With the heavy attention that UX and UI have received in contemporary product design, designers nowadays have access to a wide arsenal of tools and methods to improve their daily workflow and achieve maximum productivity. In this article we are putting the spotlight on mind maps, one of the easiest to produce but less frequently used tools in product design.
What is a mind map?
From a product design standpoint, a mind map can be defined as a visual representation of contextually-related ideas and concepts. A mind map is a hierarchical diagram that shows the relationships between different pieces of information. It is often used as a tool for brainstorming, ideation, and problem-solving.
What does a mind map look like?
Contrary to other diagrams that can take a large variety of forms, most mind maps come in one of two formats:
Tree format
This is the most commonly encountered type of mind map. It takes its name from its layout, which puts a main idea, concept, or problem in the center, while solutions or ideas branch out around it in all possible directions.
The benefits of this format are that it’s simple, easy to make, and easy for any audience to follow and decode. However, at the same time it’s based on a rather restrictive hierarchy that doesn’t allow for much flexibility.
Graph format
Compared to the tree format above, the graph format is less restrictive, as it doesn’t only visualize forward relationships between one ‘parent’ concept and multiple ‘children’ ideas. Here we also see interconnections between ideas, or even backward connections between an idea and the parent concept or problem.
