This is the first of my Prezi tips, and you are probably wondering why it’s titled ‘Don’t touch Prezi’. After all isn’t the whole point of this blog site to encourage more use of Prezi??? Let me explain…..
Prezi is such a powerful medium for presentations, but when you start designing your Prezi you need to be 100% clear on what it is you are trying to achieve. I would suggest you DON’T TOUCH PREZI unless you know:
- Exactly what the overall message is your trying to get across (We call this your core message)
- If there are key messages along the way that will help you make your point
- If your Prezi will be presenter led, or if it will be viewed online by people
- What type of imagery, look and feel you want to use
These are some of the things you MUST know before you go anywhere near the prezi software, and here’s how I go about planning my Prezi designs.
Mind Mapping
You’ve probably heard of ‘Mind Mapping’ which is basically a way of laying down all of your ideas in one place to help map out a project or (in our case) a Prezi design. There are lots of different software you can buy to help you mind map, but in my opinion nothing beats a good old pencil and a note pad.
I use Brain Storming for everything from Prezi design projects, Financial planning, New idea generation, and even to name my first child (true story!).
New to Mind Mapping?
If you’ve never tried this technique before then start right now because it will help you get a firm understanding of what the finished product should be and how it will look & flow in Prezi.
- Start in the centre of a blank page with the title of your project e.g. Prezi Design
- Branch off into different sub headings like Graphics, Video, Objectives, Theme, and so on
- Don’t think to hard about what to write or sketch – Just let it flow
- Keep going until everything in front of you just naturally glues together. You should get a lightbulb moment that shows you some kind of graphic or ‘Big Picture‘ visual that can become the background of your Prezi
- Now look over the content and number everything in the order you think would make sense to an audience. This is the road map you will use when you create the Frames and Path Points (the flow) of your presentation.
The above steps can take 20 minutes or 2 hours, it’s entirely up to you. But make sure you get a clear idea of what info you re going to present, how your Prezi is going to look, and of course the order in which you are going to present things.
Keep practicing this technique and use it for more than just Prezi designs – It’s a great skill to have.
