Design Principles: Multi-Media
The first in a series of seven
In this first post in a new series, we take a look a closer look the Seven Multi-Media Design Principles, as researched by Prof RE Mayer, J Sweller et al.
The first principle simply says that using multiple media greatly increases audience retention - so, if you're think of making a speech, you ought to seriously consider illustrating it (and converting it into a presentation). A well illustrated narration will work better than narration alone.
Think about all of the different approaches school teachers use in an effort to get their students to remember lessons. Those different mediums are used to keep the students engaged and help get important messages into their long term memory. This same approach should be taken in your presentations.
The best approach to doing this is by creating your supporting graphics at the same time as you write your script. This ensures the two are closely related. Resist the temptation to create the graphics first: it's much easier to create graphics that illustrate a message, then to write words that support an illustration. To maximise audience recall, your script and slides (illustrations) should support one and another and deliver a unified message.