Tag: Prezi Feature of the Week

3D Backgrounds: Adding Depth and Dimension to Your Prezi

presentation design

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tutorial

Nov 08, 2017

What else can you do to enhance your audience’s visual experience? Aside from customizing your prezi, is there any other way to add something more to your presentations? We take a closer look at 3D backgrounds for this week’s Prezi Feature. 

One of the many advantages of Prezi is the flexibility it offers. Unlike linear slide presentations, the prezi canvas offers vast space for storytelling. With Prezi, you’re free to transition from one point to another and follow any narrative structure you want. You can also add depth and dimension to your presentations. Give your visual metaphors a whole life of its own with 3D backgrounds.

3D backgrounds can give your visuals a more dynamic look. Prezi makes use of “parallax motion” to create a 3D-like effect as you move around the canvas. With this feature, your background automatically adjusts when you transition along the path. If you layer multiple images in the background, you get a cross fade effect as you zoom in and out of frames.

Check this presentation to see how it all works:

How do I add 3D backgrounds to my Prezi?

You can add 3D backgrounds through the Theme Wizard. Access the “Customize” sidebar and look for the “Advanced” option at the very bottom. From there, all you have to do is upload your own images via the 3D Background “Edit” button.

You can have up to 3 different background layers. Drag and drop the thumbnails to arrange them in the order you prefer.

What tips should I keep in mind?

While working with 3D backgrounds, take note of these four things:

  • Image Size: Make sure your image is at least 3000 pixels wide. Any smaller and your background images might look pixelated once you zoom in your prezi. Be wary of your file size, as well. Larger files might cause your prezi to lag or crash. If your image file is too big, Prezi will automatically ask to resize it.
  • Similar Images: Since the layers change with a cross fading effect, opt for similar-looking images. If you don’t want to distract the audience, any variation between the 3 images shouldn’t look too jarring.
  • Readable Content: Keep your content readable by working with simple images. In other words, choose images with plenty of white space and aren’t too “busy”. You can also make use of shapes or the highlighter tool to create contrast between your text and background.
  • Zooming In and Out: When arranging your content, zoom in and out to transition from one layer to another. Try not to place anything in between transitions. Just keep zooming in until the image becomes clear.

Prezi Design Tips: How to Leverage Your Brand

brand

Branding

presentation branding

presentation design

prezi design

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tips

prezi tutorial

Dec 04, 2014

Prezi offers a dynamic and visually captivating way to present ideas, going beyond the traditional linear structure of PowerPoint. The tool’s unique zooming interface and canvas-based approach can help your brand stand out in the marketplace—if you know how to use it effectively. To fully leverage your brand in Prezi, you need to incorporate the core elements of your company’s identity, such as your logo, color palette, fonts, and messaging.

Here’s a guide to designing a Prezi that not only engages your audience but also reinforces your brand identity.

1. Start with Your Brand’s Visual Identity

Your brand’s visual identity is the foundation of any presentation, and Prezi is no exception. Before you begin designing, gather the essential elements that define your brand—such as colors, logos, and typography. Consistent use of these elements builds brand recognition and trust with your audience.

How to Do It:

  • Customize Your Prezi Theme: Prezi allows you to create custom themes to reflect your brand. Begin by setting the background color, fonts, and title styles to match your company’s brand guidelines.
    • Go to the Prezi Editor → Customize → Advanced Settings to edit the background, font, and shapes.
  • Use Your Brand Colors: Incorporate your brand’s color palette throughout the presentation. Prezi allows you to apply your own colors to backgrounds, frames, and text.
    • Tip: Use your primary color for important elements like titles and calls to action, and secondary colors for accents and emphasis.

Example:

If your brand uses a navy blue and orange color palette, make sure the background or key elements in your Prezi incorporate these colors consistently.

2. Leverage Prezi’s Dynamic Features to Showcase Brand Storytelling

Prezi’s zooming and path-based format is perfect for non-linear storytelling. Rather than moving slide by slide, Prezi allows you to zoom into different parts of your presentation, which can help convey your brand story in a more engaging way.

How to Do It:

  • Map Out Your Brand Story: Prezi’s canvas is an open space where you can plot your content visually. Structure your presentation like a journey, using zoom-in transitions to reveal key elements of your brand’s story.
    • Start with an overview of your company, then zoom into different parts of the canvas to explore your mission, values, product history, and other details.
  • Use Frames to Organize Content: Frames in Prezi act as containers for content, allowing you to group ideas or sections together. Use branded colors and shapes to differentiate various sections of your story, such as product features, company history, or future goals.
  • Zoom for Emphasis: Zooming in on your company’s milestones, key achievements, or new initiatives makes them feel more impactful and exciting for your audience.

Example:

If you’re telling the story of your brand’s evolution, start with an overview of your company, then zoom into specific timelines or product launches. Each zoom reveals more detailed information, such as customer testimonials or product successes.

3. Incorporate Branded Visuals

Images, icons, and graphics are a critical part of your presentation design. In Prezi, visuals have an even greater impact because of the zoom feature. High-quality, branded visuals help reinforce your message and make your presentation more engaging.

How to Do It:

  • Use Branded Icons and Graphics: Instead of generic visuals, use custom icons and graphics that reflect your brand’s aesthetic. Prezi allows you to upload your own images, so ensure they align with your visual identity.
  • Maintain Image Consistency: Stick to a consistent image style, whether it’s minimalistic, realistic, or illustrative. This keeps your presentation cohesive and professional.
  • Brand Your Imagery: If possible, use images that directly reflect your brand. This could include images of your products, employees, or customer success stories.

Example:

If your company has a specific style of product photography (e.g., high-contrast images or minimalist designs), incorporate these images into your Prezi to visually communicate your brand’s personality.

4. Align Fonts with Brand Guidelines

Typography is a powerful branding tool that reflects the tone and personality of your business. Prezi allows for font customization, so use this feature to align your text with your brand’s typography guidelines.

How to Do It:

  • Choose Brand Fonts: Prezi gives you the option to choose custom fonts from their library or upload your own. Select fonts that are part of your company’s branding, such as the font used on your website or in printed materials.
  • Set a Font Hierarchy: Ensure that your headers, subheaders, and body text use a clear hierarchy to maintain readability. Stick to a few font sizes and weights for consistency and professionalism.
  • Keep It Readable: While creative fonts are great, make sure they are legible, especially on smaller screens or during remote presentations. Balance creativity with clarity.

Example:

If your brand uses a clean, modern font like Helvetica for headlines, and a simpler font like Arial for body text, replicate that in your Prezi to maintain brand consistency.

5. Structure Your Content with a Clear Visual Flow

Prezi’s zooming transitions allow for a more creative structure than traditional slide decks. However, it’s crucial to ensure that your audience can follow the flow of your presentation easily. A clear structure makes your message more impactful and avoids confusion.

How to Do It:

  • Organize Content Logically: While Prezi allows for non-linear navigation, it’s important to guide your audience through your presentation in a logical order. Plan out a path that takes your audience through key sections of your brand’s story.
  • Use Zoom for Subtle Transitions: Avoid zooming too far in or out, as this can disorient your audience. Instead, use smooth transitions that flow naturally between points.
  • Create a Strong Overview: Start with a high-level overview of your presentation’s key points, then zoom into more specific areas of interest.

Example:

For a product launch, create a map where each section of the presentation focuses on a different product feature. Begin with an overarching statement about the product’s benefits, then zoom into detailed explanations of features or customer use cases.

6. Add Interactive Elements to Boost Engagement

One of Prezi’s advantages is its ability to add interactive elements to your presentation, making it a more engaging experience. Interactive features allow your audience to explore the presentation at their own pace or to dive deeper into specific content.

How to Do It:

  • Embed Videos and Animations: Incorporating branded video content can help tell your brand’s story in a visually engaging way. You can also embed short product demos, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes videos to make your presentation interactive.
  • Hyperlinks to External Resources: Prezi allows you to embed hyperlinks to websites, reports, or documents. Use these links to direct the audience to your company’s landing pages, social media profiles, or other branded content.
  • Add Clickable Frames: Create frames that viewers can click to zoom into a specific part of the presentation. This makes your Prezi more interactive and gives your audience the freedom to explore your brand’s story.

Example:

For a presentation about a new service, embed a customer testimonial video or link to your company’s case study page to provide further insights and increase audience interaction.

7. Maintain a Strong Brand Voice

While Prezi offers many opportunities to get creative with visuals and structure, it’s important to maintain a consistent brand voice throughout your presentation. The way you present your content should reflect your company’s personality, whether it’s formal and professional or casual and conversational.

How to Do It:

  • Keep Your Messaging Consistent: Ensure that the language used in your Prezi aligns with your company’s tone of voice. Whether you’re using industry jargon or friendly, approachable language, consistency is key to reinforcing your brand identity.
  • Highlight Key Brand Messages: Incorporate your company’s tagline, mission statement, or unique value proposition within the presentation to remind the audience of your core values.

Example:

If your brand voice is innovative and bold, craft short, punchy statements that reflect that tone. Use headlines like “Transforming the Future of Healthcare” rather than longer, formal statements.

Final Thoughts

Prezi offers a unique and engaging platform to elevate your brand through presentations. By integrating your brand’s visual identity, storytelling techniques, and interactive features, you can create a dynamic presentation that not only captures attention but also reinforces your brand’s values and personality.

With thoughtful design and strategic use of Prezi’s features, your presentation can go beyond delivering information—it can become an immersive experience that leaves a lasting impression on your audience. Leverage the power of Prezi to highlight your brand and stand out from the competition.

Collaboration in Prezi: Creating a Cohesive Vision

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tips

prezi tutorial

Nov 20, 2014

Technology continues to make communication and collaboration much easier. Share your ideas and collaborate with everyone in your team with a step-by-step guide in this week’s Prezi Feature.

A presentation isn’t always a lone endeavor. Maybe you’re working with collaborators on a new project. Maybe you need to ask some people in your team to corroborate the facts and data you have. Whatever the reason, there will be occasions when your work requires close collaboration with others. If you want to make sure that the core message is properly represented through visuals and content, you’ll need to take into account everybody’s input.

Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The process of collaboration can get a bit tedious, especially when you’re building a presentation deck together. There will be plenty of back and forths between different individuals. Dozens of emails sent. Different versions of the presentation file shared. There are so many steps to go through before everyone can agree on a final “look”. In between those steps, there are a lot of room for error as well. The process will be so much easier if you can all just sit and work together at one time. But what if there’s a conflict in schedules? Or what if your collaborators live across the country from you?

We often talk about how today’s technology has significantly increased our ability to communicate, specifically in the world of business. You can save a lot of time and effort if you know which tools to use. Speed up the process and see everyone’s input instantly using Prezi’s collaboration feature.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to keep everyone’s ideas clear and cohesive:

With Prezi’s collaboration feature, you can work with up to 10 different users. While editing your presentation, click on the Share button at the right side of the top menu.

prezi collaboration 02

Choosing ‘Share prezi’ will prompt a pop up where you can type down the email address of your collaborators. Prezi will send emails informing them that they can edit the presentation with you.

prezi collaboration 01

From there, it’s as easy as working on your prezi as you usually would. Except now you’re working together with several other people, making your own edits on specific parts of the presentation.

prezi collaboration 03

If you want to see which part of the prezi your collaborator is working on, click on their avatar and choose ‘Zoom to position’.

prezi collaboration 05

You can also invite other users to join by expanding the sidebar on the right. If you want to review your prezi once everyone is done making their contributions, just click on ‘Start presentation’.

prezi collaboration 04

You’ll be the presenter by default, but you can allow your collaborators to take the lead by clicking on their names and choosing ‘Hand over presentation’.

prezi collaboration 09

Collaboration is a crucial part of any project. When it comes to preparing presentations, the old saying “two heads are better than one” is often true. Allow others to share their ideas and contribute to create a strong and cohesive vision. Creating a presentation involves a lot of creativity and innovation. With Prezi’s collaboration feature, you can combine the best ideas into a single vision.

Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo / Prezi logo via Wikimedia Commons

Prezi Tips: How to Create Your Own Designs in No Time

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tips

prezi tutorial

Nov 13, 2014

Prezi is known for its dynamic, zoomable presentations that break away from the traditional slide-based format. With Prezi, you can create engaging and visually captivating presentations that move smoothly between different elements, helping you tell a compelling story. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced Prezi user, these tips will help you create your own designs in no time.

1. Start with a Prezi Template

Prezi offers a variety of ready-made templates that can be customized to fit your content. Starting with a template helps save time while providing a solid foundation for your presentation design.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Saves Time: Prezi’s templates are professionally designed, allowing you to focus on customizing the content rather than starting from scratch.
  • Provides Structure: Templates provide a clear structure, making it easier to organize your presentation and create a cohesive flow.

How to Do It:

  • Open Prezi and browse the template gallery. Choose a template that matches your presentation’s style and theme.
  • Customize the template by adding your text, images, and other media.

Example: If you’re creating a business pitch, choose a professional template with clean lines and subtle colors that can be easily adapted to your company’s branding.

2. Use Prezi’s Zooming Feature Effectively

One of Prezi’s standout features is its zooming capability, allowing you to zoom in and out of content. This feature can help you present your information in a nonlinear way, making your presentation more interactive and engaging.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Enhances Engagement: Zooming adds movement to your presentation, keeping your audience interested and helping them follow along.
  • Emphasizes Key Points: By zooming in on specific elements, you can highlight important information and create a visual hierarchy.

How to Do It:

  • When designing your Prezi, map out the flow of your content so that key points can be zoomed in on when needed.
  • Avoid excessive zooming, which can be disorienting for the audience. Use it strategically to guide the viewer through your presentation.

Example: Use zoom to start with an overview of your topic, then zoom in on specific points for deeper explanations, such as moving from a big-picture concept to detailed case studies.

3. Customize Your Path

In Prezi, your presentation follows a path that connects each element. While templates come with predefined paths, you can customize the path to better suit your narrative and control how the audience navigates through your content.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Improves Flow: Customizing the path allows you to create a logical flow that matches the story you want to tell.
  • Tailors the Experience: You can adjust the path to focus more on key points and skip less important details if needed.

How to Do It:

  • Use the Edit Path feature in Prezi to customize the order in which elements are presented.
  • Rearrange, add, or remove elements from the path to create the flow you want.

Example: For a product presentation, you can start with the product overview, zoom in on its features, then move to customer testimonials, and finish with pricing details.

4. Incorporate Multimedia Elements

Prezi allows you to insert multimedia elements such as images, videos, and charts to make your presentation more interactive. These elements not only add variety but also help illustrate complex ideas more clearly.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Enhances Engagement: Incorporating multimedia can break up the text and keep your audience visually engaged.
  • Simplifies Complex Information: Visuals like charts or videos can help explain difficult concepts more effectively than text alone.

How to Do It:

  • Drag and drop images, videos, or charts into your Prezi design. Make sure they are relevant to your content and support your key points.
  • Use multimedia elements sparingly to avoid overwhelming your audience.

Example: Include a short product demo video to show how your solution works or insert a chart that visualizes key data points.

5. Make Use of Prezi’s Frames

Frames in Prezi are like slide containers, used to group content together and control how the audience views each section of your presentation. Frames can be circular, rectangular, or invisible, allowing for flexible design.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Organizes Content: Frames help break down your presentation into sections, making it easier to manage and navigate.
  • Guides the Viewer: Using frames allows you to control what the audience sees and when, guiding them through your narrative in a structured way.

How to Do It:

  • Use frames to group related content together. For example, one frame might contain all the key benefits of your product, while another contains customer testimonials.
  • Choose from Prezi’s different frame shapes to match the visual style of your presentation.

Example: Create a circular frame to highlight an important statistic and a rectangular frame to show a step-by-step process.

6. Keep It Simple

Prezi’s zooming and interactive features make it tempting to add a lot of movement and content, but it’s important to keep your presentation simple and focused. Overcomplicating the design can distract from your message and confuse your audience.

Why It’s Effective:

  • Improves Clarity: Keeping the design simple ensures that your content is the focus and prevents the audience from feeling overwhelmed.
  • Maintains Engagement: A clean, simple design is easier for the audience to follow, helping them stay engaged with your message.

How to Do It:

  • Stick to one main idea per frame and avoid cluttering the design with too many elements.
  • Use zooming and movement sparingly, ensuring that every action serves a purpose.

Example: Instead of cramming multiple charts and text into one frame, focus on presenting one chart at a time, followed by a zoom into a key takeaway.

Final Thoughts

With these tips, you can create your own Prezi designs quickly and efficiently while still delivering an engaging, dynamic presentation. By using templates, customizing paths, incorporating multimedia elements, and keeping your design simple, you’ll be able to create professional, visually appealing Prezi presentations that captivate your audience.

Extending the Metaphor: 3 Tips for Choosing Images in Prezi

images in prezi

presentation design

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tips

visual storytelling

Nov 06, 2014

Choosing the right images is essential in Prezi, where visual storytelling and movement play a central role in how ideas are conveyed. Prezi presentations rely on motion and spatial relationships between content, making it important to select images that not only support your message but also enhance the flow and storytelling.

Here are three key tips for choosing images in Prezi that extend your metaphor and strengthen your presentation:

1. Choose Images that Reinforce the Metaphor

In Prezi, visuals are often used to build upon metaphors that guide your narrative. To make your presentation more cohesive and compelling, choose images that directly support and expand on the metaphor you’re using to frame your presentation.

How to Do It:

  • Extend the Visual Metaphor: If you’re using a metaphor of a “journey” or “roadmap,” choose images like roads, paths, or maps to visually reinforce that concept. If your metaphor is a “growth” story, use imagery of plants, trees, or seeds sprouting to illustrate stages of development.
  • Create Consistency: Choose images with a consistent style, color palette, or theme. This helps create a cohesive narrative and makes it easier for the audience to follow the flow of your story.

Example: For a presentation on business development as a journey, you could show images of winding roads, signposts, and checkpoints to symbolize the progress and milestones along the way.

2. Use High-Quality, Simple Images

Prezi’s zooming feature allows you to move in and out of different elements, making the quality and clarity of your images especially important. High-quality images enhance the professionalism of your presentation, while simple, clean images help avoid overwhelming your audience.

How to Do It:

  • Use High-Resolution Images: Because Prezi zooms in on images, you’ll want to use high-resolution visuals that retain their quality even when enlarged. Pixelated images can be distracting and diminish the impact of your presentation.
  • Avoid Overly Complex Images: Simplicity is key in Prezi. Choose images that communicate one clear idea rather than those packed with too many elements. Complex images can confuse your audience and detract from the overall message.

Example: If your presentation covers financial growth, a clean, simple bar chart or line graph works better than a crowded chart with excessive data points.

3. Align Images with Movement and Flow

One of Prezi’s strengths is its ability to move seamlessly between content areas. The images you choose should align with the movement of your presentation, both spatially and thematically, ensuring that the flow of your narrative feels natural and intuitive.

How to Do It:

  • Follow the Flow of Movement: Prezi allows for zooming and panning between different sections, so place images strategically to enhance the flow. For instance, if you’re moving from one idea to the next, use images that complement that transition, such as a visual that leads the eye from one point to another.
  • Link Images to Key Messages: Use images to serve as visual anchors for important concepts. Place them in a way that makes your narrative easy to follow as the presentation zooms in and out.

Example: For a presentation on project management, you could use an image of a Gantt chart or timeline that the Prezi zooms into, helping the audience focus on specific stages of the project.

Final Thoughts

In Prezi, images do more than just supplement text—they drive the entire visual storytelling process. By choosing images that reinforce your metaphor, maintaining high quality, and aligning with Prezi’s natural movement, you can create a visually captivating and engaging presentation. These tips ensure that your images not only support your message but also help guide the audience through your narrative seamlessly.

Multimedia Tricks: 3 Ways to Add More Life to Your Prezi

multimedia presentations

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi multimedia trips

prezi tricks

prezi tutorial

Oct 30, 2014

Prezi is known for its dynamic zooming interface and the ability to create visually engaging presentations. However, adding multimedia elements can further enhance your Prezi presentations, making them more interactive and captivating. Here are three tricks to add more life to your Prezi and keep your audience engaged:

1. Embed Videos for Dynamic Storytelling

Adding videos to your Prezi can break up the flow of text and images while providing a more engaging way to communicate your message. Videos can serve as examples, demonstrations, or testimonials that bring your points to life.

Why It’s Important:

  • Engages Visual Learners: Video content can capture the attention of visual learners and convey information more effectively.
  • Breaks Up Monotony: Incorporating videos adds variety to your presentation, preventing it from becoming too text-heavy.

How to Do It:

  • Upload videos directly to Prezi from your computer, or embed YouTube videos using the video’s URL.
  • Place videos strategically within your presentation to support key points or introduce new sections.

2. Use Audio to Enhance the Atmosphere

Adding background music or sound effects can enhance the atmosphere of your Prezi and make it more immersive. Whether you’re delivering a motivational speech, teaching a lesson, or presenting a case study, the right audio can set the tone.

Why It’s Important:

  • Sets the Mood: Music or sound effects can create an emotional connection and set the mood for your presentation.
  • Reinforces Key Points: Audio cues can emphasize important moments or transitions within your Prezi.

How to Do It:

  • Add audio to specific frames or the entire Prezi using Prezi’s audio upload feature.
  • Ensure that the audio complements your message and isn’t too distracting or loud.

3. Incorporate Interactive Links and Hyperlinks

Prezi allows you to add hyperlinks that take your audience to external websites, resources, or even different sections of your Prezi. This feature helps create an interactive experience, guiding your audience to additional content or engaging them in a more hands-on way.

Why It’s Important:

  • Increases Engagement: Interactive elements encourage your audience to explore additional information, keeping them engaged beyond the presentation.
  • Adds Depth to Your Content: Hyperlinks can connect your audience to detailed reports, articles, or other resources without cluttering your presentation with too much information.

How to Do It:

  • Highlight text or select an image, then click the hyperlink icon in Prezi’s editing toolbar.
  • Enter the URL or link to another part of your Prezi to create seamless navigation for your audience.

Final Thoughts

Adding multimedia elements such as videos, audio, and hyperlinks to your Prezi presentations can significantly enhance the viewer’s experience. By incorporating these dynamic features, you can create more engaging, interactive, and memorable presentations that leave a lasting impact on your audience. Experiment with different multimedia tools to find the combination that best suits your presentation style and content.

Themes: Customizing a Prezi That’s Unique to Your Presentation

custom themes

presentation design

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi themes

prezi tutorial

Oct 16, 2014

One of the strengths of Prezi is the ability to create presentations that are highly customized and visually unique. While Prezi offers a range of themes, customizing these themes to fit your specific needs and branding is what will truly set your presentation apart.

Here’s how to customize a Prezi theme to make it unique to your presentation:

1. Choose a Base Theme

Prezi offers a variety of base themes that serve as the foundation for your design. While you can start with any theme, the real customization comes from adapting it to your needs and preferences.

Why It’s Important:

  • Sets the Tone: The base theme provides a visual framework, such as colors and fonts, which sets the tone for your entire presentation.
  • Gives You a Head Start: Starting with a theme allows you to focus on customizing details instead of building a design from scratch.

How to Do It:

  • Browse the Prezi theme gallery and choose a theme that matches the tone and style of your presentation.
  • Once selected, begin customizing the theme to fit your needs.

Example: If you’re creating a presentation for a creative pitch, choose a theme with bold colors and dynamic layouts. For a corporate presentation, opt for a more subdued, professional theme.

2. Customize Colors to Match Your Brand

One of the easiest ways to make your Prezi unique is by customizing the colors to match your brand. Prezi allows you to adjust the color scheme, which will be applied to backgrounds, text, and other design elements.

Why It’s Important:

  • Enhances Brand Recognition: Customizing colors to match your brand makes your presentation instantly recognizable and consistent with other marketing materials.
  • Improves Visual Cohesion: A well-chosen color palette ensures that your presentation looks cohesive and professional.

How to Do It:

  • In Prezi, click on the Theme button to access the color options.
  • Choose colors that reflect your brand or the mood of your presentation. For example, you can use your company’s official colors for backgrounds, headings, and key elements.

Example: If your company’s colors are blue and orange, customize the theme’s color scheme to apply those colors to key elements like backgrounds, text, and lines.

3. Adjust Fonts for Readability and Branding

Fonts are another key element of customization. Prezi allows you to change fonts for headings, subheadings, and body text, ensuring that your presentation is both readable and aligned with your brand’s typography.

Why It’s Important:

  • Reinforces Brand Identity: Using your brand’s fonts ensures consistency with your other branded materials, reinforcing your brand’s identity.
  • Improves Readability: Choosing the right font size and style makes your content easier to read, especially when viewed on large screens.

How to Do It:

  • In the Theme settings, adjust the fonts for titles, headings, and body text.
  • Choose fonts that reflect your brand’s personality and ensure they are legible at all zoom levels.

Example: If your brand uses a modern, sans-serif font like Roboto, apply this font to your Prezi headings and body text to maintain a consistent look.

4. Customize Backgrounds

The background of your Prezi sets the overall tone of your presentation. Whether you choose a subtle texture, a bold image, or a simple color, customizing the background helps create a unique and immersive experience for your audience.

Why It’s Important:

  • Creates Visual Impact: The background plays a significant role in shaping the audience’s first impression of your presentation.
  • Enhances Storytelling: A well-chosen background can support your narrative and create a more engaging visual experience.

How to Do It:

  • In the Theme settings, choose Customize Background.
  • Upload your own image, choose from Prezi’s library of backgrounds, or select a solid color or gradient that aligns with your message.

Example: For a travel-themed presentation, use a high-quality image of a famous destination as your background. For a more minimalist look, stick to a clean, white background with subtle texture.

5. Use Frames and Layouts Creatively

Frames in Prezi act as containers for your content. While Prezi templates come with predefined frames, you can adjust their shapes, sizes, and positions to fit your unique design vision.

Why It’s Important:

  • Adds Personalization: Customizing frames allows you to better control the flow and structure of your presentation.
  • Enhances Visual Interest: Creative use of frames helps make your Prezi more dynamic and visually engaging.

How to Do It:

  • Edit or add new frames to your Prezi by clicking on the Frames menu.
  • Customize the shape and size of frames to suit your content. For example, use circular frames to highlight key statistics or rectangular frames for step-by-step processes.

Example: For a presentation about innovation, use a spiral path with circular frames to create a visually engaging flow that mirrors the iterative process of innovation.

6. Add Your Logo

To reinforce your brand and create a fully customized Prezi, consider adding your company logo to the presentation. This helps maintain brand consistency and professionalism.

Why It’s Important:

  • Boosts Brand Visibility: Including your logo ensures that your presentation is clearly associated with your brand.
  • Enhances Professionalism: A logo adds a polished, professional touch to your Prezi design.

How to Do It:

  • Drag and drop your logo into the Prezi workspace, then resize and position it where appropriate.
  • Keep the logo small and unobtrusive but visible enough to reinforce your brand throughout the presentation.

Example: Place your logo in the corner of your title and closing slides or use it as a subtle watermark on key frames to maintain brand presence.

Final Thoughts

Customizing a Prezi theme allows you to create a unique, branded presentation that stands out. By adjusting colors, fonts, backgrounds, frames, and adding your logo, you can ensure that your Prezi aligns with your message, brand, and audience expectations. With these customization tips, you can create a presentation that not only looks great but also communicates your content effectively and memorably.

The Path to a Perfect Prezi Story

non-linear transitions

path tool

presentation design

Presentations

prezi

Prezi Feature of the Week

Prezi Path Tool

Oct 09, 2014

Creating a compelling and engaging story in a Prezi presentation can make a world of difference when it comes to captivating your audience. Prezi’s dynamic, non-linear format is perfect for storytelling, as it allows you to present information in a more visually stimulating and fluid way than traditional slide-based presentations. However, constructing a powerful narrative with Prezi requires careful planning and strategic design choices to ensure your story flows seamlessly and resonates with your audience.

Here’s the path to creating the perfect Prezi story:

1. Define Your Core Message

Every great story starts with a clear and impactful core message. Before diving into the design of your Prezi, ask yourself: What is the one thing I want my audience to remember after this presentation? Defining your core message early on helps shape the rest of your content and ensures that your presentation stays focused.

Why It’s Important:

  • Sets the Direction: A well-defined core message acts as the foundation of your story, guiding your narrative and helping you stay on track.
  • Enhances Clarity: A clear message makes it easier for your audience to understand and retain the information you’re presenting.

How to Do It:

  • Write down the single key idea you want your audience to take away from the presentation.
  • Keep your core message simple and concise, so it’s easy to convey and remember.

Example: If you’re presenting a new product, your core message could be: “This product will revolutionize the way we work by simplifying complex tasks.”

2. Outline Your Story Structure

Once you’ve defined your core message, outline the structure of your story. Think of your Prezi as a narrative journey, with a beginning, middle, and end. Organizing your content into a logical flow helps your audience follow along and keeps them engaged throughout.

Why It’s Important:

  • Creates Flow: A clear structure ensures that your story progresses logically, preventing confusion and maintaining engagement.
  • Helps the Audience Navigate: Structuring your Prezi in a way that is easy to follow helps your audience absorb information without feeling overwhelmed.

How to Do It:

  • Break your story into three parts: the introduction (set the stage), the body (present the main content), and the conclusion (wrap up and reinforce the key message).
  • Ensure each section flows naturally into the next, using Prezi’s zooming and panning features to create smooth transitions.

Example: In a presentation on business growth, start by introducing the challenge, move into key strategies for overcoming it, and end with a success story or projection for the future.

3. Leverage Prezi’s Non-Linear Format

One of Prezi’s unique advantages is its non-linear format, which allows you to present information in a more dynamic, flexible way than traditional linear slide presentations. Take advantage of this feature by structuring your story in a way that moves around key ideas, zooming in and out of details, rather than moving slide-by-slide.

Why It’s Important:

  • Engages the Audience: A non-linear flow keeps the audience interested and engaged, offering a break from the predictable slide transitions of PowerPoint.
  • Emphasizes Key Points: Zooming in and out of key content highlights important information and reinforces your story.

How to Do It:

  • Use Prezi’s zooming feature to transition between big-picture ideas and detailed explanations, giving your audience a sense of movement and depth.
  • Arrange content elements spatially to create visual relationships between different parts of your story.

Example: For a product launch presentation, you could start with a zoomed-out view of the market landscape, then zoom in on specific customer pain points, and finally zoom in further to show how your product addresses those needs.

4. Make Use of Visual Metaphors

Visual metaphors are an effective way to enhance your Prezi story by making complex ideas more relatable and easier to understand. Prezi’s dynamic canvas allows you to represent abstract concepts using metaphors like pathways, trees, or mountains, adding depth and creativity to your narrative.

Why It’s Important:

  • Simplifies Complex Ideas: Visual metaphors break down complex information into easily digestible and relatable concepts.
  • Creates Memorable Visuals: Metaphors leave a lasting impression, helping your audience remember key points long after the presentation is over.

How to Do It:

  • Choose a metaphor that aligns with your core message. For example, a roadmap can symbolize a journey to success, while a tree can represent growth and branching out.
  • Integrate your metaphor into the overall layout of your Prezi, using the zooming feature to navigate through different parts of the metaphor.

Example: For a project timeline presentation, use a road or pathway as the central visual metaphor, with different milestones marked along the way. Zoom in on each milestone to provide more detail.

5. Use Storytelling Techniques

Crafting a compelling Prezi story goes beyond just organizing your content—it’s about creating an emotional connection with your audience. Use traditional storytelling techniques such as conflict, resolution, and a call to action to make your presentation more engaging and persuasive.

Why It’s Important:

  • Builds Emotional Engagement: Storytelling techniques tap into emotions, making your presentation more memorable and impactful.
  • Encourages Action: A well-told story not only informs but also inspires action, motivating your audience to take the next step.

How to Do It:

  • Introduce a problem or conflict early on to grab the audience’s attention.
  • Present your solution or idea as the resolution to the conflict.
  • End with a clear call to action, encouraging your audience to act on the information you’ve provided.

Example: If you’re pitching a new marketing strategy, start by outlining the current challenges your company faces, then present your strategy as the solution. Conclude with a call to action, such as implementing the new strategy.

6. Keep It Visually Engaging

While storytelling is important, the visuals you use in Prezi are equally crucial to maintaining audience attention. Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much text or clutter. Instead, rely on visuals like images, icons, and videos to support your narrative.

Why It’s Important:

  • Keeps the Audience Focused: Visuals are more engaging than text-heavy slides and help keep the audience focused on the key points.
  • Simplifies Complex Data: Charts, graphs, and images can help simplify complex information, making it easier for the audience to understand.

How to Do It:

  • Use high-quality images and icons to illustrate your story without overcrowding the presentation.
  • Break up large blocks of text with visuals that support the key points, such as data visualizations or case studies.

Example: In a presentation on company performance, replace text-heavy slides with charts that visually represent growth metrics, and use icons to represent key performance indicators (KPIs).

7. End with a Powerful Conclusion

The conclusion of your Prezi should bring your story full circle, reinforcing your core message and leaving the audience with a clear takeaway. It’s your final opportunity to make an impact and inspire action.

Why It’s Important:

  • Reinforces the Main Idea: A strong conclusion ensures that your audience leaves with a clear understanding of your core message.
  • Calls the Audience to Action: Ending with a call to action encourages your audience to engage with your message beyond the presentation.

How to Do It:

  • Summarize the key points of your presentation, tying them back to your core message.
  • End with a clear call to action, whether it’s adopting a new idea, investing in your product, or taking the next step in a project.

Example: Conclude your presentation with a zoomed-out view of your entire Prezi, summarizing the journey you’ve taken the audience on, and finish with a call to action like “Let’s take the next step together.”

Final Thoughts

Creating a perfect Prezi story is about combining dynamic visuals, non-linear navigation, and classic storytelling techniques to craft a presentation that captivates and inspires your audience. By defining your core message, organizing your content, leveraging visual metaphors, and using Prezi’s unique features effectively, you can build a presentation that is both engaging and memorable. Follow this path, and you’ll be well on your way to delivering a powerful Prezi story that leaves a lasting impact.

Prezi Feature of the Week: Present the Big Picture with a Mind Map

mind map

mind mapping

prezi

Prezi Feature of the Week

Oct 02, 2014

When presenting, it’s important to show the big picture, as well as its minute details. For this week’s “Prezi Feature”, learn how you can create a mind map to do just that.

Ideas usually come to us in clusters, and it’s hard to separate one from the other. When we’re brainstorming, we can come up with a whole web of ideas from just a single concept. One idea will branch out to a new one, and two more will branch out from that. Before you know it, you have a complicated map of interlocking chains of thought. It’s usually chaotic, but it also perfectly shows how ideas are related to each other.

chaotic mind map sample
A chaotic end to brainstorming. (Image: Flickr/Tim Regan)

When it’s time to turn your ideas into a presentation deck, it can be hard to trim the big picture. Do you focus on a single line of thought? Which one? What happens when an idea overlaps with something else? How do you turn creative chaos into a neat, linear narrative? Sometimes, you don’t have to. Visualize how a single topic can branch out into a web of ideas by creating a mind map with Prezi.

Finding order in the chaos

The challenge to mind mapping is that complex topics can easily turn into a huge, dizzying mess. To create some order, you’ll need to practice a bit of discipline. Your main goal is to make sure your mind map remains concise, while keeping all the important details. In other words, you’ll need to do some revisions.

As you would when building a slide deck, start with an analogue approach. Grab a notepad and draft your mind map first. Start by writing down your main topic, and then let your ideas branch out across the page. Once you’ve written everything down, condense each idea into key concepts. This step is similar to how you’d create a presentation storyboard. Let the ideas flow freely first, and then edit out excessive and repetitive details.

Creating a mind map in the Prezi canvas

Once you’ve condensed your draft, it’s time to turn your ideas into a free-flowing presentation deck. Mind mapping involves combining colors, shapes, and images, plus the strategic arrangement of all these elements. Prezi is the perfect canvas for that. You’re free to move around each element and create a layout that suits the flow of your ideas. To accurately visualize your topic, take note of these tips when arranging your mind map:

1.) Use different frame types to organize your mind map
prezi mind map tutorial 01

You can make use of different frame types to show how your ideas progress into different “levels”. In this example, the main topic is contained inside a rectangle frame. The two diverging ideas that branch out from there are inside a circle frame.

2.) Create hierarchy by manipulating frame size and changing arrow width
prezi mind map tutorial 02

You can also represent  hierarchy in your mind map by manipulating the size of your frames. The farther you are from the center, the smaller your frames should be. Do the same thing with your arrows. Decrease thickness as you branch out across the canvas.

3.) Group specific parts or branches with an invisible frame
prezi mind map tutorial 03

prezi mind map tutorial 04

Add an invisible frame to group certain parts of your mind map together. This is useful if you want to focus on a specific branch before discussing each idea.

4.) Set the path carefully
prezi mind map tutorial 06

The final look will depend on how you set the path. Once you’ve completed building the mind map, set a path that will allow the audience to see how everything works together. Give the full view at the start of your presentation, then make use of the zoom tool to focus on specific details. To illustrate, click here to view a mind map of a previous blog post called “3 Ways to Creativity“.

Conclusion

The flexibility of Prezi’s canvas allows you to create presentations that defy the usual one-track narratives. You can present the big picture and pan through the entire landscape.

Show your audience how the core message relates to your main points by creating a mind map.

 

Featured Image: Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo / Prezi logo via Wikimedia Commons

Prezi Feature of the Week: Getting Started

powerpoint alternative

presentation software

prezi

Prezi Feature of the Week

prezi tutorial

Sep 25, 2014

Creating a compelling and engaging story in a Prezi presentation can make a world of difference when it comes to captivating your audience. Prezi’s dynamic, non-linear format is perfect for storytelling, as it allows you to present information in a more visually stimulating and fluid way than traditional slide-based presentations. However, constructing a powerful narrative with Prezi requires careful planning and strategic design choices to ensure your story flows seamlessly and resonates with your audience.

Here’s the path to creating the perfect Prezi story:

1. Define Your Core Message

Every great story starts with a clear and impactful core message. Before diving into the design of your Prezi, ask yourself: What is the one thing I want my audience to remember after this presentation? Defining your core message early on helps shape the rest of your content and ensures that your presentation stays focused.

Why It’s Important:

  • Sets the Direction: A well-defined core message acts as the foundation of your story, guiding your narrative and helping you stay on track.
  • Enhances Clarity: A clear message makes it easier for your audience to understand and retain the information you’re presenting.

How to Do It:

  • Write down the single key idea you want your audience to take away from the presentation.
  • Keep your core message simple and concise, so it’s easy to convey and remember.

Example: If you’re presenting a new product, your core message could be: “This product will revolutionize the way we work by simplifying complex tasks.”

2. Outline Your Story Structure

Once you’ve defined your core message, outline the structure of your story. Think of your Prezi as a narrative journey, with a beginning, middle, and end. Organizing your content into a logical flow helps your audience follow along and keeps them engaged throughout.

Why It’s Important:

  • Creates Flow: A clear structure ensures that your story progresses logically, preventing confusion and maintaining engagement.
  • Helps the Audience Navigate: Structuring your Prezi in a way that is easy to follow helps your audience absorb information without feeling overwhelmed.

How to Do It:

  • Break your story into three parts: the introduction (set the stage), the body (present the main content), and the conclusion (wrap up and reinforce the key message).
  • Ensure each section flows naturally into the next, using Prezi’s zooming and panning features to create smooth transitions.

Example: In a presentation on business growth, start by introducing the challenge, move into key strategies for overcoming it, and end with a success story or projection for the future.

3. Leverage Prezi’s Non-Linear Format

One of Prezi’s unique advantages is its non-linear format, which allows you to present information in a more dynamic, flexible way than traditional linear slide presentations. Take advantage of this feature by structuring your story in a way that moves around key ideas, zooming in and out of details, rather than moving slide-by-slide.

Why It’s Important:

  • Engages the Audience: A non-linear flow keeps the audience interested and engaged, offering a break from the predictable slide transitions of PowerPoint.
  • Emphasizes Key Points: Zooming in and out of key content highlights important information and reinforces your story.

How to Do It:

  • Use Prezi’s zooming feature to transition between big-picture ideas and detailed explanations, giving your audience a sense of movement and depth.
  • Arrange content elements spatially to create visual relationships between different parts of your story.

Example: For a product launch presentation, you could start with a zoomed-out view of the market landscape, then zoom in on specific customer pain points, and finally zoom in further to show how your product addresses those needs.

4. Make Use of Visual Metaphors

Visual metaphors are an effective way to enhance your Prezi story by making complex ideas more relatable and easier to understand. Prezi’s dynamic canvas allows you to represent abstract concepts using metaphors like pathways, trees, or mountains, adding depth and creativity to your narrative.

Why It’s Important:

  • Simplifies Complex Ideas: Visual metaphors break down complex information into easily digestible and relatable concepts.
  • Creates Memorable Visuals: Metaphors leave a lasting impression, helping your audience remember key points long after the presentation is over.

How to Do It:

  • Choose a metaphor that aligns with your core message. For example, a roadmap can symbolize a journey to success, while a tree can represent growth and branching out.
  • Integrate your metaphor into the overall layout of your Prezi, using the zooming feature to navigate through different parts of the metaphor.

Example: For a project timeline presentation, use a road or pathway as the central visual metaphor, with different milestones marked along the way. Zoom in on each milestone to provide more detail.

5. Use Storytelling Techniques

Crafting a compelling Prezi story goes beyond just organizing your content—it’s about creating an emotional connection with your audience. Use traditional storytelling techniques such as conflict, resolution, and a call to action to make your presentation more engaging and persuasive.

Why It’s Important:

  • Builds Emotional Engagement: Storytelling techniques tap into emotions, making your presentation more memorable and impactful.
  • Encourages Action: A well-told story not only informs but also inspires action, motivating your audience to take the next step.

How to Do It:

  • Introduce a problem or conflict early on to grab the audience’s attention.
  • Present your solution or idea as the resolution to the conflict.
  • End with a clear call to action, encouraging your audience to act on the information you’ve provided.

Example: If you’re pitching a new marketing strategy, start by outlining the current challenges your company faces, then present your strategy as the solution. Conclude with a call to action, such as implementing the new strategy.

6. Keep It Visually Engaging

While storytelling is important, the visuals you use in Prezi are equally crucial to maintaining audience attention. Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much text or clutter. Instead, rely on visuals like images, icons, and videos to support your narrative.

Why It’s Important:

  • Keeps the Audience Focused: Visuals are more engaging than text-heavy slides and help keep the audience focused on the key points.
  • Simplifies Complex Data: Charts, graphs, and images can help simplify complex information, making it easier for the audience to understand.

How to Do It:

  • Use high-quality images and icons to illustrate your story without overcrowding the presentation.
  • Break up large blocks of text with visuals that support the key points, such as data visualizations or case studies.

Example: In a presentation on company performance, replace text-heavy slides with charts that visually represent growth metrics, and use icons to represent key performance indicators (KPIs).

7. End with a Powerful Conclusion

The conclusion of your Prezi should bring your story full circle, reinforcing your core message and leaving the audience with a clear takeaway. It’s your final opportunity to make an impact and inspire action.

Why It’s Important:

  • Reinforces the Main Idea: A strong conclusion ensures that your audience leaves with a clear understanding of your core message.
  • Calls the Audience to Action: Ending with a call to action encourages your audience to engage with your message beyond the presentation.

How to Do It:

  • Summarize the key points of your presentation, tying them back to your core message.
  • End with a clear call to action, whether it’s adopting a new idea, investing in your product, or taking the next step in a project.

Example: Conclude your presentation with a zoomed-out view of your entire Prezi, summarizing the journey you’ve taken the audience on, and finish with a call to action like “Let’s take the next step together.”

Final Thoughts

Creating a perfect Prezi story is about combining dynamic visuals, non-linear navigation, and classic storytelling techniques to craft a presentation that captivates and inspires your audience. By defining your core message, organizing your content, leveraging visual metaphors, and using Prezi’s unique features effectively, you can build a presentation that is both engaging and memorable. Follow this path, and you’ll be well on your way to delivering a powerful Prezi story that leaves a lasting impact.