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The Prezi Process

Creating your first prezi can be a little overwhelming. Where do I start? How do I pull it all together? What if I mess it up? If youfollow the Prezi Process I’ve outlined below it will keep you on track.

Step 1: Plan Your PreziOne of the things that makes Prezi so different and so exciting is its infinitecanvas. But facing an empty white canvas can be scary when you are tryingto envision your end product – a well-designed, content-rich prezi. Here’s myadvice, “STEP AWAY FROM THE SCREEN.” Don’t try to plan your prezi onthe Prezi canvas. Unless you are comfortable with the Prezi interface andwant to use it for brainstorming, get out some paper and pencils instead.First identify the presentation’s purpose and write it down. Use the purposeas a filter as you are creating your prezi. You might be dazzled by a stunningimage that you’d like to include in your project. If it doesn’t fit with yourpresentation’s purpose, don’t let it distract you — throw it out.

Your written purpose statement will also help you brainstorm possible ideas.I recommend using a mind map to show the main topics for your prezi andhow they are related. But you can use whatever works best for you – awhiteboard, post-it notes, an outline. When you can see your ideas laid outon paper, a pattern might appear. It might be a diagram, a shape, or even animage that ties everything into a single cohesive statement. The goal for theplanning stage of your project is to visualize the “big picture” of the wholeprezi.

Step 2: Build Your Prezi

When you have the “big picture” formulated, it’s time to start collecting theelements that make up the content. These elements can be text, graphics,websites, photos, videos — almost anything that is in digital format. Theyare the puzzle pieces that you will put together to form your end product. Atthis stage you are just collecting the content. Don’t get hung up onpositioning the elements on the Prezi canvas. It might be easiest for you togroup all the photographs together on one area of the canvas and all thevideo together in another area, and so on. Or, arrange the elements intocategories, or in chronological order — whatever makes sense for yourproject. Your goal here is to gather the elements and place them onto thePrezi canvas.

As you collect the content, you will discover the need to create elements –especially graphics – that you can’t find. Stick a text box on the canvas as aplace-holder to remind you that there is a graphic that’s missing. You candescribe what it is and your plans to create it in the text box. It will act as areminder for you to replace that place-holder before moving on to the designphase. As you gather your content, remember to keep in mind your writtenstatement of purpose. Don’t be distracted by shiny objects that don’t support your main idea.

Depending on your type of project, you will want to develop the script or storyboard at this point in the process. Will there be anarrative in the form of a voice-over, or your own live speech? You’ll want to script the speech, or at least outline the highlights. Ifthe project is to be more visual, consider using a storyboard instead. Think of the prezi in terms of a film sequence. Each frameof your storyboard should contain a sketch of the shots that make up the scene.

Step 3: Design Your PreziAt last — the fun part of creating a prezi! You have all the content gatheredinto one place and you’ve drafted a script or storyboard to show howeverything fits together. Now it’s time to design the flow of the presentation. Your role in this phase is like the Director of a film. You position your propsand actors around the stage and direct the cameraman in the sequence ofshots. You use long shots to establish the setting and close-ups to zoom inon the detail. You control how the camera tilts, pans, and rotates todenote mood and movement. And let’s not forget the set design! You selectthe colors, fonts, and backgrounds that will best communicate yourmessage. As the Director, you guide all aspects of the prezi so they worktogether to realize your intended purpose. This step is the most creative, themost exciting, and the most difficult to master.

In the course of designing your prezi, you may realize that you need toexpand your storyboard or script in order to clarify your meaning. You maydiscover that some images you collected just don’t work in the biggerscheme of things. It’s likely that you’ll backtrack to the previous step in thePrezi Process to change or expand on the assets you collected in Step 2.You might even bounce back to Step 1 to do some brainstorming for other ideas.

The most creative and effective prezi’s are structured around a metaphor or Big Picture. It might be a road-map representing anon-going journey, or an iceberg representing the underlying issues that aren’t apparent at first glance. The zooming movementaround the Prezi canvas gives glimpses of the prezi’s structure, showing how the content is inter-related. A dramatic reveal of thebig picture at the start or end of the presentation can make a powerful statement to support your message.

Step 4: Polish Your Prezi

In the previous step, you acted as a film Director. In this step you are incharge of Special Effects. This is where you add the bells and whistles thatgive your prezi polish and pizzazz. If you are creating a simple prezi, youmay be able to skip this step and go directly to the next. If you want to makesomething fancy, you might spend lots of time here. In fact, you should becareful not to spend too much time polishing your prezi. Too many effectsmight detract from you original intent. Remember that written purposestatement from Step 1? Dust it off and keep it handy as you complete thisstep. Use it as a filter to manage your time. If Prezi effects like animation,background music, and custom fonts are not essential to your presentation’spurpose, don’t waste your time on them.

On the other hand, Prezi offers some exciting ways to enhance yourmessage, which might be just the reason why you are creating a prezi andnot a typical slide deck. Some of the features you might add to polish yourprezi include 3D background images, recorded voice-over, custom colorsand fonts, and fade-in animation.

Step 5: Present Your PreziIf you are using your prezi for a live presentation, I recommend that youpractice it extensively beforehand. Don’t just practice the words you’re goingto say, practice your posture, body language, and gestures. Be conscious ofyour pace, volume, and intonation. You ARE the presentation. The prezi isjust there to give you visual support. Don’t follow the prezi — LEAD theprezi. Prezi is not like PowerPoint of Keynote. You don’t have to follow thepath from start to finish. If you decide to take a detour, click on the frame youwant to display and you will zoom directly to it. This is especially useful forfollow-up questions and clarification.

Most prezi’s are used in live in-person presentations. But there are otherpossibilities to explore. You can design your prezi to run unattended at akiosk. It can auto-play it from an embedded file on a website. And the Preziplatform isn’t limited to just presentations. You can use the Prezi canvas tocollaborate visually in virtual meetings. There are probably ways to use Prezithat we haven’t even thought of yet!