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Design Principle #1 Picture Superiority

Lesson 19 from: Create and Design Memorable Presentations 

Andrea Pacini

Design Principle #1 Picture Superiority

Lesson 19 from: Create and Design Memorable Presentations 

Andrea Pacini

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Lesson Info

19. Design Principle #1 Picture Superiority

Lesson Info

Design Principle #1 Picture Superiority

in this lesson, I want to introduce a universal principle of design and how you can apply to your own presentations. This says picture superiority. Now picture superiority is a principle that very simply tells us that images are more likely to be remembered than words that's it. Images are more likely to be remembered than words. Vision trumps all other senses. We have five senses as humans, visions of sight, touch, smell and a couple of other things. We can do a couple of other things but five senses into also vision, sight is the dominant one. Consider that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than words alone. Now this is a huge difference. If it was six times faster there would already be a big difference. It's not six, it's not 60, not even 600, not even 6,060,000 times faster than words alone. It's like going for car racing and you can choose, you can either drive a Ferrari or a field of course you want to drive the Ferrari if you present information in a text based format w...

hich is what most people do, especially with business presentations, you are driving a fields, if you present information in a visual way you are driving a Ferrari Vision Trumps or other senses. Consider that also we tend to remember roughly 20% of what we read. Think about when you read a book for example, I guess you don't remember everything you read. You tend to remember 20% of what you read over a certain time period Over the same time period. You tend to remember not 20 but 80% of what we see. Vision Trumps all other senses and again and this is all demonstrated by research. If I present something to you in a text-based format with lots of text on the screen, bullet points. Three days after my presentation you will remember no more than 10% of what I told you now. Think about it, I don't know what your objective is when you present, But we talked about it before, your objective should be to change your audience to transform them to motivate them to persuade them to inspire them to move them to take action, but you're not going to move anybody if they only remember 10% of what you tell them. However, If you present exactly the same information in a visual way then your audience's retention three days after your presentation will go up to from 10 to 65% again, massive difference. Vision trumps all the senses. So picture superiority means that we need to keep our slides visual, keep it visual. Now, for example, this is piccadilly circus here in London. Now look at the billboards, why do you think billboards are designed this way? You see they're very visual big image, just a few words but the reason is that they need to capture your attention in just a few seconds, they need to capture your attention in just a few seconds. Now, what if we apply the same principle to presentation design? Who says that the same principles should apply? Of course it should also for business presentations, so consider this as a guideline for you when you show something on the screen for your audience to see, It has to be so simple and straight forward that your audience should be able to understand the message behind it in no more than 3-5 seconds. If that happens, your slides are effective from a design perspective and therefore from a communication perspective as well, things are connected. If that doesn't happen then most likely your slides are also suffering from death by power point and with you, your audience is suffering too. So remember picture superiority, keep it visual. Now. In the next lesson, I want to introduce another universal principle of design and as always how you can apply to your own presentations wide space, I'll see you there.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Exercise #1: ABC - Understanding Your Audience
Exercise #2 - Define Your Objective
Exercise #3: ATR - Brainstorm To Find Your Key Messages
Exercise #3: Mind Map - Brainstorm To Find Your Key Messages
Exercise #3: Traffic Light - Brainstorm To Find Your Key Messages
Exercise #4: 70 Words
Exercise #5: Storylines - Develop Your Storyline
Exercise #6: Storyboard - Sketch and Design Your Visuals
Recommended Reading

Ratings and Reviews

julie haskett
 

I was just beginning to create a series of presentations when I noticed this course. Serendipity! I thought I knew what I was doing, but learned some great techniques. More importantly I learned what NOT to do. Now I have much more confidence in the process.

michal babula
 

A lot of useful information.

Sara
 

Exceptional course. Very well organized and taught. The course was engaging and practical, with clear actionable approaches, examples, and activities from beginning to end.

Student Work

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