Earlier this week I attended a training that made my eyes bleed.
Okay, not really, but the trainer’s use of a flip chart was nothing short of painful. I couldn’t read what she was writing (and I was in the front!), the pages were a series of random squiggles that couldn’t easily connect with what she was trying to share, and while she may be an expert in her field… her flip charts made her look less-than-knowledgeable. Even though I had spent good money to be there, I started counting down the hours before the training would be over, and wondering how to politely suggest some tips to enhance their future flip chart work.
Flip charts are a great, low-tech way to communicate information and engage people in your training or workshop. Used poorly, they can result in Death By Flip Chart. To make your flip charts more legible, try these three simple tips:
WRITE ONE STROKE AT A TIME. The biggest mistake people make when using flip charts is to write like you normally do. Cursive or loopy writing is fast, it gets the information onto the page… and it’s practically illegible. The trick is to use block letters and write each letter one stroke at a time. Every part of every letter is one stroke. This serves two purposes: one, it makes the letters easy to see because your writing is more precise, and two, it makes the writing easier to read because you are taking the time to think about what you are doing.(For an example of what I’m talking about, check out my video, How to write legibly on a flip chart)
WRITE FOR THE BACK OF THE ROOM. Now that you’ve got lettering that people can read, you want to make sure that everyone can see it. Write large enough so that your flip chart is legible from the back of the room. I’ll sometimes use my hand as a size guide on the fly: I hold my hand against the paper so that my fingers are going horizontally, fingers held together. Whole hand-size is a good starting place for titles, and 3-4 fingers closed is a handy size (no pun intended!) for text lettering. Experiment with how visible your charts are by actually going to the back row or table at your event and seeing how they look. (Now imagine how they’d look if your parents or grandparents were sitting in the back of the room… could they see what you wrote?) I’ve found that limiting my text to six or seven lines per flip chart page keeps the content visible and easily read.
WRITE WITH THE EARTH. Colors play a huge part in the visibility of your text. Earth colors (blues, greens, browns, blacks) are easily seen from the front and the back of the room–make these your go-to colors for text. Writing with pastels or yellows/oranges may look cool up close, but become much harder to see the further back you go. Stick to these types of colors for accents, and be sure to check from the back of the room to see how visible they actually are!
It’s just the tip of the flip chart iceberg, but these tips will help you create more legible pages… which improve your odds for keeping your team on the same page!
