Mind mapping vs. Venn diagrams

Posted by CRC
May 22, 2012 at 04:24 PM

Dr Andus:

Some ideas for representations might be found here: http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html (I have always found this a great resource to come up with new ways of representing ideas).

You are really thinking a graph structure rather than the hierarchy of mind maps. One approach might be to use concept maps. I also tried to use “The Brain” for something very like this but actually found the Venn diagram to be much more expressive. If there are a fairly large number of items at the intersections the graph becomes more distracting than illuminating - even with the brain approach to zooming and moving around. I also played with some of the two and three dimensional graphing tools and didn’t find them satisfactory either.

For what you are describing a tool that allowed the brain type of navigation (zooming, moving) but with a Venn diagram representation might be ideal, particularly if the same item appears in different intersections. I haven’t heard of such a thing but it might be an interesting challenge to create one….

Just some thoughts.

Charles