Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge

Mind Mapping lies at the very core of any design process. I being a college student and from computer science  background, always remain surrounded by some or the other projects. My projects basically include development  of various software and mobile applications for the people. I personally like to take up projects that are customer- centric i.e. solving customer problems based on their requirements. Customer-centric projects give you the feeling  of satisfaction as it focuses on the people’s need and wants and not on the profits gained due to the release of a  particular software or application. What I do is first send online survey forms which include various questions  regarding the project to the people I know and tell them to spread it to their connections also which provides me  with an insight about the peoples’ requirements. From the survey, a large amount of raw data is collected which  is hard to process. For this, I require some tool to capture, store and organize ideas in structured manner which  makes it easy for me to follow and proceed further step by step.

Selection

I use Mind Mapping approach to put up innovative ideas on a mind map generated from the data gathered earlier.  Mind map has free flow of ideas without any boundaries or restrictions. Mind mapping is a clear representation of  “What is?” without thinking of “What if?”. So, mind mapping is clearly a next step after visualization of various  possibilities.

Application

I start building a simple mind map which is either in a tree or spider structure. I initially decide the central idea or  the central purpose of making this project which guides other ideas or sub-ideas to land safe with the central  theme of the project. The whole project works with respect to the central idea. To make this mind map, I use  software like ‘Microsoft Visio’ or a web application such as ‘Lucidchart’ which involves rapid development of such  mind maps.

I remember, our college has taught us design engineering subject for around 2 years which consisted of various  design projects approached with different design tools. Even they told us that: “Design thinking is the ladder to  innovation.” What we were taught was that: “Got an idea? Make a mind map.”

During the whole course we made various design engineering canvases like AEIOU Summary Canvas, Empathy  Canvas, Ideation Canvas, and Product Development Canvas. Then we also learnt to make various UML Diagrams  or System Diagrams for software development. In which we made Use Case Diagram, Activity Diagram, Class  Diagram, Data Flow Diagram, Entity-Relationship Diagram, Sequence Diagram, State Diagram, etc.

Considering the things, I’d learnt as resources, what I do is make a simple mind map with the whole set of ideas to  be implemented within a particular project and then make various above listed diagrams and canvases to expand  those ideas and generate a clearer picture of the process. Most of the processes that are to be implemented in my  projects are algorithms which involves making of various flowcharts which are also a kind of mind maps.

Insight

By applying the Mind Mapping tool, I identified that it gives you the power to organize the ideas in a way you want  them to get executed. It definitely removes all the confusion and complexities related to your project and gives  you a better and clearer picture to begin your project with. In software development, this phase is called “Analysis  and Design Phase” where different data is collected then different patterns are generated by doing analysis on the  collected raw data. Mind mapping is definitely a pivotal point in design thinking process as it establishes criteria  for “What if?” phase.

The insights gained from this course helped me broaden my design skills. With the removal of complexities, Mind  Mapping tool smoothens the design process with the help of various design tools. It also opens a broad spectrum  of possibilities for design thinkers.

Approach

Since I discovered that Mind mapping tool help designers picturize the whole idea of the project in one single mind  map, next time when I take up any project “Mind Mapping” would be the key criteria that has to be satisfied in  any of the cases possible. This course will help me in developing innovative ideas and make them happen with  design thinking process at the heart. Now, I have to believe that design thinking drives innovation.

