Do you think we perceive the world directly through our senses? Probably not. go completely crazy if it was true. An overload of stimuli would flood our brains, and we’d drown.
In our brains, all incoming data is first encoded and filtered. What’s important reaches us as perception, and the rest is suppressed as noise.
There are wonderful experiments that show this filtering, such as this video about basketball. You’re likely familiar with the visual illusion of the vase and the two faces, where perceiving one image requires you to ignore the other.
The guiding mechanism that determines what gets filtered out and what gets amplified is attention. And if you know how attention works, you can steer how the information from your presentation reaches your audience.
Attention regulates your filter
Think of attention as a mixing board. You slide the volume of relevant signals up and that of noise down. That mixer is not only goal-driven but also stimulus-driven. Goal-driven is what you consciously filter out. Stimulus-driven is what presents itself automatically.
In a presentation, you want the goal-oriented mode to dominate. You achieve this, for example, by explicitly directing the audience’s attention to a specific aspect. But also by choosing the perfect visual forms so that the right elements stand out automatically.
Consciously steering attention in your presentation
A data presentation is not a list of numbers nor a carousel of visuals. Your presentation is more like a journey through the data. You first show what really matters, you dampen what’s less important, and you leave the rest out.
Indeed, that requires making choices. Dare to leave out what doesn’t contribute to your message. This helps your audience’s filter. Less noise means faster understanding and less chance of wrong conclusions.
It all starts with a crystal-clear central message. Without it, your entire presentation becomes clouded and hard to follow.
How to convince with atention
- You can guide attention with your words, tell your audience what to look at. For instance: “Here we see the churn rate in Q3” or “The sharp rise in profit came as a surprise.”
- You can also steer attention with the text on your slide. Make sure you have a clear title that states the conclusion. And briefly explain in the subtitle how the visual shows this conclusion.
- Remove unnecessary information and make sure it’s immediately clear what’s important in your visual. For example, by highlighting the most important value.
Filter your visuals
Attention determines what you see and what you don’t.
If you bring the right elements forward in your presentation, you decide what attracts attention. As example, you show a bar chart with 10 categories. All bars are grey. But the one that proves your point is blue (because there might be colorblind people among the audience ). You state the message of the slide out loud. You point to the evidence. You pause briefly to let the message sink in.
Seven tips to direct Attention with your visuals
Color as spotlight
Use one signal color for the main point. Make the rest grey. Limit the number of colors to what’s really necessary. And take into consideration colorblind people.
Size and thickness
Make sure that the most important element is bigger or thicker. A thicker line or larger marker naturally stands out. Avoid spaghetti.
Position and Order
Place the most important element carefully. Sort categories by relevance or value where possible, not alphabetically. You could also make use of the rule of 3.
Label
Avoid loose legends that make eyes search. When it comes to visualising data and using charts, put a short label next to the line or bar it refers to.
Contrast and White Space
Ensure enough white space around your main object. Give it some air to breathe. Contrast draws the eye; by now, you have learned that too much information makes it harder to keep attention.
Limit Shapes
Use as few shapes as possible at once. Lines for trends, bars for quantities, dots for distributions. But preferably not mixed.
Avoid Frills
Don’t use 3D effects or shadows, patterns, or grids unless it is really necessary. Every extra effect chips away at the attention your audience needs for the content. This also applies to illustrations (pictures) and logos.
Conclusion: A practical rule of thumb
“Whoever steers attention, steers the filter”. Let this thought guide your presentation design. Whoever steers the filter determines what people really see and thus influences which conclusion they will draw. Take your audience on a journey through what you noticed in the data, and they’ll be more likely to follow your conclusions and recommendations.
