A non-linear presentation is a great way to present. It’s way more engaging for your audience, as you can be led by the direction of their questions or interest areas. The presentation then stays more relevant for the individual: keeping their attention. Definitely a result that you want!
Of course, it’s more effective with an appropriate audience size – for smaller meetings, or one-to-one, it’s a brilliant presentation option. And for the virtual format? Perfect!
What is a non-linear presentation?
A non-linear presentation simply means that you won’t necessarily start at slide 1 and then proceed to slide 2, 3, 4 etc. The slides will be structured in a similar way to a website. This allows the presenter to respond to their audience’s area of interest by clicking on a topic which is hyperlinked. So the presenter can jump to any chosen slide within the deck. And back again, perhaps. Or they could drill down into more detail as and when required. A presenter is also likely to have a more natural delivery and feel less rehearsed with the freedom of presenting in a non-linear style.
For example, in this video of interactive case studies the presenter selects the best and most relevant case studies to share with a particular audience. Equally, the audience member could choose which they view: either through self-navigation if they had the presentation themselves, or of course by talking with the presenter during the presentation experience.
Non-linear presentations can increase presentation engagement
Using a hyperlinked presentation also means the presenter can practice active listening, and can intuitively respond to the audience. This encourages the presentation to be more of a dialogue and less of a monologue. Such techniques help to boost audience engagement and encourages participation.
We see trends occur in the presentation industry through the requests of our clients. And more and more are asking for navigation in their presentation decks.
Watch this video to see several examples of interactive presentation techniques:
Using Animation triggers to further reduce cognitive load
Another smart technique in use here is the animation trigger. A “trigger animation” can hide a menu: this unclutters the screen and makes it clean. When we click the menu icon, the full menu list appears and we can jump to a new section. Not having the menu there all the time will encourage the audience to focus on the actual visible content, whilst also giving the content space to “breathe”. This method can also reduce cognitive overload for the audience. We’re always keen to use presentation science!
If you’d like to transform your company presentations into a non-linear format, please give the team a call or drop us an email!
Some more examples can be seen on Presented’s vimeo page.
