, the participants who chose “Eating disorder” ( n  = 36; 1.8%) from the list were identified as having been diagnosed with the condition, and all others were designated as not having received the diagnosis.

Statistical procedure

First, summary statistics of the included variables for the whole sample were estimated across the median-split of SPAUSCIS and presented in Table  1 . For categorical variables, the number and proportions were estimated, and the mean and standard deviation (SD) was estimated for continuous variables. Comparisons across the median-split of SPAUSCIS was done using Pearson’s chi-squared tests for categorical variables, and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used for continuous variables. Then, two simple linear regression models were estimated using SPAUSCIS as an independent variable and (a) score on perfectionism (EDI-P) and (b) score on disordered eating (EDS-5) as dependent variables, respectively. The scores of the dependent variables were standardized (Z-scored) to ease interpretation of the resulting coefficients. Potential gender-moderation was investigated by entering genderxSPAUSCIS in both models as an interaction term into the model. The interaction term was considered statistically significant with a p-value of < 0.05, and if significant, results from the linear regression model were then presented separately for girls and boys. Linearity of the association between SPAUSCIS and the dependent variables were investigated using restricted cubic splines with four knots. Next, two gender-specific multiple logistic regression models were estimated using the median-split of SPAUSCIS as the main independent variable, and the 90th percentile score on (a) perfectionism (EDI-P) and (b) disordered eating (EDS-5) as dependent variables, respectively. Both models were adjusted for usual amount of social media use and socioeconomic status, and the results are presented as odds ratios with corresponding 95% confidence intervals. The median-split of SPAUSCIS were used in these models for simplicity and ease of interpretability. In post-hoc analyses, we did however, investigate the association between SPAUSCIS as a continuous measure and the 90th percentile score (a) perfectionism (EDI-P) and (b) disordered eating (EDS-5) as dependent variables, respectively. This was done using logistic regression analyses with restricted cubic splines to test for non-linearity. Both these models were adjusted for usual amount of social media use and socioeconomic status, and the results are presented in-text as odds ratios for trends with corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Finally, we investigated the association between the median-split of SPAUSCIS and self-reported eating disorder using simple logistic regression. No adjustments or investigation of potential gender-moderation was included for the latter analyses as the number reporting eating disorder ( n  = 36) limited the statistical precision. Missing data ranged from n  = 2 (0.1%) to n  = 55 (1.6%) across analyses, and pairwise deletion was applied to ensure the highest number of observations in each analysis.

Descriptive statistics of the included variables are presented across the median split of score on SPAUSCIS in Table  1 . For all of the included variables, there were significant differences between the SPAUSCIS-groups (all p-values < 0.001). The group with median or above scores on SPAUSCIS were more likely to be girls, more likely to use social media more often and for a longer duration but reported a slightly lower subjective socioeconomic status. Furthermore, they were more likely to report higher scores on perfectionism (EDI-P) and disordered eating (EDS-5).

Results from gender-specific multiple logistic regression models with median-split of SPAUSCIS as dependent variable, and the 90th percentile score on (a) perfectionism (EDI-P) and (b) disordered eating (EDS-5) as dependent variables is presented in Table  2 . For boys and girls, scoring on or above the median on SPAUSCIS was associated with increased odds for both dependent variables. For both perfectionism and disordered eating, the models are adjusted for social media use and socioeconomic status. In the post-hoc analyses using SPAUSCIS as continuous variable, the odds ratios (OR) in relation to perfectionism were 1.88 (95% CI 1.43–2.47, p  < 0.001) and 1.77 (95% CI 1.44–2.17, p  < 0.001) for boys and girls, respectively. For disordered eating, the corresponding ORs were 1.94 (95% CI 1.40–2.68, p  < 0.001) for boys and 2.00 (95% CI 1.72–2.32, p  < 0.001) for girls. Using restricted cubic splines, we did not find evidence for non-linearity in the post-hoc analyses.

There was a significantly higher odds of reporting being diagnosed with an eating disorder among those scoring median or above on SPAUSCIS (crude OR 3.32; 95% CI 1.58–7.84; p  = 0.003).

Association between focus on self-presentation and perfectionism and disordered eating. Linear regressions with restricted cubic splines. Note: Figure 1: SPAUSCIS: Self-Presentation and Upward Social Comparison Inclination Scale; EDI-P: Eating Disorders Inventory-Perfectionism; EDS-5: Eating Disturbance Scale-5

Figure 1 presents findings from linear regression models with mean score on SPAUSCIS as the independent variable and the standardized (Z-scored) score on (a) perfectionism (EDI-P) and (b) disordered eating (EDS-5) as dependent variables. For both dependent variables, a potential gender moderation of the association with SPAUSCIS was investigated, and potential non-linearity was investigated using restricted cubic splines with four knots. For disordered eating, a significant gender moderation was found, and the association was stronger for girls than boys. For perfectionism, no evidence for a gender moderation was found. For both dependent variables there was a significant linear association with self-presentation equal to a low-to-moderate effect size.

Overall findings

In the present study we investigated the potential association between focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, and perfectionism and disordered eating. As hypothesized, we found evidence for consistent positive associations. Increased focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison was associated with increased levels of both perfectionism and disordered eating with a small-to-medium effect size. For perfectionism, the associations were similar for both boys and girls, while we found evidence of a gender moderation for disordered eating. Specifically, the association with disordered eating was somewhat stronger for girls compared to boys. For self-reported eating disorder, we also found a positive association with focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison. Focusing on how the adolescents relate to self-presentation on social media, the study gives new insight into important aspects of usage patterns of social media. It also provides new insight into potential gender differences in focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, and social media´s potential role in development of disordered eating. These findings are pertinent in a public health perspective and may help to inform efforts to mitigate these potential negative effects.

Relation to previous perspectives and findings

Our findings are consistent with the Tripartite Influence Model, as our study revealed positive associations between focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, and both perfectionism and disordered eating. Individuals who focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison may be more susceptible to sociocultural pressures which may lead to a strive for perfection and conforming to unhealthy body ideals. Our findings underscore the potential role of sociocultural pressures in shaping body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors. Specifically, the positive association between focus on self-presentation on social media and perfectionism may have several explanations. Curran & Hill [ 33 ] argue that the increase in perfectionistic traits among young adults may be due to a response to cultural changes towards a more individualistic and competitive culture in Western societies. As social media is an important part of adolescents’ and young peoples’ lives, it is likely that the perfectionistic tendencies will affect self-presentation on these platforms as well. Curran & Hill [ 33 ] also suggest that the increase in perfectionism among young adults may be due to their perception of increased demands from the social environment. Self-presenting in a socially desirable way in general, and on social media specifically, may be a way to ensure social acceptance from peers. They further hypothesize that the fear of losing acceptance may increase perfectionistic traits [ 33 ]. Hence, increased perfectionism may be the reason for stronger focus on self-presentation on social media. However, since we cannot interpret the direction of the association from this study, focus on self-presentation may also increase adolescents’ perfectionistic tendency. As perfectionism is a personality trait that largely establishes during adolescence, it may be that the increased opportunity to self-present on social media, and thus focus on self-presentation, makes adolescents more susceptible for developing perfectionistic traits.

There is a lack of research on the relationship between focus on self-presentation on social media and disordered eating. Most of the research investigating this relationship have looked at being exposed to appearance-related self-presentation on social media and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating [ 24 , 25 , 43 ], in addition to self-presentation behavior [ 13 , 14 , 45 ], not the relationship between a person’s focus on self-presentation on social media and disordered eating. Our results indicate a positive relationship between focus on self-presentation on social media and disordered eating. Highly visual social media platforms that expose adolescents to “perfect” bodies through others’ self-presentation may constitute an important source of such exposure. Previous findings support that being exposed to body ideals, may lead to internalization of these ideals among adolescents [ 25 , 45 , 46 ]. Other findings also report that upward social comparison may be a potential consequence of the exposure to others’ “perfect” appearance related self-presentation [ 24 , 31 , 60 ], leading to body dissatisfaction [ 30 ]. Subsequently, some adolescents may be more preoccupied with eating, weight, body shape, and muscularity. This preoccupation could serve as a mitigation strategy to reduce the discrepancy between the adolescent’s perceived appearance and the ideal body and appearance of the reference person. Thereby reducing the negative body image and negative feelings produced from the upward social comparison.

Another explanation may be that adolescents with disordered eating already are more preoccupied than other adolescents with how they appear to others. Social media is an apt arena to self-present in an appearance-related and desired way, and could elicit wanted feedback from others through likes and comments. This may further reinforce the focus on self-presentation. A third potential explanation for this relationship is perfectionism as a conceivable mediating factor. As perfectionistic self-presentation can be understood as a maladaptive self-presentation style [ 34 ], perfectionism may lead to a strict view of what constitute a good-enough self-presentation. This may as well include the adolescent’s expectations and demands to their own body as thin or muscular, hence increasing the standards of flawlessness in their own appearance-related self-presentation on social media. If these expectations are too rigid, it might for some adolescents be a contributing cause in the development of disordered eating.

In relation to the association between focus on self-presentation on social media and disordered eating we found a stronger association for girls than boys. Hjetland et al. [ 61 ] found significant gender differences in how adolescents related to self-presentation on social media. Girls reported that they invested more time and energy on the content of their own social media posts. They used more filters to look better at least sometimes and reported feeling less satisfied with themselves because of other peoples’ social media posts. Girls also tended to ascribe more importance to the feedback they got on social media than boys. In general, the report showed that social media played a bigger part in the girls’ lives than the boys’, and that the girls placed more importance on what is happening on social media [ 61 ]. Hence, more importance placed on self-presentation on social media among girls, and social media playing a more important role in girls’ lives, may increase the focus on self-presenting in an ideal way, in addition to being stronger underlying causes in development of eating disorders for girls than for boys.

There may as well be other explanations for the gender difference we found. The objectification theory [ 62 ], suggests that women’s bodies are more often looked at, evaluated and potentially sexually objectified. Fredrickson & Roberts [ 62 ] further argue that these views make women internalize the observer’s perspective of themselves, and to some degree also socialize women to treat themselves as objects for the pleasure of others. The emphasis put on girls’ and women’s physical appearance, in particular, is well established in our culture [ 60 ]. Through social media’s feedback mechanisms, girls may be more encouraged than boys to self-present in an objectifying way.

Social comparison theory [ 26 ], and especially upward social comparison, is another possible explanation for the gender difference between focus on self-presentation on social media and disordered eating. Strahan et al. [ 60 ] found that when describing their physical appearance, women used significantly more upward social comparisons than downward social comparisons. Men, on the other hand, made more downward comparisons than upward. This tendency was not seen when women and men described other personal characteristics like social skills. For women, they also found that the more upward social comparison they made, the more negative statements they made about their body [ 60 ]. They proposed that ubiquitous appearance norms, mostly applying to women, disrupted strong self-enhancement behaviors [ 60 ]. Fardouly et al. [ 24 ] also found that women relied on upward social comparisons when comparing their appearances, and that doing this on social media was associated with more body dissatisfaction than in person. A proposed explanation for this is that women may experience a stronger discrepancy between themselves and women they see on social media compared to women they see in person [ 24 ].

Previous research on self-presentation behaviors has primarily focused on appearance-related self-presentation and upward social comparison [e.g. 24 ] and associated risk among girls, such as body dissatisfaction [ 13 , 14 , 30 ], thin ideal internalization and disordered eating behavior [ 25 , 44 ]. However, it is important to recognize that boys may also be affected by these issues, and a study showed that body dissatisfaction affected boys’ risk of engaging in disordered eating behaviors [ 63 ]. The current body ideals for boys emphasize muscularity [ 64 ], and Eisenberg et al. [ 65 ] found that muscle-enhancing behaviors are common among American adolescents, including both boys and girls. This were behaviors like dieting, exercising, and taking protein supplements or steroids, with the aim of increasing muscle size or tone. However, most of the behaviors measured were significantly more common among boys [ 65 ], and Compte et al.’s [ 64 ] investigation of muscle dysmorphia among young adult men indicated a prevalence of almost 7%. Hence, another explanation for the gender difference we found, may be that the EDS-5-questionnaire does not identify symptoms of drive for muscularity or muscle dysmorphia. In fact, muscle dysmorphia seems to be more of a concern than thinness and weight loss among boys [ 64 ]. The EDS-5 measures of symptoms of disordered eating are linked to preoccupation about weight loss, body shape and drive for thinness [ 55 ], and may therefore not fully capture the range of body image concerns among boys.

Implications

The present results demonstrate the need to address focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media as potentially important factors for adolescents’ mental health. As such, promoting a healthy use of social media could be established through a focus on increasing adolescents’ ability to reflect on and think critically about self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media. Our results indicate a need for targeted interventions to promote healthy social media use and enhance adolescents’ critical thinking about self-presentation and underscores the urgency of public health initiatives. One public health approach would be to equip adolescents with critical thinking skills to navigate social media mindfully. In relation to appearance-related ideals, educational programs should address the unrealistic standards perpetuated online, while fostering resilience and promoting positive self-image. Educational programs and social media literacy programs in school have been suggested to increase adolescents’ reflections about their own and others social media use [ 42 , 66 , 67 ]. Gordon et al. [ 42 , 67 ] introduced a four-lesson social media literacy program in a junior high school that aimed to decrease body dissatisfaction, dietary restraints and focus on increased muscles among young adolescents. They found only a small effect of the intervention. The intervention did not focus on self-presentation and based on results from this study and previous research [e.g. 12 , 27 ], this would be an important topic to address for future interventions. Also, previous results suggest that interventions led by individuals who already have an established relationship with the adolescents and are familiar with their needs help facilitate discussions among the adolescents [ 42 ], and improve intervention outcomes. Teachers could therefore be considered effective social media educators, especially if social media literacy could be integrated in existing school subjects.

A study of university students showed that women who had a higher internalization of the thin-ideal, were more vulnerable to disordered body image and hence to appearance exposure in media [ 68 ]. They also found that body appreciation protected women from negative effects of the exposure [ 68 ]. Thus, developing social media literacy programs specifically focusing on the effects of self-presentation and upward social comparison could be an important target for interventions, and possibly reduce focus on self-presentation. Research [ 69 ] also suggest that increasing self-compassion is a useful strategy to prevent perfectionistic self-presentation on social media. As perfectionistic self-presentation is related to lower subjective well-being [ 35 ], this may also be a topic to address in an intervention aiming to reduce focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media.

While our study adds to the knowledge base, future research should investigate the concept of self-presentation on social media more closely. It will be important to examine if different ways of self-presentation vary from each other. Previous research has investigated how people self-present, especially through the use of selfies [e.g. 70 , 71 ], and further research should investigate if taking pictures of oneself and posting them is dissimilar from other ways of self-presentation on social media when considering its association to mental health among adolescents. SPAUSCIS consist of only one item asking about specific ways of self-presenting (“I retouch images of myself to look better before I post them on social media”), thus future research on other ways of self-presenting behaviors should include self-presentation for example through pictures of other aspect of the adolescents’ life, like friends or hobbies, or through text only. Investigating focus on self-presentation on social media, perfectionism and disordered eating among younger adolescents than we included in our study will be important as the use of social media starts early and as disordered eating often emerges in adolescence [ 72 ]. Understanding at what age focus on self-presentation becomes more prominent for adolescents’ and potential gender differences regarding this, may also be important to pinpoint intervention opportunities.

Strengths and limitations

A major strength of the present study is that it is the first study to investigate the relationship between focus on self-presentation on social media, perfectionism and disordered eating. So far, the research on this has focused on self-presentation behaviors [e.g. 13 , 14 , 30 , 45 ] in addition to being exposed to others ’ (perfect) self-presentations and the prevailing body ideals [e.g. 24 , 25 , 43 ]. To our knowledge no previous study has examined the association between focus on self-presentation and perfectionism and disordered eating. In addition, the scales used in this study are well-established [ 55 , 54 , 56 ]. Also, the items of SPAUSCIS were derived from focus-group interviews with adolescents [ 23 ], which make them relevant for adolescents’ experiences related to self-presentation and social comparison on social media. Some limitations are also worth mentioning. The study is cross-sectional, thus we cannot determine causality between the investigated factors and mental health. Despite the sample being large, it is limited to high schools in Bergen, Norway. Consequently, the results may not be generalizable to other countries or cultures. Also, the participation rate was moderate (53% and 35%), which may impact the validity of our findings. However, associations are less vulnerable to bias caused by low participation rates than prevalence estimates [ 73 ]. Another limitation is that SPAUSCIS in this study does not differentiate between various methods of self-presentation. Consequently, we cannot conclude from this study whether specific types of self-presentation, such as taking selfies versus posting pictures of hobbies, have the same impact on perfectionism, eating disorders or disordered eating. Also, the use of self-reported amount of social media use has been shown to be biased in previous research and is not likely to be an accurate measure of actual use [ 74 ]. This may have impacted our ability to effectively account for the confounding effect of social media use. And finally, although EDS-5 is a well-established and validated measurement, the questionnaire does not cover specific symptoms of drive for muscularity and muscle dysmorphia.

While previous studies have focused on self-presentation behaviors, this study found that focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media is positively associated with both perfectionism and disordered eating, as well as self-reported eating disorders among adolescents. As such, promoting a healthy use of social media could be established through increasing adolescents’ ability to reflect on and think critically about self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media. Our results underscore the importance of targeted public health interventions to promote awareness and healthy social media use among adolescents, emphasizing the need for educational programs that address focus on self-presentation, unrealistic appearance-related ideals and foster resilience and positive self-image.

Data availability

Explicit consent from the participant is required by the Norwegian Health research legislation and the Norwegian Ethics committees in order to transfer health research data outside of Norway. Ethics approval for this was also dependent on storing the research data on secure storage facilities located at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which prevent the authors from providing the data as supplementary information. Request to access these datasets should be directed to [email protected].

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Bergen municipality and Vestland County Council for their collaboration on this study. The present study is linked to a larger innovation-project lead by Bergen municipality in Western Norway related to the use of social media and mental health and well-being. The innovation-project is funded by a program initiated by the Norwegian Directorate of Health and aims to explore social media as platforms for health promotion among adolescents. Above all, we are very thankful for the pupils who participated in this study.

The work of GJH was supported by Dam Foundation (grant number 2021/FO347287) while the work of JCS, AIOA, and TRF was supported by The Research Council of Norway (grant number 319845).

Open access funding provided by University of Bergen.

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Hilde Einarsdatter Danielsen, Turi Reiten Finserås, Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen, Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland & Jens Christoffer Skogen

Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Hilde Einarsdatter Danielsen & Vivian Woodfin

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Department of Clinical Psychology, Solli District Psychiatric Centre, Bergen, Norway

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JCS analyzed the participants’ data regarding the LifeOnSoMe-study. All authors contributed to interpretation of the results. HED and JCS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Additional contributions and revisions to the manuscript were made by TRF, AIOA, GJH, VW, JCS, and HED. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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The study was conducted in accordance to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Regional Ethical Committee (REK) in Norway (REK#65611). All participants gave informed consent prior to participation, and was informed about the general purpose of the study and the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any point. As all the adolescents invited were 16 years or older, they were considered competent to consent on their own behalf, and additional consent from parents or guardians was not prerequisite.

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Danielsen, H.E., Finserås, T.R., Andersen, A.I.O. et al. Mirror, mirror on my screen: Focus on self-presentation on social media is associated with perfectionism and disordered eating among adolescents. Results from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study. BMC Public Health 24 , 2466 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19317-9

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Received : 04 July 2023

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19317-9

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