My Mind Mapping Experiments With Mindomo

March 14th 2007

Tech

I discussed mind mapping a few months ago as part of my attempts to use the method as a productivity tool in my life. Recently I came across another online tool for mind mapping called Mindomo. Like bubbl.us it gives you the option to try it out without signing up so I jumped right in and tried it out.

The obvious thing about Mindomo compared to bubbl.us is that it is much more complex. This is both good and bad and I really can’t quite decide which way to go with it. Mindomo allows a lot of control over the looks of the mind map, including being able to choose font options, edit the bubbles, their shapes and colors, add hyperlinks and images… the list goes on. This allows you to create a mind map that is attractive and exactly how you want it.

However is this necessarily a good thing? With bubbl.us there is no real choice over the looks so I don’t have to worry about it. I can just sit down, type what I want, press enter for a new bubble and basically have the map created in a few minutes. With Mindomo I have to avoid the temptation to tweak and experiment with the looks (and you will probably want to tweak it as the default options are not the most appealing). That’s great if it’s part of some presentation or for display, but from my personal experience of mind mapping, I’ve only ever used them for brainstorming and rough note taking purposes and so I’d rather not waste time on the looks. Out of curiosity, in what context do you have to create mind maps. Is it for rough planning/brainstorming or for work/meetings? Leave a comment!

Anyways, Mindomo is good enough to have some ready made mind maps up for you to check out, which really showcase the power of the tool. I have to admit bubbl.us wouldn’t be able to create something like that.