Mind Mapping
You may be familiar with the term Mind Mapping, and if not, we'd definitely recommend that you look it up to get help with designing your Prezi. We'll explain it in the following screenshot in more detail, but it's definitely a subject that Prezi masters will want to explore more in their own time.
In essence, Mind Mapping is a way of spreading your ideas onto a piece of paper or any canvas available instead of just writing a very dull (and linear) list of what's needed in your Prezi presentation. You can see a very simple example of Mind Mapping in the following diagram, which we created to help us understand how to best communicate the three Prezi design steps in this chapter:
Note
You can see that this Mind Map uses words and pictures to make associations. This is extremely important when planning a Prezi because the more visual, the better it is for your audience.
Writing a list
If you aren't used to using the Mind Mapping technique, it can be a little hard to understand why you should start now and not just write a list of what needs to go into your Prezi.
We already mentioned that Prezi is a nonlinear presentation tool, so it makes perfect sense to plan your Prezi in a nonlinear way. Forcing yourself to plan in this way and spread your ideas out onto one page will start to give you a great idea of how your Prezi will look because Prezi itself is one giant canvas.
Tip
Writing a list to plan your Prezi will encourage you to construct it in a very linear fashion like you would construct a PowerPoint presentation
Starting with the tool
Mind Mapping is an amazing tool for generating and planning ideas, but it does take practice. If you haven't done it before, then start now by following the instructions given here:
- Grab a pen and paper, and start by writing the subject of your Prezi, that is, My business, in the center of your page.
- Circle the title and link any subheadings or important subjects that spring to your mind around it with arrows. These could be your company departments or products.
- Then, focus on one sub heading at a time and write any key information you can think of around that. Again, link each point back to its heading with arrows or lines.
- Keep repeating these steps until you either run out of things to write, or you find the key points to explain in your Prezi.
Tip
Try to avoid using ruled paper as it may encourage you to start writing a list instead of a Mind Map.
- Once you identify the key points that need to be presented in your Prezi, underline them or highlight them in some way so that they stand out from everything else.
- For each of the key points, try to think of an image that will help visualize it and do a quick sketch of the image. It doesn't have to be a work of art!
If you aren't familiar with the Mind Mapping technique, then try to go through the preceding steps as many times as you can, and for as many subjects as you can think of.
This form of mental exercise will help you think in the right way for Prezi, and will also help your brain make connections between the text and imagery on your map.
Tip
There are also plenty of great free digital Mind Mapping tools that you can find through a quick Internet search. Even better—you can use the Prezi canvas itself as a Mind Map along with the arrows and shapes you can insert.
Working efficiently with Prezi
We already mentioned that Mind Mapping is great for planning Prezi because they both use a canvas in the same way. However, there is another more scientific explanation as to why this technique and Prezi work so well in communicating ideas.
This connection is related to the way that our brains retain information. While the inner workings of the human brain aren't yet fully understood, we do know that ideas form when the brain creates neural networks between the vast amounts of information that goes into our heads every day.
When presenting to an audience, the best way to get them to remember something is to zoom in on individual details one at a time, then try to show them some kind of link between these details, or at least show them all of the details in one single view and frame them for our audience.
This simple trick is called the BIG picture technique and is explained in the next section. In short, it is simply a way of allowing your audiences' brains to connect the dots and retain the information you want them to.
Map your journey
Ensure that you spend enough time as is needed to fully plan out your Prezi in a Mind Map. Some people will find this very easy and natural to do, while others may struggle to think in this way. Whichever end of the spectrum you fall into, ensure that you keep doing it and never approach the Prezi software until you have your map in front of you. This will help to ensure that you approach your design from a Prezi frame of mind.
By doing this, you'll know:
- What are your key points?
- What are the images you need to tell the story?
- How big your Prezi might be?
- Where you will need to zoom in to explain details?
- What could visually link everything together (your BIG picture)?
Tip
Change your mind
To help you perfect the art of Mind Mapping, try to use it to plan other things in your work and life, not just your Prezi designs. It is such a powerful tool and can really help you explore possibilities in any area that you decide needs a little focus.
