Like the title suggests (“aid” means help), visual aids help the presentation through invoking the audience’s sense of sight.

• The purpose of a visual is not to decorate your presentation, but to give useful information to demonstrate a point or clarify something in your presentation for the audience.

• We learn a lot from visuals.

• It is helpful to clearly state to the audience how the visual aid fits into your presentation by using signpost language. For example, to cue your audience to look at your visual, you can say: “As you can see…” or “On this slide…”