Using MindManager to plan a website
This post was written by Lindy Hoppough of Chabin Concepts.
Have you ever found yourself scratching your head at…
- A website so fragmented you wonder if you really found everything?
- A needless web page with two lines of text?
- Information buried so deep you can't remember how you got there?
At Chabin Concepts we often serve as the intermediary between website developers focused on programming and clients who can't quite picture how their information will flow on a website. While content management systems make it easier for the average person to rearrange web pages on the fly, it saves time and money to plan ahead. MindManager is the tool we use to create site maps at the beginning of a web design project.
Mindjet offers a suite of products that promote group collaboration, organize ideas, and create and manage project roadmaps. Mindjet products are used by more than two million individuals and are utilized at over 83% of Fortune 100 companies including. Mindjet is a mind mapping and innovation management software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Mindjet's software products, including its flagship product MindManager and SpigitEngage, are designed to visually and collaboratively manage information and tasks.
How we use MindManager
We could use any number of flow-charting applications, but MindManager's extra features give our clients a more complete picture:
- Showing Examples. To help clients visualize recommended features, we insert hyperlinks to existing web pages and attach screen shots.
- Testing Menu Structure. Here's a simple test to see if you got the menus right: collapse the mindmap to just the top level; then ask 'innocent bystanders' which heading they would click to find various topics. If too many guess wrong, rename or reorganize and try again.
- Describing Content. We use the Notes feature to rough out some content. This allows us test our outline and identify gaps that need filling.
- Showing 'Related Info.' Sometimes, the same content applies to more than one menu item, and the website incorporates 'related info' links to connect these separated pages. We use Relationship lines to show these connections.
Using MindManager to plan a website
This post was written by Lindy Hoppough of Chabin Concepts.
Have you ever found yourself scratching your head at…
- A website so fragmented you wonder if you really found everything?
- A needless web page with two lines of text?
- Information buried so deep you can't remember how you got there?
At Chabin Concepts we often serve as the intermediary between website developers focused on programming and clients who can't quite picture how their information will flow on a website. While content management systems make it easier for the average person to rearrange web pages on the fly, it saves time and money to plan ahead. MindManager is the tool we use to create site maps at the beginning of a web design project.
Mindjet offers a suite of products that promote group collaboration, organize ideas, and create and manage project roadmaps. Mindjet products are used by more than two million individuals and are utilized at over 83% of Fortune 100 companies including. Mindjet is a mind mapping and innovation management software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Mindjet's software products, including its flagship product MindManager and SpigitEngage, are designed to visually and collaboratively manage information and tasks.
How we use MindManager
We could use any number of flow-charting applications, but MindManager's extra features give our clients a more complete picture:
- Showing Examples. To help clients visualize recommended features, we insert hyperlinks to existing web pages and attach screen shots.
- Testing Menu Structure. Here's a simple test to see if you got the menus right: collapse the mindmap to just the top level; then ask 'innocent bystanders' which heading they would click to find various topics. If too many guess wrong, rename or reorganize and try again.
- Describing Content. We use the Notes feature to rough out some content. This allows us test our outline and identify gaps that need filling.
- Showing 'Related Info.' Sometimes, the same content applies to more than one menu item, and the website incorporates 'related info' links to connect these separated pages. We use Relationship lines to show these connections.
Here are a few screen shots to illustrate how we use MindManager:
Sample Site Map: Each box represents a page on the proposed website. Hyperlinks and attachments provide examples. Relationship lines show how 'related info' links might be used in the site.
Testing Menus: Where would you look for 'Demographics?' What about 'Transportation?' Collapsing the site map helps us test the structure of the site.
Notes: By describing content in notes, we discover we don't need a page—or we need more pages—to adequately cover a topic.
Now that the MindManager Player can be exported to Acrobat 9 or Flash, we can even send clients a working, interactive site map to evaluate prior to web development. Chabin Concepts is a consulting firm serving economic development clients, but these tips are equally suitable for creating site maps for any website.
If you're interested in taking a look at a sample site map we've built using MindManager go to www.MapsforThat.com and you will be able to view and download the map template we used.
| Industry | Work management software |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Mike and Bettina Jetter |
| Headquarters | , |
| Worldwide | |
| Products | Mindjet (a combination of products - MindManager and SpigitEngage) |
| Owner | Corel |
| Website | www.mindjet.com |
Mindjet is a mind mapping and innovation management software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Mindjet's software products, including its flagship product MindManager and SpigitEngage, are designed to visually and collaboratively manage information and tasks. As of June 2016, Mindjet had approximately sixteen million users.[1]
Company history[edit]
Mindjet was founded in 1998 by computer programmer Mike Jetter and his wife, Bettina Jetter, in order to support the development of their mind mapping software, MindManager. Jetter conceived of the idea for the first product while recovering from an illness in hospital, and began developing the program while living in Germany in 1994, aiming to simplify the creation and sharing of mind maps for business users.[2] In August 2001, Mindjet received approximately $5 million in venture capital from London-based investment group 3i, which the company used to market MindManager in the U.S. and Europe.[3][4] Scott Raskin, the former chief operating officer for Telelogic, was named CEO of Mindjet in 2006.[5]
In 2011, the company acquired Thinking Space, an Android-based information mapping application,[6] and Cohuman, a social task management service.[7] The acquisition of Cohuman enabled Mindjet to launch a new collaborative working service called Mindjet Connect on September 22, 2011.[8]
As of December 2011 Mindjet had 270 employees.[9] The company's headquarters are located in San Francisco;[5] it also has offices in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[10] The company is led by a board of directors including founder Mike Jetter, managing director of Investor Growth Capital, Noah Walley, and former Visio Corporation CEO, Jeremy Jaech.[11]
In 2013, Mindjet acquired innovation management company Spigit, and adopted their software product SpigitEngage into their product suite.[12]
Products and services[edit]
Mindjet Viewer Web Part
Mindjet develops mind mapping and innovation management software[7][13] for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS,[9] and for both Apple iOS and Android mobile devices.[6]
Until 2012, the company's products focused on mind mapping, collaboration and project management.[14] The company's MindManage ]] displayed information in mind maps using colors, words, images and spatial relationships.[3][15] Following the acquisition of Cohuman in 2011, Mindjet launched Mindjet Connect, a cloud-based service for collaborative working.[7][16]
In December 2011 Mindjet reported 350,000 downloads for its iOSapp and 1.1 million downloads for its Android-based app.[6]
In September 2012, the company combined its existing products into a single product named |Mindjet[17] and changed from a purchase-based model to a subscription-based model.[14][18] N Aurora hdr 1 1 1.
In September 2013, Mindjet acquired Pleasanton, California based startup Spigit,[19] and added their SpigitEngage enterprise innovation management software to the Mindjet product suite.[20]
References[edit]
- ^Barnett, Jamie. 'Predicting the next Slack: Finding sticky cloud apps with cult-like followings'. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ^'From Adversity, Software Success'. Bloomberg Businessweek. 12 April 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ abEileen Colkin (13 August 2001). 'Mindjet lands $5M and plots course into U.S. market'. InformationWeek. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^'Mindjet'. Daily Deal. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ ab'Mindjet hires new CEO'. San Francisco Business Times. 20 June 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ abcRobin Wauters (13 December 2011). 'Mindjet Buys Thinking Space, Launches Mind Mapping App For Android'. TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ abcTony Bradley (12 September 2011). 'Mindjet Unleashes Creativity with Online Collaboration Tools'. PC World. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^Jessica Stillman (25 November 2011). 'Cohuman + Mindjet = Idea management from inception to execution'. GigaOm. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ abWade Roush (21 December 2011). 'Mindjet Reaches Cloud Altitude with Mind-Mapping Tools for Getting Things Done'. Xconomy.com. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^'Contact'. Mindjet.com. Mindjet. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^'Board of Directors'. Mindjet.com. Mindjet. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ^http://www.mindjet.com/spigit/press-release/
- ^Kurt Marko (3 January 2012). 'Apps Need Collaboration At Core'. InformationWeek. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ abMatthew Finnegan (21 September 2012). 'Mindjet woos channel with simplified software sales approach'. ChannelBiz.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^James Fallows (20 March 2005). 'To-Do List: Shop, Pay Bills, Organize Brain'. The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^Jonathan Blum (19 September 2011). 'Mindjet Connect Helps Small Businesses Visualize and Manage Projects'. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^Joanne Carew (10 October 2012). 'Mindjet showcases integrated solution'. ITWeb.co.za. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^Fiona Graham (16 April 2012). 'Pretty pictures: Can images stop data overload?'. BBC News. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^'Spigit Acquires Kindling, Shrinking Fragmented Innovation Management Market'. CMSWire.com. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
- ^Nicastro, Dom (2013-09-16). 'Social Business Force Emerges: Mindjet, Spigit Merge'. CMSWire, Simpler Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 2015-07-13.
External links[edit]
Mindjet Web App
