Mind maps

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The “mind maps” referred to here are of two types: What could be called “true mind maps”, of the type described by Tony Buzan that follow a set of guidelines; and the much looser family of hierarchical diagrams very widely referred to as mind maps.

Before talking about these two types, some context about the process of mind mapping. 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.

Medium-sized project mind map

Mind mapping (as the phrase is commonly used) is less formal than concept mapping. At first sight it looks 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 working on the same topic will often produce very different mind maps.

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 two mind maps were both done by the same person and illustrate the differences in maps for different purposes.

Thinking mind map

The one on the right was used to control the information gathered during a large project, and that on the left was made to think through an issue and come up with some answers.

When the first is seen at a readable magnification, it is hard to work with, it is so large. Still, it is an improvement on working with no mind map at all.

You can break the map into many sub-maps, but this does limit the convenience of the resulting collection of maps.


Buzan mind maps[edit]

The guidelines[edit]

These are the guidelines to follow if you want to make a Buzan-style mind map:

1. Start in the center of a landscape sheet of blank paper.

2. Use a picture for your central idea.

3. Use colors throughout.

4. Connect your main branches to the central image and connect your second-level branches to the first and so on.

5. Make your branches curved rather than straight-lined.

6. Use one keyword per line.

7. Use images throughout.

Common mind maps[edit]

This would include true mind maps, of course, but also spidergrams, bubble diagrams and in some cases even tree diagrams.

It is useful to separate out concept maps because there are differences of structure and content that make them suitable for different purposes. A clear distinction is therefore made here.

Terminology[edit]

Discussions about the absolute value of different map types should take place discussion tab of the Map wars entry

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