If you squeeze and review all the PPTs, you would find them a sum-total of textual matter and visual contents. In the age of decreasing attention-span, words are getting diminished from slides and images are getting increasingly relevant.
- We are naturally inclined to grasp images better than words: We humans are naturally programmed to grasp images better than words. We find visual communication easier and simpler. We are better-off seeing 10 visuals than going through a paragraph of well-crafted textual material. And so, PPTs having multiple images with a small number of supporting words on each slide get your prospective clients or target-audiences transfixed at the core messages.
- Visuals collectively provide coherence: Your PPT is most effective when its message is well-received and understood by audiences. And to make them understand the real gist of the effort, you need to present your ideas in a coherent manner and that coherence comes easy when your facts and numbers are conveyed by different images and visuals collectively. ‘Seeing is Believing’, it is a known fact and that’s why people connect with images and visuals a lot faster. Audiences going through a PPT deduce the facts themselves by viewing images and the burden on words gets reduced.
- Visuals trigger sensibilities and responses: Different images on your PPT reflect different sensibilities and trigger according responses. These sensibilities and responses bind your audiences with the contents and they get engaged deeply. Deeper engagement goes a long way to add recall-value to your ideas and concepts. And then, a Call-of-Action is not far.
But to prepare a PPT on the base of visual contents, you must keep away from using inappropriate images, videos or animations. Excessive use of visuals may defeat your purpose. An image or visual must send out the message by itself and textual matter just has to be supporting it.
