Spinning I.D.E.A.S.

As you take your ride for a spin, cruising at 80km/h along the Express Way... What did you see? Trees, buildings, a great scenery, or messages on billboards? What can you remember? Very often we only remember the great scenery because we feel good about the experience. Sometimes we remember an interesting visual message on a billboard that we so briefly glanced at.

And the few times that we remembered a message on a billboard is because, visually it was clear and easily seen. Travelling at 80km/h, it is not possible for us to read what’s on the billboard. We only have a second or two to glance at it as we drive past what we see.

Relate the billboard experience to your presentation visuals. Does your audience have time to read what’s in your slides while listening to you? Or is it better to have visuals that are simple and yet exciting for your audience to see?

Very often it is more effective to design communication visuals with less information—using messages that are short, simple and easy to understand. Give your audience a great experience in what they see and what they hear. By showing less, your audience actually remembers more.

In my new book Spinning I.D.E.A.S., I explore how visual design ideas can be applied to information that we use in everyday presentations. Being simple is not an easy task, but it is necessary to effectively communicate our messages and be successful. Our audience is impatient and has very short attention span. We therefore need to think ahead and spin ideas that will keep our audience interested at all times.

Our minds are cluttered with the complexity and tons of information. Don’t let that stop you from spinning out of it to explore new ideas. Begin with a clear objective, be in control of your visual content, and be 100% confident.

To get what we want, we somehow need to give up something. Give up the complexity. Go for the simple, direct and focused approach.

Have a great spinning experience.
Check out Spinning I.D.E.A.S. at bookstores in Singapore.

Keep on spinning... and spinning... and spinning...