This weekend I was reintroduced to a great brainstorming tool. Over the past few months I have been using
Microsoft Visio to as a brainstorming (mind-mapping) tool for a research project and the
new project management Master's degree I have been developing. Visio works great but requires the software to be installed on the device. This weekend I was helping my wife with a project and we needed a diagramming tool. I first thought about using
Diagramly, the diagramming tool
I blogged about several weeks ago, but then I remembered another great free web-based tool for diagramming...
Bubbl.us.
Bubbl.us is a brainstorming tool that allows the user to connect a series of boxes (or bubbles) as part of a mind-mapping diagram. What is great about this tool is the ease in exporting the diagram to an image file and embedding it into a Word document. Also, since it is a web-based application, it is OS-independent and I can access my saved diagrams from any computer.
We were pleased with the results and she now has access to this diagram for future use from her own Bubbl.us account.
Bubbl.us is pretty slick. Having used Visio, and no OmniGraffle for years, I have to say, this Bubbl.us is pretty freakin' awesome. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteHow often are you exporting your diagrams to Word/email? Is this a near-daily part of your workflow?
There's also http://cortex.karmanebula.com/about for text-only brainstorming (which I often do myself).
Thank you for your comments and your recommendation for the text-only brainstorming tool. I'll have to take a look at this.
DeleteI typically keep my diagrams online but occasionally bring them into a document. In terms of embedding a diagram, Bubbl.us is not as easy as Visio to import and edit once its embedded but is is a nice an easy, free, and platform-independent tool. I would use Visio if this were something I did on a regular basis.