Prezi Analysis free essay sample

A Ride through Prezi Prezi is like an amusement park. An amusement park is composed of various types of rides geared towards different family members. Firstly, the teacups or the bumper cars which are traditional games for everyone, or the simulators which are for the more adventurous ones and finally the roller coasters which are only for the ones who like adrenaline and danger. No matter what game a person likes to ride, every single time on the game is different, there are unexpected twists and turns and every person has different experiences while on the ride. Prezi, which is a new form of presentation that allows users to create ‘their own story’ within a white canvas and make it as creative and unique as they want, is geared towards everyone from middle school students to CEOs. The twist and turns in Prezi are found within the zooming options and paths created by the presenter and so far there have been mixed reviews as to how efficient and effective Prezi is for people. In my opinion, Prezi is an innovative, complex and fun software available to everyone around the world and can come in handy when trying to be original. Prezi was available to the public in early 2009, but many people are still unaware of its existence. About 80% of the students in my technical communication class had no idea what it was, even though college students are supposed to be technology savvy. As the mission statement says, â€Å"it is a way to make sharing ideas more interesting. † It is one of a kind and is cloud-based, which makes it easily accessible to anyone with internet access all over the world. The most innovative part of Prezi is the Zooming User Interface, ZUI, which enables the users to zoom in and out of the presentations and clearly show which ideas are more important than others. It keeps the audience guessing what is coming next, since some words might not be visible until the presenter zooms in on that specific frame. There is also a function called Prezi Meeting, which is one of my favorites. It allows for many people to edit and modify the same Prezi at once from their own individual computers. In today’s world, everyone is busy and schedules vary, so being able to conveniently see in real time how a coworker, classmate, friend, etc. is modifying the Prezi, while also being able to make changes yourself is really helpful. These clearly innovative applications are great for someone who is well acquainted with Prezi, but for first time users it might seem a bit overwhelming and confusing at first. Prezi is complex, but as a really common quote says â€Å"the best things in life are not easy, but they are worth it. † In order to be able to create a good Prezi, time needs to be invested. The first time I used Prezi, it was spring term 2011 for my Management Information Systems class. One of my group members had just found out about Prezi and suggested we used it for our presentation in order to stand out. We all thought it was a great idea, but we didn’t know how time consuming it would be. We went to the website, created an account and started with our first Prezi. There is a mandatory tutorial for anyone who is creating their first Prezi. I think it is an excellent thing because it introduces some key words like pan and zoom, Prezi zebra, frame and path. Prezi zebra being the most important one because it is the one that allows you to modify the size, rotate and delete any object (pictures, words, videos, etc. ) in the canvas. The canvas is the rectangle that Prezi gives you to create your presentation and the frames are the spaces where information is grouped together and the path is the sequence of frames in your Prezi. Even after going through the tutorials it was difficult to fully understand the concept of every function available and how best to take advantage of the whole software, so we watched the additional videos available in the website. It personally took me about two to three hours to completely understand the software, its advantages, disadvantages, and all the functions, but the time invested pays off every time I create a new Prezi and I am able to efficiently and effectively create a presentation. For people who are not willing to fully acquaint themselves with the software before using it, it might seem complicated and overwhelming, because it is clearly a great change from PowerPoint, which everyone is used to using. Once people do get to know and understand the software, they can have fun every single time they use it. Every Prezi is different; this is because every person has different ideas and different ways to show them in a presentation. There are some preselected themes and combination of colors available as well as some diagrams and flow of ideas, but other than that every single person is able to do it as original as they want. This is my favorite part about Prezi, it allows you to think outside the box. Information can be presented in either a linear, like PowerPoint, or a non-linear way. Text, images, videos, PowerPoint slides, Excel worksheets, PDFs, links, etc. an be imported and used in Prezi. There is even an option of browsing Google images within Prezi itself and copying the desired image into the presentation. As much as Prezi is fun because ideas can be spread over the canvas and creativity is encouraged, one does need to keep in mind that the presentation has to be organized, that zooming in and out repeatedly and going all over the canvas can produce headache and nausea for the audience and that too many pictures and turns can be distractive and overwhelming. With every Prezi I have created, I have liked how easy it is to import anything into it and have gotten better at organizing everything in a creative and cohesive way. My best recommendation for it is to group ideas together and use layouts so that visual stimulation is there, but it adds to the presentation rather than damages it. Prezi is definitely a software worth checking out, especially if you are the type of person, like me, who likes being different and knowing about new things available. As a college student, I think it is definitely important to know about the multiple useful and innovative software available, specially because technology is increasing at such a fast pace and no one knows what the future for presentations is going to be. Maybe someday Prezi or a similar program will become the new PowerPoint and being acquainted with it will definitely be a huge advantage.