 Expert presenters use visuals in very specific ways. This micro-learning module will share the best practices for crafting visuals for maximum impact. Skill check time. Look at these two presentation slides and write down at least two main ideas from each. Pause here to look at the first sample and continue when you're ready to see the second one. Here is the second sample slide. Write down at least two main ideas. Compare how much time it took you to understand each slide and find useful information. Although the presenters of these real slides talked through all of the details about the process being shown, the second slide is easier to understand and supports what the presenter is saying without being the exact same information. It's easier to read too. Expert presenters follow a paradoxical rule when designing their visuals. They provide less information. Make your text big. Use sans serif fonts and make the contrast clear between a darker background and lighter text. This gets in the way of readability at a small scale like on your laptop screen or on a handout, but it enhances readability at a distance and on a big screen. PowerPoint and other slide deck software are designed to make you want to put lots of words on the screen. Resist this temptation. Words should be cues for what to say, not a script you're reading from. The fewer words on your screen, the better. Got pictures? Don't relegate them to just a part of your slides. Whatever you've got, whether images or text, use all of the space you have available. If people in the back row can read your slide and see the image without their glasses, you're an expert presenter. Visuals do not need to be representations of exactly what you are saying. Find images that are close to but not quite the same, or find unexpected images to set a tone or get people thinking. We remember what is unexpected. Make your visuals reflect your participants. Search for images of men and women, people of varied backgrounds. Also, when you present your work, use inclusive language like using the plural to refer to students, faculty members, and administrators. When you do provide examples in the singular, vary them too, unless your point has to do with a particular attribute. Don McMillan's Life After Death by PowerPoint is a classic take on how not to design visuals for presentations. Take four minutes, watch, laugh a bit, and learn what to avoid in your conference presentations. Now add some ideas to your presentation plan. Write down how you will simplify visuals, reduce text, increase readability, fill the frame, and find unexpected visuals. Pause here and unpause when you have some more ideas written down. If you want to find visuals that can be copied under less restrictive license terms than copyright law usually permits, check out the search tools at the Creative Commons website. By honoring the license terms, you can find, copy, and use a wide range of creative visuals. Now that you have completed this micro-learning module on visuals, where will you go next? You can experience these micro-learning modules in any order. Want a hint? Try detail level next. Thank you for working on this micro-learning module.