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Visual aids are useful because they clarify difficulty points, gain and maintain audience attention, enhance speaker credibility, improve your delivery, and are memorable. The different types of visual aids include objects, models, graphs, maps, tables, photographs, and drawings. If you are using a visual aid, think about what medium will work best for the purpose of your speech and the purpose of your visual aid. Many classrooms will allow you access to a chalkboard or whiteboard, or you can bring in a poster board. You can pass out handouts to the class, or display video excerpts from a DVD or from the internet. You may be able to use a slide projector, overhead projector, or a document camera, but these are often less easily found. If you want to project images to make them larger, you can consider using a a computer projector.
There are a number of computer-assisted presentation tools that you can use, like PowerPoint, Prezi, SlideRocket, Canva, Emaze, and Vizia. If you decide to use PowerPoint as a visual aid, there are several considerations to take into account, like not overwhelming listeners with complicated slides, and not reading to your audience from slides or making them read from slide. Also be sure to narrate your PowerPoint slides, and include a full-sentence headline with a graphic underneath on most slides. Make sure to make your slides visually interesting, but don’t get graphic crazy. Whenever possible, use a remote to advance your slides. If you do choose to use PowerPoint, don’t rely heavily on it and place your whole outline in the slides, or use too many distracting bells and whistles.
To make sure that you are developing a competent visual aid, make sure to keep aids simple, make them visible, and make them neat, attractive, and accurate. Be careful to not block the audience’s view, but keep close to the visual aid, and put the aid out of sight when it is not in use. Practice your speech with your visual aid, and do not circulate your visual aids during your speech. While you may be tempted to turn off the lights to highlight your slides, do not talk in the dark, and anticipate problems with your technology and have a backup plan.