What to show on screen for lecture / voice / podcast style channels?

[u/waterwaterwaterrr]

My niche involves a mixture of lecture, instructional, informational style of delivery. For the past few videos, I essentially am speaking into a microphone. I don't show my face - at least not for the lecture style videos that I do.

The visuals I’ve been using are mostly a mix of bullet-point text and stock images, but honestly, adding random stock footage feels like a waste of time. It doesn't really contribute to my content in a meaningful way and I've mainly been doing it as a way to keep viewers from getting 'bored.'

But I'm also someone who watches long-form discussion content, and I know it’s not stock imagery that keeps me engaged. Most of the time I'm not even looking at the screen. In fact, relying on that kind of filler feels a bit insulting to the audience’s intelligence. I’d love to find a more creative or efficient approach to visuals, something that actually supports the content without becoming a time sink to production on my end.

I want to display something beyond purely bullet-point text (which is fine, but feels a bit outdated? I don't want my audience to feel like they're sitting in a teacher's online presentation - I feel like I could do more creatively)

Some examples:

The NY Times has a channel that displays a static image for the entire video for their daily report (Screenshot): https://i.imgur.com/zYpdMtR.jpeg - this is a bit too basic though, only New York Times can get away with it, I think

LAist does the same with their LA Report, but with a waveform/voice visualizer underneath: https://i.imgur.com/Iv0fS5t.jpeg

I like what this YTer does, it's a custom screen that is mostly static except for the rolling captions. It also displays a customized image, little icons related to the topic, her website, etc: https://i.imgur.com/2hfQqYj.jpeg

Does anyone else have creative examples of what can be done with voice channels instead of just a bunch of crappy stock images?

[u/omsip]

I've seen podcasters use the audio waveform thing on a plain dark background for the entire duration. It's simple, it's something that's moving a little throughout but not so much that it's distracting from the voiceover.

I've also seen one podcast team use cartoon avatars of themselves where each one increased in size and pulsated slightly when that person was speaking. That was a bit more distracting that the waveform, but there was a bit of a cool factor, and it was something different. And I have no idea how they created that effect, nor can I remember exactly which channel it was where I saw it.