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3 Fast and Easy Steps to Turn Your Text and Ideas Into Billion-Dollar Graphics
June 02, 2009
By Mike Parkinson
Which company is better: Company A or Company B?
According to a 3M-sponsored study at the University of Minnesota School of Management, presenters who use visual aids are 43 percent more effective in persuading audience members to take a desired course of action than presenters who don't use visuals. Further research revealed we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Other studies concluded that using graphics improves learning by 200 percent (University of Wisconsin), takes 40 percent less time to explain complex ideas (Wharton School), and improves retention by 38 percent (Harvard University)—a testament to the power of visuals to sell, educate, and influence your audience.
So how do you use the power of graphics and turn your bullets (solutions) into clear, compelling graphics? It's easy if you follow these steps.
Step 1: Mind Your PAQS
First, what is your primary objective (P)? Determine your primary objective in the beginning. What is the goal of your graphic? Is the goal to show your new process, explain how your solution works, or show how you are superior to your competition?
Second, know your audience (A). Research who they are, what they want, and why they should care. Learn what your audience desires. They are the reason you are creating your visual. Tailor your graphic to them. Your audience should see themselves in your graphic.
Third, know the questions (Q) to which your audience needs answers, so your graphic can achieve its primary objective. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you want to know to move forward and how does your graphic show this? Make it obvious. Highlight your features, benefits, and discriminators. Focus on the audience's wants and needs.
Fourth, know the subject matter (S). To answer the audience's questions, you need to understand the presented topic. The more you understand your subject matter, the more likely your graphic will be successful.
Knowing your P.A.Q.S. is vital to your graphic's success. Finding this information is 50 percent of the conceptualization process. Without it, you are conceptualizing your graphic in the dark.
Step 2: Conceptualize Your Graphic
Use the following five methods to transform PAQS into powerful visuals. The methods are intuitive (based on how we "see" information in our mind's eye) and can be used independently or in conjunction with one another. The five methods are as follows: Literal, Substitution, Assembly, Hyperbole, and Quantitative. All successful presentation graphics use these five methods to transform text and ideas into graphics. (At this stage, you are sketching ideas. Your sketches can be rough—a box can represent a computer as long as you label it.) Below is a high-level look at three of these five methods:
1. Literal Method: Show the object, event, location, or process being described. Your resulting graphic is the equivalent of saying, "This is exactly what I mean."
Use the Literal Method to communicate what an object looks like, locations on a map, actions in a process, or how a product operates or is assembled. Use it to provide evidence of a stated attribute. For example, if your intent is to demonstrate a new Web portal's ease of use, show the new Web portal.
2. Substitution Method: Substitute an easy-to-understand concept for your complex solution. Using visual metaphors, similes, or analogies will help your audience relate to and understand the relevance and value of your solution.
For example, water flowing through a pipe can be a visual metaphor for the path paperwork takes in an organization because both share the same characteristics. By showing paperwork in a pipe, the audience understands the paperwork is flowing (moving from one point to another) through the organization along a specific path. You are using the communicative characteristics of one concept (water flowing through a pipe) to clarify and/or explain another (the path paperwork takes in an organization).
3. Hyperbole Method: Visually overstate a claim to make a memorable point. What if your goal is to motivate your staff to move to new office space? Use unforgettable imagery that amplifies the benefits of your new offices.
Step 3—Render Your Graphic (or direct the rendering of your graphic).
Assuming you cannot hire a graphic designer (if you can, do it!), here are some tips and tricks to rendering graphics yourself.
For cheap, professional graphics and photographs check out the following graphic Websites:
•Stock.XCHNG (free photographs) www.sxc.hu
•BizGraphicsOnDemand.com ($4 to 45 per PowerPoint graphic)
iStockPhoto.com ($1 to 50 per photograph and illustration, $15 to $100 for videos, and $1 to $10 for Flash files)
•Dreamstime.com ($1 to $50 per photograph and illustration)
•BigStockPhoto.com ($1 to $50 per photograph and illustration)
•StockXpert.com ($1 to $25 per photograph and illustration)
•BrandsOfTheWorld.com (free corporate and product logos)
Here are three strategies to ensure you complete your final design quickly and easily—with or without a design background.
1. Use PowerPoint to Make Graphics
Use Microsoft PowerPoint's (I recommend PowerPoint 2007 or newer) library of built-in graphics to make and edit basic graphics.
2. Keep Your Graphics Clean and Simple
You may not be a superstar designer, but clean, simple graphics can make you look like a professional. Non-designers sometimes fall prey to the "more is better" syndrome. Great designers know when and why to add visually appealing accents. Poor designers unnecessarily add distracting gradients and colors, intersecting and angled lines, bevels, shadows, text effects, 3-D effects, clip art, and over-the-top embellishments believing their graphic will look better. However, the resulting graphic often looks confusing and unprofessional.
3. Use a Template
Choose a color palette, graphic style, arrow style, font, line spacing, and capitalization and stick with it. A template is a key ingredient to developing quality graphics and helps guarantee consistency—and consistency breeds trust.
Mike Parkinson is a visual communication expert and multipublished author. He recently completed his third book titled "Do-It-Yourself Billion-Dollar Business Graphics: 3 Fast and Easy Steps to Turn Your Text and Ideas Into Graphics That Sell." Click here to learn more. Parkinson is also a partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier graphics firm. To learn more, visit http://www.24hrco.com/, e-mail him at mike@24hrco.com, or call 703.533.7209.
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