South Carolina Trial Law Blog

Visual communication has been around for awhile. It consists of ‘anchoring’ arguments with a visual image. If you’re talking about a person, show their picture. If you’re talking about a doctor’s office, show it’s picture. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but even if you’re in a contracts case, show a picture of the outside of the office of the company that breached the contract. People respond to and remember things better when there is a visual.

I was in Columbus, Ohio recently for the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers annual Convention and gave a presentation using the visual communication style. It’s a style that has been perfected and popularized by Cliff Atkinson in Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. I was pleasantly surprised when a number of people came up to me after the presentation to talk about Beyond Bullets and the visual comminication style. The person giving a presentation after me used the visual communication style as well.

If you want to know more about the visual communication style, go to Cliff Atkinson:s blog, Beyond Bullets or look at Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen blog. Garr has a different take on the same principles. I love them both.

Hmm…..I wonder if Cliff Atkinson:s success with Mark Lanier on the first Vioxx case has anything to do with his new popularity?

Nice post! Pictures and graphics can help people remember people, points, or stories -- as well as just holding their interest.

I've been noticing lately the crime dramas (Law & Order, CSI, etc.) using white boards or bulletin boards where they slap up pictures of the victims, suspects, witnesses, etc., and draw arrows showing relations. I'm not at all sure that real investigative teams have sheafs of 8x10 glossies at the ready -- but it certainly helps me as a viewer understand who and what they're talking about.

A few months ago I heard speakers talking about online exhibits. The talk, with some sharp examples, persuaded me that images really do help a page of text, drawing the eye, getting the reader's attention, and offering some visual variety. After that, I made an effort to add graphics to my blog posts, at least every several posts. I'm careful about permissions -- so I have old photos from the National Archives and some photos with permission. I've also made simple drawings using Microsoft Paint. (As it happens, I haven't been able to load a graphic today because of a problem with Blogger's server or something.)

To illustrate us of the value of visual communication, why not show us an image or two, perhaps from your recent presentation?

-- Mary