[TID-BITS] : MIND MAPPING
…mind mapping helps “untangle” a problem or challenge…frame [work]…understand…process…
I first started “mind mapping” at my former job when I discovered a tool called MindManager (by MindJet) and started using it to map out and organize website and application navigation as part of the preliminary exploration and requirements phase of a project.
In practice: Building a Website
Generally, the first document I produce when starting a website is a “site map”, first copying the current asset being updated or replaced. This helps me better understand what we I’m working with, and also serves as a starting point for the new asset. I make a copy of the “current” map and both rearrange the existing content and add new based on best practices, recommendations, desired new features, content and functionality. I also remove or combine elements as appropriate.
The result is a document I use to build the website. Comparing the before and after helps my clients visualize the end-goal and understand what is otherwise an abstract process. I’ve also found that it helps clients understand their own business better, and identify gaps where they need to put in more effort.
I use the maps throughout the project as well. I use them as a checklist for creating pages, for what content I have and what I need to develop or write, to make notes on functionality, and delineate between phase 1 and phase 2 initiatives. The maps are anything but static throughout the process; often I end up rearranging things during the project, and use them to work through “issues” that arise when working in the actual environment. Sometimes the maps help mitigate issues, but they are equally as effective in helping me work through them.
Thoughts from reading (Cracking Creativity, pp 51-80)
- Visualizing the main idea/problem/challenge through brainstorming the different “components” (themes, contributing factors etc.) that comprise it
- Drawing similarities, identifying themes within the “map”
- Organizing and re-organizing the components
- Finding similarities between two seemingly unrelated “things” (ideas, objects, people etc.)
- Six degrees of separation – or less
- How are the differences similar?
- Brain dump.