Technical Communication at UAHuntsville

            As a part of Generation Y, I will admit that I have great expectations from the workplace. My first choice of major ended up being English. The creation process, especially in writing, is where I flourish. While I have not necessarily given up dreams of creative careers, I did add a second major to my load to balance dreams and reality. Technical communications has taught me not only more about just the writing and editing process, but also how to appeal to different kinds of people and audiences. One of the aspects in doing this lies in the utilization of new technology.

            Prezi is a great example of Gen Y technology, because, from personal experience at least, it is mostly just this audience that has even heard of the site. This should not scare away older users, though! Another reason why I am going to refer to Prezi as a Gen Y tool is because of all the creative and innovative aspects that users can utilize to reach out to their audiences. Also, the average attention span is now a whopping less than ten seconds (I’m talking mainly about us, millennials) and the widely-recognized “zooming” feature of Prezi can help audiences stay engaged. Better yet, now that usability is becoming more and more established in technology design, Prezi can be just as easy to use as Microsoft PowerPoint for older users.

            PowerPoint is still a great tool to use for lectures in a college classroom if the only objective is to get info across (i.e., the lineal format). With Prezi, presentations can keep audiences engaged so that information can actually be remembered and not just written down; Prezi uses a multi-spacial workplace that can go from one area to the next, horizontally or vertically. One of the great functions of Prezi is the ability to import Power Point slides with no hassle. After that, users can either customize a template or choose from an array of designed templates (professional, motivational, and photographic). The creation tools are then used to design a vast presentation template, complete with brackets, icons and symbols, colors, fonts, etc. It may be a little overwhelming to older users at first, but the usability is top notch here and the help system is not “hiding.” If you have used MS Word or PowerPoint, you can definitely use Prezi.

            Millenials are rapidly entering the workforce and so is the same brand of technology. I believe it is important for more Gen Xers and Baby Boomers to be educated on the kinds of technology that their younger cohorts are familiar with; it could be very beneficial to the employee and the company. With Prezi, users are granted a brand new platform for building and designing presentations that can appeal to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. I have so much fun creating mine that it doesn’t even feel like work to me. With that being said, log onto Prezi’s website and get started! An account is free and you can even log in with Facebook. – CK