As a host, keeping your audience's attention is essential. Revealing information gradually is a powerful facilitation technique for creating suspense, guiding the conversation, and ensuring that everyone is focusing on the same topic at the same time.
Here are three simple and effective ways to do this, from the fastest to the most elaborate.
Method 1: The Simple Cache
This technique consists of masking one or more areas of your Board with an opaque shape that you remove at the desired time. It is the equivalent of removing a cloth that covers an object.
Ideal for: Reveal a result, a quiz solution, or a "surprise" section without complex preparation.
The steps:
Prepare your content: Arrange on your board the texts, images or ideas that you want to hide at first.
Lock hidden content: Select all of these items, and then click the padlock icon in the toolbar. This is crucial to avoid accidentally moving them around while manipulating the cache.
Create a shape to hide: In the left toolbar, select the Shapes tool and choose a rectangle.
The moment of revelation: During your presentation, when you want to reveal the content, simply select the matte shape and press the Delete key on your keyboard. The content below will appear instantly.
💡You can prepare multiple mattes on your Board to reveal different areas at different points in your presentation.
Method 2: The Step-by-Step Journey
This method is perfect for telling a story or guiding participants through a multi-step process. It consists of leaving the first step visible and hiding the following ones, which we discover as we go along.
Ideal for: An onboarding journey, a retrospective in several stages (past, present, future), or the presentation of a project step by step.
The steps:
Structure your Board into zones: Organize your content into clear, numbered sections (Step 1, Step 2, etc.), arranged logically from left to right or top to bottom.
Hide future steps: For each future step, mask the areas.
Take the next step: Reveal areas as you go.
Method 3: Screen Sync
This method relies on the use of a key feature of the animator: screen synchronization. You guide your attendees' gaze by forcing them to see the exact same thing as you.
Ideal for: Highly structured presentations, guided tours of complex boards, and when you want to avoid participants exploring the board on their own.
The steps:
Prepare your Board: Design your Board with distinct areas, leaving enough space between them.
Get started with the big picture: Start your session zoomed out enough that the details of the different areas are unreadable.
Enable sync: At the top of your screen, click on the "Presentation" icon. A notification will confirm that participants now see your view.
Free Exploration: Once your guided presentation is over, don't forget to turn off sync to allow participants to explore the Board freely.
If you want to know more about the notion of Board interactivity, check out the resources available on this link HERE.