Mind Mapping :: A tool for all

I was aware of ‘mind mapping’ for quite a long time. But, recently I studied mind mapping or concept mapping for Visual Design. While doing so, I learnt various ways and uses of mind mapping.

For those who are listening to this term for the first time you can read more about Mind Mapping here. But, I would like to put down the definition as I got it from ‘Te Tawri Awhina’ (The Learning Development Centre at AUT), “mind mapping is a way of organizing thoughts and ideas that mirrors our brain function, particularly the way that intelligence is produced not by the number of cells in the brain but by the number of connections or pathways between cells”.

Based on my understanding Mind Mapping can be predominantly used in three ways.
• For notes taking.
• For revising the taken notes.
• For brainstorming ideas.

If you have read about the mind mapping by now, you would notice that for notes taking, mind mapping lets you write little and focus more on the lecture or the speaker as you may wish. Also, if the mind mapping is done carefully and properly, you can revise the notes very quick and process very precisely.

Here comes my area of interest ‘brainstorming ideas’. However, I may not be able to list down all the possible contexts for using mind mapping, I will try and name as many possible. Often, I have used mind mapping to easily understand and represent a structure or an organization or a system. But, recently while studying this topic in detail, I realized that mind mapping can also be used for representing ideas, tasks or words that can be connected or can be laid around your concept or idea. For example, if I was trying to create a logo for kindergarten, I might like to make a mind map of self brainstorming to generate as many related words as possible. The mind map can be something like this:

From the above mind map, anyone can understand different branches of the thought/idea kindergarten. Now for designing the logo, I would pick-up any particular aspect from the mind map and design using it as my concept for the logo. Designing ideas start like this for better and creative visual solutions.

Similarly, as IDs we can use this mind map to provide our thoughts and related words in similar format for the visual designers to come up with an appropriate graphic. In such mind map, you can also add colors, highlights, symbols, images, typography (different sizes of text), upper or lower case and so on to distinguish, emphasize and communicate your thought more clearly and precisely. The use of visual cues can significantly enhance the mind maps and their usage.

Mind maps can be used to visualize, generate ideas by brainstorming either in a group or individually, and also for problem solving.

I found the below guidelines very useful while making my mind maps.
• Using landscape orientation of the paper.
• Placing my central idea in the middle of the page.
• Adding details in the boxes and avoid writing on the branches to reduce confusion (not as recommended in the link I gave above).
• Using visual cues such as colors, symbols, images, different sizes, and typography to distinguish and emphasize.
• Using images and symbols wherever relevant.
• Using upper case letters for key words.
• Ensuring that the lines are connected from the central image/word/concept/idea (not necessarily directly).
• Try and work to develop your own style of mind mapping. However, while brainstorming in a group, standardize the style. You can choose to follow your style, since it is ‘your mind’ map.
• If you choose to use the branching style, remember to have each word/image sitting on its own line (one word/image per line).

Have fun and happy mind mapping.