As regular readers of my blog know, I am passionate about the development of digital creativity skills whether that be for staff or students, digital creativity skills are of key importance as we progress in our career or as the students move into whichever field of work they choose.
They will need to have an understanding of how to create infographics, social media posts or presentations, reports, or in some cases be able to create videos. In short, students will need to be confident in creating digital content.
That is where sites such as Visme come in it is a web-based graphics creator in a similar vain to Canva that allows the user to create a range of different types of graphics and digital content including, presentations, documents, infographics, social media posts, video/gifs, printables, and web Graphics to mention just some of what can be created.
In addition, it enables the user to collaborate on their creations. I particularly like their whiteboard feature for those who used to use Google Jamboard and are now looking for an alternative I can thoroughly recommend the use of Visme whiteboard.
Once logged in the user is greeted with a dashboard that shows their most recent projects, To the very left of the screen is a menu with access to Projects, My Files, Content Calendar,My Brand, and Data.
The data option allows you to look at analytics and see how many views your graphics have received, so in my case based on the few infographics I created I can see how many views have they received and how long have people looked at them.
My brand allows you to add any key brand assets you use regularly this includes: uploading your logo, and uploading specific fonts you can also add those key brand colours to make sure they're all available for you to utilise in any future graphic or video creation that you make.
To the right of that menu, we've got the option to Create New, view All Projects, My Projects and Shared with Me. This makes it very easy to navigate and you're able to jump in and go straight to the project that you were last working on.
Moving on to creating artifacts you simply choose what it is you want to create, which opens up a new window and you get a not a choice of templates that you can use, or you can create new from blank or make use of the Visme AI (that is available when creating, documents, social media, web graphic, and printables)
I'll go through the AI function in more detail a bit later on in this blog.
Having opened a template or opted to start with a blank you get access to all the menus and tools you should need, at this point, I think it's worth just talking through the layout of the menus that you have access to. On the far left-hand side you have the option to access different content-based tools such as Basics, Graphics, Photos, Data, Media, Themes colors, and access to your Files.
Having selected one of those menu items you then get this more detailed menu where you can start to do what you need to do so for example on Basics I've got my design blocks which include headers and text, Font pairs, Stats and Figures, Text with graphics, Diagrams, Photo grids and a Call to action.
When I click on one of those a drop-down menu appears that gives me all of the key tools I want so for example on Headers and Text I can add a title, a subtitle, a bulleted lists or numbered list, or a checklist. Or I've got some pre-designed templates that I can include within my text it is all really intuitive. I particularly like the the way that it allows you to navigate through the different tools and features enabling you to choose what you need quickly.
Across the top window, I can label it and assign it to any collaborators, I can also view analytics and I can present it.
When you finish creating you've got the option to download it as well as share it, with regards to images you've got the option to download it as a JPEG or a PNG, and with presentations and documents you can download it as a PDF or a PPTX
With presentations, you also have the option to use the Presenter studio that allows you to start creating a recording you can appear as a little thumbnail video image in the bottom corner of each slide and you can talk through and record a a voice narration thus really bringing your presentation to life. This is such a useful function if you're looking to create something that's going to be consumed by your users asynchronously.
One aspect I specifically like is the fact that regardless of whether you're creating a presentation or an infographic the layout of the tools remains the same so you get to develop muscle memory on navigating the different elements. Whether that's adding graphics, photos some header text, or looking for particular types of font.
In conclusion, I think Visme is worth checking out if you are looking to create a range of different types of Digital content.
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