I've always loved diagrammatic apps because I find them so much easier to dump and convey ideas, rather than in a rigid and boring Word doc. In particular, ever since I got introduced to MindManager at school (it was installed on our laptops) it's been one of my favourite apps for note taking (the others include OneNote and Visio).

Well just the other day I was wondering if there was something like this online because I was quasi-coordinating a project to create the next generation web interface for open-source media centre software, MediaPortal. I needed something to convey a fair bit of information concisely and easily picked up. They had to be sharable too; in fact the only reason I wanted to use a web app as opposed to something like Visio was because I couldn't be bothered uploading that picture and I may need collaborative editing abilities later.

I ended up finding a web app called Gliffy, which uses a user-friendly Flash-based interface. It worked well, with a good variety of shapes available (though skewed towards IT users, with UML, network, and user interface shapes plus floorplan and standard flowchart ones), along with the ability to upload your own. The export options were good too, as was the publish option, which gave you various sizes to choose from. Apart from multi-user editing with revisions, the collaborative features were a bit thin - no communication abilities were available. The interface is a bit utilitarian, and could do with some more design-love, but it works and is easy to use and that's what counts the most.

I ended up with something like this:

Now isn't that much easier to consume than a page of text?

Having found a diagram tool, I began to want more. I wondered whether there was a web-based mindmapping tool out there, and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, given there seems to be a web app for everything nowadays) there was, in fact there were two.

First up is bubbl.us (crappy name I reckon) which uses a Flash-based interface as well. Top marks for not requiring sign up until you actually need to save a map. Nice and easy to use (love the contextual help bit and keyboard shortcuts), and great drag and drop functionality, but quite thin on the feature side of things. You can't add an icon to a bubble, import/export features still to come, no graphic format publishing feature, no revision history, only basic collaboration abilities (i.e. multi-user editing and read-only access). I found the bubbles everywhere a waste of space, and don't like them covering other branch lines, but that could be because I'm used to MindManager. The bubble delete animation and delay is cool though.

Here's a map I came up with:


The other web-based mindmapping tool I found was MindMeister [via Mashable!] (not exactly a great name either, but better). Its in private beta at the moment, so its invite only, but I managed to score one by subscribing to their newsletter. I like the fact that the mindmap on the front page itself is completely editable for you to try out. No need to click on a demo link, or create an account before you can play around - its there on the front page. It could do with some more indication though - I stumbled upon it by accident after thinking it was just a picture.

Once logged in, there's a pre-made map for you to screw around with. Its got a very nice AJAX interface, both in terms of usage (quick too) and design, although sometimes there are delays as it communicates with the server. There are also some small bugs with the placement of new nodes - it sometimes places them on top of other nodes. Also, it doesn't seem to be able to handle multi-line nodes. On the upside, its got revision history, keyboard shortcuts, drag & drop functionality, node icons (only one per node though), undo/redo, font colour selection, plus the ability to export as a graphics file (although it doesn't seem to cut out all the whitespace sometimes). You can also upload files from MindManager and FreeMind too! (can't export to those formats yet though.) On collaboration, its got the usual multi-user (simultaneously updated too!) and view only abilities, plus integrated Skype links so you can contact your fellow editors. Check out the Mashable! link above for some screenshots.

Here's the same mindmap recreated in MindMeister:


It's definitely not as pretty, but functionally, especially when you have larger mindmaps, it's a better way of presentation. Some more text properties won't hurt though, like bold, italics, underline etc.

I've got 20 invitations available for MindMeister if anyone would like to try it out - leave a comment below or email me.

Of the two mindmapping web apps, I think MindMeister has the most potential. Its collaborative features still leave a bit to be desired, especially when editors are not all on line at once. There's no way to let other editors know why you did what you did or discuss that AFAIK (I couldn't fully test the collaborative features in either as I didn't have someone else to play around with). Nevertheless, for those who have never used mindmapping software before, both are good starting points.

For comparison's sake, here's the same map done in MindManager:


If you ask me, it still has the better compromise between usability and looks than the web-based ones.

Mindmapping and other forms of diagrams are quite underutilised in the web world I reckon, especially when it's a fairly good way of easing information overload by allowing users to quickly skim over the summarised information, delving deeper if they're interested. Hopefully we'll see more of it soon.

P.S. Gliffy's business model is interesting - they're targeting the enterprise market for their income, offering a plugin for enterprise wiki Confluence. Not sure how successful that is, but it sounds like a good alternative to the old limited version or advertising models.