Presentation

The information we produce is the culmination of our efforts to clarify our objectives and understand the needs of the audience. Having done that, we need to ensure that both the form and content of the publication use the best techniques in order to get our message across effectively.

Too much legal information appears to exist in a world untouched by the presentation and design techniques that we take for granted in the mass media and commercial publishing.

Commercial publications use an array of techniques to make them attractive, grab their intended audience's attention and hold it to keep them reading through to the end.

In contrast, legal information often seems to be modelled on an old-fashioned textbook approach.

This may be because information about law-related problems is produced on a shoestring budget in a short timescale, and so providers have got used to doing it in a very plain style. Legal information may also seen as a 'distress purchase' that people only reach for when they are desperate and so don't care whether it is nicely presented or not.

However, this view doesn't take into account the preventative role of information, or the need to reach out to people before their problem gets to crisis point.

The commercial world puts a lot of money and effort into good design because it works for them as a way of getting their message across. The same logic applies to us: it makes sense to use the best techniques in order to make our information attractive.

We can also learn from the methods used in the education world. Teachers and trainers, in common with journalists, use a variety of presentation techniques to get their points across. They know that different people learn in different ways: more visual people will find diagrams and illustrations helpful; others will appreciate stories and examples that reinforce key points.

More visual people... Law-related information can also make use of these methods to reach the widest audience and to achieve maximum understanding. This means using a range of techniques - case studies, stories, quizzes, diagrams, flow charts, Q&As, jargon busters etc - to aid comprehension and accommodate different learning styles. The repetition and reinforcement of this approach will help ensure that key points are grasped by all members of your audience.

This doesn't mean that every publication has to use every method - but they are all available as part of a rich palette of techniques that information providers can call on to meet the needs of their particular audience.

‘What presentation techniques will you use?’ provides practical help and suggestions for appropriate presentation techniques.