MindNode for Mac/Iphone

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 11.01.2011

If you have installed the latest Mac Operating System update you would have of course noticed the new Mac App Store because it is shoved right at the top of your dock. The Mac App Store is a push by Apple to transfer the success of the Iphone App ecosystem to their desktop/laptop line.

However the purpose of this post is to not to give Apple praise by saying how innovative they are, but is really about a wicked cool app I found which might be of good use to industrial designers.

I, like many designers love to brainstorm and use mind maps to explore and manage new ideas and I also find value in being able to organise these ideas hierarchically. Unfortunately there has never been a really good way to do this digitally, previous solutions tend to be clunky, confusing and miss the real organic flow of mind mapping that you achieve with pen and paper. However MindNode changes this, and best of all it’s completely free! MindNode is extremely simple to use; it makes programs like Microsoft Paint seem overly complex and difficult. When you launch MindNode you are given one central box which is your parent box and here is where you can type in the title of your project. From there it is as simple as dragging and dropping little nodes off the parent node. The program seems really lightweight and self organising by even giving each of your nodes different colours.

This program is fantastic for brainstorming product features, design research, considering options and mapping of user-interfaces for electronic products, or for the navigation of a website. But this is just from the top of my head, I am sure you have many other ideas floating around! As I said MindNode is free but there is also a pro version for $24.99US which gives you the ability to drag and drop pictures and links onto nodes and integrates Apple’s Quick-view to instantly check out these attached files. There is also an Iphone App for $7.99AU which gives you the same functionality as Mac App and it also gives you some good screen-sharing options.