Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

To Be Effective, You Have to Affect People

A visual story is a new starting point from which you can then create presentations, animations, or just stand and speak. It is a proven, simple, effective technique for communicating an idea in such a compelling way that your audience will want to act on it.

A visual story does more than communicate an idea. It combines storytelling techniques with visual design to communicate a message that has been fine-tuned for your specific audience. A visual story inspires your audience to act. This matters because an idea that doesn't inspire change or motivate people to act is impotent and powerless. Even an amazingly good idea, like “wash your hands before surgery,” can go unheeded if not communicated well.

Although literally millions of presentations are made every year, most fall into three general categories. Presentations are used to CONVINCE, EDUCATE, or REPORT. Visual stories are useful primarily for situations where the aim is to convince other people. Presentations designed to educate the audience or to report on progress can benefit from a lot of what we have to say, but the process we have developed has a strong focus on reducing the message down to the minimum necessary to influence the audience to take an action. A visual story provides a selected set of information, in a single complete picture, carefully designed to draw your audience from their starting place to the desired conclusion.

While you may ultimately produce your visual ...