Understanding a problem is halfway through solving a problem and the same happens in design as well, understanding a problem completely is the most crucial part for coming up with potential solutions, and in design, we have a very simple tool to not only understand the problem but also come up with potential solutions. A Mind Map is a visual thinking tool in a tree structure with the main topic in the center, its potential solutions connected to that topic, and later subdivisions of these solutions connected to each solution. In this article, we will discuss what Mind Maps are. how to design Mind Maps and why they matter.
What are Mind Maps?
A Mind Map is a visual thinking tool in a tree structure with the main topic in the center, its potential solutions connected to that topic, and later subdivisions of these solutions connected to each solution. A mind map helps generate ideas and develop a concept when the relationship among many pieces of related information is unclear. Mind Maps are the most simplistic and thus straightforward kind of mapping. They have a clear hierarchy and format, making them pretty quick to create and consume.
The primary job of a Mind Map is to enable the designer to cover all the nonlinear thinking processes. We as designers generally think linearly, whenever we design something we think everything good about our design and the positive feedback past users had while interacting with our product but sometimes we miss some of the edge cases, this is where mind mapping helps us to think about when the user is interacting with your product how they think? And what are the things or what are the areas we need to take care of whenever we are designing a website or an application?
How to Create a Mind Map?
Step 1. Begin with the main subject
The first step is to draw the subject at the center of the mind map. This subject could be anything – a problem statement, a new feature, a new application all together. The Subject is the focus of our mind map and hence takes the center of the mind map. As a sample I will designing a sample mind map for a new Dashboard feature in our website, this dashboard analyzes the startups on various metrics, step 1 is to create the subject:
Dashboard
Step 2. Add branches to the main subjects
The next step is to work on the potential solution of the problem, or if it is a feature what are the possible implementation of that feature. If you have multiple ideas for a problem you can start start creating extensions and specify your ideas. In my case I am creating a feature for a dashboard so I am adding all the potential features that dashboard option with have in our website:
Branches
Step 3. Add sub branches depicting solution in detail
The potential solutions can be further broken down into smaller sub groups of actionable points, in this step we divide the solution into smaller action points. In our case since we are designing mind map for a feature, we will divide individual feature into smaller actionable parts of a feature:
Sub-Branches
Step 4. Final Touch and iterations
The final step is to firstly add some contrast to the groups, every group which is our cases are KPIs, Product, Bar graphs and Social Media should be easily to differentiate with other groups. For this you can add contrast using color, typography etc. After that having multiple iterations and choosing the best one also makes the mind map more thoughtful. And with that our final mind map appears to be like:
Final Map
Importance of Mind Maps
Brainstorming
- Brainstorming is the most commonly used ideation technique in which a group of people discuss their potential solutions for a given problem and new ideas and counter ideas are generated within this interaction. Mind Maps are a great way of representing these ideas in a structured format and are commonly used in UI/UX Brainstorming sessions.
Mind Mapping
- As the name suggests, Mind maps are throughly used in a design thinking process which is named after Mind Maps itself, it is called Mind mapping. Mind mapping is a process used in early stage of an idea where you simply write the problem in a phrase in a rough paper and then around it you write possible solutions for the problem.
Organizing ideas
- Mind Maps are the most simplistic and thus straightforward kind of mapping, hence have an important application in organizing ideas. They have a clear hierarchy and format, making them pretty quick to create and consume. This ensures that our ideas are structured well and are easy to create and understand.
User Centered approach
- Mind mapping is a tool which will help us to understand the problem in a more user centric way, suppose if you get any problem statement and you are not sure what are the use cases you need to cover, in such cases mind mapping is a great tool because it can help you think how user thinks.
Communication
- Mind map also acts as a communication tool since it are easy to understand even for those who are not from design background. Mind maps can be used to depict an issue and its potential solution and then can be used to communicate between different teams taking their feedback and implementing them.
Conclusion
A Mind Map is a visual thinking tool in a tree structure with the main topic in the center, its potential solutions connected to that topic, and later subdivisions of these solutions connected to each solution. A mind map is really helpful in generating ideas and developing a concept when the relationship among many pieces of the related information are unclear. Make sure to follow the points we mentioned in this article in order to create a well structured mind map for your next project.