Monday, August 23, 2010

The impact of visuals

Remember sitting in that overheated classroom in high school or college listening─or not─to a seemingly endless lecture? Probably not, since your mind had gone numb. Why did so many of us need to write down every single word we heard? Because at least 65%of us are visual learners.

Consider the result of this study conducted at Harvard: people comprehend about 7% of information delivered verbally and 87% when delivered both verbally and visually.

A study at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found that presenters using visual aids:
- conduct meetings in 28% less time
- increase audience retention by up to five times
- get proposals approved twice as often

Further studies found that when visuals are used group consensus occurs 21% more often and the time required to present a concept can be reduced up to 40%.

The message is clear: use handouts, write on the board or paper, demonstrate, show a quick clip─get visual!

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