Choosing mind mapping software to design a web site

Click the images below to see a larger version. To go to the site of the software mentioned, click the caption below its image.

To design a web site or other publication[edit]

MindManager can export a web site, one page per branch, with links, built from and following the structure and content of a mind map. There are several style templates, and the site built can take several forms:

Dynamic outline (for navigation to greater than two levels)
One page
Presentation
Static outline
Clickable Image map
Simple Outline

When exporting to web pages, MindManager picks up and includes images, links, notes and icons from the map. It adds extras such as a table of contents page, overview map and icon legend. This can be very useful, particularly to throw a quick website together for use on an intranet. If you use this to build a public website, you would probably want to stamp your own personality on the site after it had been generated by modifying the .css files. Alternatively, you can use the quite detailed customization options provided to modify the templates.

For more traditional website planning, WriteMaps is useful, especially if you’re designing a site in collaboration with others, because it is on line. You run it from the browser, so there’s no software to be downloaded and you can view the map in a hierarchical or an outline view.

Working in the other direction is PowerMapper … it takes an existing website and maps it out by spidering through its links. In addition to various regular hierarchical diagrams it can make some innovative and interesting presentations of a web site; the one shown here, Skyscrapers, shows the proximity of a page to the home page by its size.