Goodbye to Powerpoint?
I’ve been playing with Prezi for a while now, and I think it really has something. It’s an innovative product that allows you to create presentations on multiple levels. You can fly over them at a high altitude, or zoom into the detail when required to do so. It looks good, can embed videos, pictures and the like, and if you want it to behave like boring old Powerpoint, with bullet points and a steady progression through a series of frames, then it will also do that for you (though you’re missing the point if that’s what you do with it).
It is very easy to use, with a great UI, and is particularly good for creating mind maps that can also be used as presentations.
The best introduction to it is, of course, a demonstration Prezi. Take a look – it’ll only take up five minutes of your time.
2 Responses to “Goodbye to Powerpoint?”
Interesting software and good visuals. Seems to me that it raises questions about the type of presentation and the audience.
I can see this being particularly suitable where it is the main vehicle for imparting a message rather than a supporting tool for a speaker.
Main dangers – too ‘whizzy’ so admiration for the display obscures the message or the audience ‘loses’ the message due to overcomplication through using flexible facilities inappropriately.
Experience suggests that many presenters don’t focus enough on key messages resulting in ‘death by powerpoint’ (48 slides in one recent presentation) and/ or often don’t adapt to the knowledge & capabilities of the audience.
Clive – that is indeed a risk, particularly while the Prezi approach is still novel – we will be tempted to be too clever with it. However, I suspect that many of us feel that Powerpoint is not the right way to present a narrative and the concept of Prezi seems to me closer to what I instinctively want. By coincidence, I was really pleased to learn yesterday that Prezi has won a new round of funding – let’s hope they use it well.
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