Further Thoughts on WHY This Works ....

I have been playing with the comapping web based application for a couple days and have been dazzled by the ease of creation and thought input served by this new iteration of the mind mapping paradigm ... from their Q&A comes this gem ..

" Before we started this project, we had a feeling (based on the many years of developing and reviewing mindmaps with learning objectives with people all over the world), that we should look further into how people were actually working with mindmaps. We then observed quite a few users both in terms of their mapping process in general. We also analysed more specifically how the use of a computer facilitated building - and reviewing - the content and semantic structures in the mindmaps. The conclusion was striking: people were more confused - and less efficient - when they were building or trying to review a part of a map that had the topics around a center especially going from right to left.

We have a hypothesis that the reason is tightly related to the fact that we read from left to right: Topic organized from left to right gives a much faster overview of the semantic structure - probably because you can physically see the topic in less eye spans."

I think their research has paid off as the ease of use is noticeable ... things seem to flow and ideas are captured rapidly ... this takes the interface out of the way and allows the creation of the map to be effortless ... there are very few distracting additions and it really appears this was designed (and successfully I believe) to enable the process rather than to be the process ... I have played with the export both to MindManager and to Word and I can say that this creates entirely useable outputs that speeds the creative process ... I used a quick export to word to format a document highlighting a sales presentation ... really really efficient ... I always use some sort of mind mapping tool to do this as it ensures the flow of the work and also allows the overall picture to be easily grasped and also to make sure the details are properly presented ...


I am also enthralled with the way the interface re-layout function functions in a seamless manner and again functions without conscious effort ... I have included three screen shots of the same map, the first is the overall map ... when you highlight one of the branches and hit the focus button, you get screen two .. do this again and you drill down to the third shot ... all effortless and all very intuitive ... the best programs are those that don't require thought or get in the way of the work ... I think from what I've discovered this may become one of those that enables creative expression, thought processes enhanced by technology ....