Q&A: What is mind mapping?

A: Mind mapping is a graphical way of dividing a topic into component parts, generating and organizing solutions to a problem, or provoking ideas and capturing the results of a discussion. Many mind mappers feel that it has freedom of thought and creativity built in.

Mind mapping is less formal than concept mapping. Superficially it's similar, but is very different in actual use. Mind mapping is more personal. You may make a Mind map for many different purposes and two people will often produce very different Mind maps, even though their starting subject may be the same.

What a mindmap contains and how it looks will depend on why it is being done, and how the person making it chooses to slice and dice the subject matter. Here are two thumbnails to give an idea of just how different mind maps can be:

These mind maps were both done by the same person. .

One was made to control the information gathered during a large project, the other to think through a problem and come up with some answers..

The first one seriously needs Topicscape - it was made before Topicscape existed - to take control of the vast, unfriendly 2D sheet. When it's at a readable magnification, it is hard to work with it. Still, it is easier than working without a mindmap.

2D mindmappers will tell you to break the map into many sub-maps (sub-mindmaps, mind-submaps), as if that was not in itself an admission that 2D maps had reached their limit in such cases. At this size, and complexity this is just when you need a way of having a good overview, and a 3D landscape provides it.

My strong belief is that most people doing mind mapping are well motivated by the results and find it an enjoyable framework for organizing information as well as for thinking, learning and producing ideas. That's how it works for me, and as a consultant working in many countries I've met and worked alongside many people who feel the same.