3.7 Creating a Storyboard
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to
- Outline the benefits of creating a storyboard
- Identify the steps in moving from idea to slide deck creation
Once you have some ideas about how you might structure your extemporaneous presentation, develop a storyboard and an outline. A strong direction for your presentation will help you feel confident.
Storyboards
Before starting on your slides or finalizing an outline, create a storyboard. The storyboard helps you organize and plan your slide deck, including the order that slides will appear and what text or images you might include on each slide.
One option is to use sticky notes to create your storyboard, with one sticky note representing one slide. Sticky notes help you organize your slides because they are so easy to move around, edit, and delete.
Anuj Malhotra’s article “How to storyboard your presentation for the best results (Product launch case study)” explains the value of storyboarding and illustrates the process of moving from a storyboard with post-it notes to final slide design. Take a few minutes to look through this article.
Check Your Knowledge
When you finalize your presentation form, you will move on to create your slides and a speech outline, the subjects of the next chapter. You may find that you have to circle back to storyboarding as you work through creating your presentation. You may discover that you lack sufficient credible evidence and need to eliminate a point or that your points move away from what the audience needs to know. You may discover later in the process that the speech exceeds the time limit and needs to be cut down. The process of crafting an effective speech is iterative, which means that you may need to repeat the sequence of steps until the presentation achieves your desired result.
