Big is good
An effective visual is one that is easy on the eyes of the viewer. We like things that are clear and easy to read without causing fatigue. This is especially true in the case of our presentation slides. Imagine that you are sitting among the audience in a presentation and you are trying very hard to read what was projected on the large screen and at the same time listening to the speaker. Wouldn't that be tiring?
BIG is good. People are more likely to remember things that they can see clearly. Make important information bigger so that your audience can see them clearly. Don't bury important information in paragraphs of text. Make important words or numbers big. Use a different size font or a different colour. Make images big enough to be seen easily.
Split information into more slides when necessary so that you can show them big on each slide. It is better to fill the whole screen with less information that can be seen than to fill it up with more information that cannot be seen.
Here are a few illustrated examples of visuals having content that is BIG.
Number with image. The important information here is the percentage showing where the world's apples are from. Making the 35% big and bold helps in suggesting that viewers should take note of this information. The image of an apple in the background visually links the % to the subject in question.
One BIG number. We don't need an image on every slide to make it exciting. Using one big number in the middle of the slide can be exciting too. It brings the viewers' attention to this important number that we want to communicate.
A bigger word. If there is an extra important word among the few words that we have on our visual, we should make that word bigger than the rest. This creates extra impact and direct focus to the word. We can also add an appropriate image to visually describe the intent of the word.
Growing characters. Sometimes we can vary the charater size of a word to visually illustrate growth, or expansion, or improvements as shown in the example below.
Making important information big and visible helps your viewers remember your message better. It makes your visuals more exciting and easier to see. Make important informaiton big. It's better for everyone.
