Brainstorm with Bubbl.us

As of 27th May the folder problem mentioned here seems to have been fixed.

You’ve probably heard people twittering on about brainstorms, mind-maps, and spider-diagrams for some time. If you’re anything like me then you shun them, preferring to write out things instead. However, during my revision I’ve found myself using the online bubbl.us mind-mapping application. It’s proven itself to me, and I’m now using it as a slightly more interesting method to review and organise my notes as opposed to typing them out.

Bubbl.us can be used to break down large areas into smaller, easier to read chunks

It’s currently available in two flavours – the current version and the new, far more spiffing, beta version. I’ve been using the beta version as I tried the current release previously and didn’t take much of a fancy to it. However, the new version which is currently under development adds a lot more polish, and makes the whole experience of using it far simpler, and at times, rather rewarding.

Each new mind-map starts with a word or phrase in the centre – an example from one of my own might be – ‘League of Nations failures’. Branches are then created around this central idea, which can then have further branches, and further, and so on. These floating text bubbles can be dragged around and moved to different areas. If you change your mind about the connection of one, you can drag it and hover over another bubble that you want it to connect to. Connecting lines can also be drawn between otherwise disconnected items to show a link between them. Colour schemes can also be added to different branches, making it easier to view and distinguish between different concepts. This is also supposed to improve the amount of information which your retain from it.

There are also options to export the brainstorm as an image – PDF functions would also be nice, and will hopefully be added in the future. I’ve found that the print function isn’t very useful at all; it tried to print certain sections on multiple pages, which isn’t really very useful at all. Printing from an exported JPEG was fine , if a little small with the larger brainstorms. The PNG, oddly, seemed to print at a slightly lower quality. I sometimes ended up screenshotting my brainstorms, resizing, then printing them. A bit of a hassle.

As is expected with betas, there are issues. Sometimes changing the colour of bubbles will change the font colour instead – but at least this is easily undone and retried. However, a real issue that’s been bothering me is more important. When placing brainstorms into virtual online  folders which can be created with the service, the file seems to get upset, and refuses to be opened from the directory. I instead had to open them from the splash page which appears when opening the application. This problem can be avoided by simply saving them as a list instead of creating folders and placing them within. Hopefully this will get fixed soon.

Whilst it’s a very good product, there is obvious scope for this service becoming much, much better. Currently, each brainstorm is only available to the person who created it. It would be a really nice touch to allow users to set their brainstorms as public, allowing others to view and edit it, creating their own improved copies. This would prove especially useful for students studying for exams – they would be able to browse a depository of brainstorms from other students; edit and improve them; and create their own for others to use.

If you’ve not tried brainstorming before, now is as good a time as any to give it a try. I suggest trying out the bubbl.us beta version to experience a really rather smashing web-app. If you’re not the daring, risk-taking type, and would rather sit quietly in an arm-chair with a nice cuppa, you could give the current version a go instead.