Discovering the Power of Prezi (or, R.I.P. PowerPoint!)
I recently started working with SharedHR, a San Rafael based HR technology and consulting firm, to sharpen their brand proposition and online presence. When I started talking with them about working together, it became clear that they needed something to tell the whole story of who they are and why their clients need them. I had been hearing about the magic of Prezis from a couple friends, and my colleague Alison pushed me over the edge with her glowing reccomendation of Prezis as the new PowerPoint. It seemed like a Prezi would be a great fit for this purpose. Luckily, since my friends at SharedHR had also been hearing the buzz as well, it was an easy sell and we began work right away.
After participating in a one-hour webinar hosted by Prezi staff, I took to the software right away. It felt as though the training wheels of PowerPoint were instantly removed. And not just the technical limitations either—conceptual ones as well. What makes Prezi different is that everything lives on one canvas, and that canvas is pretty much infinitely zoomable. You can group clusters of ideas together within other larger concepts, and go as deep as you want to. It requires a completely different way of thinking about organizing information, and honestly a little restraint as well because you are completely liberated from the linear nature of a traditional PowerPoint.
Also, the software (which is all browser- and cloud-based) is super easy to use once you get the hang of it. Within a day I felt like a Prezi master. Being a graphic designer, I wanted to use a lot of my own custom illustrations and graphics. No problem. I exported them as PDFs from Illustrator and they scale and zoom with no degredation in quality at all.
Once the content presentation was completed, I added a motion path so that the forward/backward buttons would take the user/presenter through the desired order of the presentation. You can also click and drag and zoom around the canvas freely if you choose, but I would imagine having the forward and backward arrows is very handy when presenting in front of a group.
Now the presentation lives online, and is also sync'd on my iPad. My client can view and share the Prezi with whoever they want, and when I make content or design changes, they're reflected immediately since the original document lives in the cloud. For offline viewing you can also download a self-contained Prezi file that requires no additional software to run (unlike a PowerPoint).
I would love to spend another ten paragraphs writing about how PowerPoint fails to live up to so many aspects of Prezi, but I won't. I have grown to hate PowerPoint it with a passion that is reserved for few other things in my life. I spent the first few years of my career developing PowerPoints in enterprise environments and am well aware of it's shortcomings in fundamental area of human communication. Not to mention the attrocious design capabilities. But I digress.
In short, Prezi rocks. I can't wait to make more for my other clients because they are just plain fun to do in just about every way. Mostly because creating a successful Prezi combines two of my favorite activities—conceptual thinking a creative execution. Have a look at what I created for SharedHR below! Be sure to view in full screen mode by hovering over the "more" button and clicking on "full screen."
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