Using Mind Maps to Explore User Interaction | Internet Duct Tape

mind mapping,technical writing,tech writing,workflow collaboration,web 2.0,game designer

Internet Duct Tape is a great Tech Writing blog with a huge following. More great workflow collaboration tools and concepts quoted from Using Mind Maps to Explore User Interaction « Internet Duct Tape:

Mind mapping begins with a central keyword, but instead you can think of that as the first screen in your application. Each depth in the mind map will represent a user action. One you have mapped out all the actions you can see the overall cogitative load of your program clear as day. Take a second to look at a mind map I did of the WordPress.com blog interface.

Once the big blob of your UI is mapped you can at a glance look at the most common actions a user would have to perform and see how many interactions it takes to get there. You could even use a mind map to design how content is linked on your blog and how hard it is to use. Admittedly, drawing out a UI like this is nothing new, but using mind mapping software for it is so damned convenient.

Go take a look.