Comments on: Increase the visual impact of your mind maps with images and color http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/increase-the-visual-impact-of-your-mind-maps-with-images-and-color/ Your best resource for advice on mind mapping software Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:42:01 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: 5 ways to quickly increase the visual impact of your next mind map - Mind Mapping Software Blog http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/increase-the-visual-impact-of-your-mind-maps-with-images-and-color/comment-page-1/#comment-891 5 ways to quickly increase the visual impact of your next mind map - Mind Mapping Software Blog Thu, 07 May 2009 18:18:59 +0000 http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/?p=2083#comment-891 [...] Add color to your map: Many users of mind mapping software stick with the default settings of their favorite programs, which means that they are frequently black-and-white creations. This diminishes their visual appeal, and makes their contents less memorable. According to Tony Buzan, the developer of the mind mapping technique, your brain thrives on color and imagery. So take the time to add color to the topics, lines and text of your mind map. Several programs, such as NovaMind, do this automatically, making each branch radiating from the central topic a different color. If it makes sense within the context of the topic of your map, consider color coding its main branches based upon the content it contains. For example, action items could be grouped together on one branch and colored green, key issues to consider before implementing a new project could be colored in red, and so forth. (Read my previous post about adding color to your mind maps) [...] [...] Add color to your map: Many users of mind mapping software stick with the default settings of their favorite programs, which means that they are frequently black-and-white creations. This diminishes their visual appeal, and makes their contents less memorable. According to Tony Buzan, the developer of the mind mapping technique, your brain thrives on color and imagery. So take the time to add color to the topics, lines and text of your mind map. Several programs, such as NovaMind, do this automatically, making each branch radiating from the central topic a different color. If it makes sense within the context of the topic of your map, consider color coding its main branches based upon the content it contains. For example, action items could be grouped together on one branch and colored green, key issues to consider before implementing a new project could be colored in red, and so forth. (Read my previous post about adding color to your mind maps) [...]

]]> By: The Mindjet Blog » The Secrets of Using Colors in Maps http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/increase-the-visual-impact-of-your-mind-maps-with-images-and-color/comment-page-1/#comment-889 The Mindjet Blog » The Secrets of Using Colors in Maps Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:34:17 +0000 http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/?p=2083#comment-889 [...] Increase the visual impact of your mind maps with images and color by Chuck Frey [...] [...] Increase the visual impact of your mind maps with images and color by Chuck Frey [...]

]]> By: Michael Deutch from Mindjet http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/increase-the-visual-impact-of-your-mind-maps-with-images-and-color/comment-page-1/#comment-890 Michael Deutch from Mindjet Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:26:03 +0000 http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/?p=2083#comment-890 Great post. And I totally agree -- the use of visuals can be extremely important, but can be overdone as well! I like to add images to 'main' topics to help people build the associations and navigate into a section of a map. For color, I like to use it to make either a section or topic jump out at you and get noticed. If everything is colored or has images, the result can be opposite of what you intended. It can contribute to overwhelm and cause 'map shock'. Power feature: If your colors have meaning in your map, you can FILTER on it. In other words, topics that are yellow with red text have critical importance. You can set up and save filters to show all your critical items and hide the other topics. A couple of other thoughts on this subject: YELLOW --- I recently read that the brain remembers things highlighted in yellow better than any other color. Ever wonder why highlighters first came out in the color yellow? I think there was some research done to guide that decision. So, if you just highlighted some topics in yellow, that information would be more memorable in your Last, color blindness! I saw a sight recently that can run tests on images. I found it very eye-opening (pun intended!). You can save a map as an image and run a test on it to see how your audience may be seeing it if they have a form of color blindness. http://is.gd/iWQR Thanks Chuck for all your posts! Great post. And I totally agree — the use of visuals can be extremely important, but can be overdone as well! I like to add images to ‘main’ topics to help people build the associations and navigate into a section of a map. For color, I like to use it to make either a section or topic jump out at you and get noticed. If everything is colored or has images, the result can be opposite of what you intended. It can contribute to overwhelm and cause ‘map shock’.

Power feature: If your colors have meaning in your map, you can FILTER on it. In other words, topics that are yellow with red text have critical importance. You can set up and save filters to show all your critical items and hide the other topics.

A couple of other thoughts on this subject: YELLOW — I recently read that the brain remembers things highlighted in yellow better than any other color. Ever wonder why highlighters first came out in the color yellow? I think there was some research done to guide that decision. So, if you just highlighted some topics in yellow, that information would be more memorable in your

Last, color blindness! I saw a sight recently that can run tests on images. I found it very eye-opening (pun intended!). You can save a map as an image and run a test on it to see how your audience may be seeing it if they have a form of color blindness. http://is.gd/iWQR

Thanks Chuck for all your posts!

]]> By: Richard Pool http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/increase-the-visual-impact-of-your-mind-maps-with-images-and-color/comment-page-1/#comment-888 Richard Pool Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:09:49 +0000 http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/?p=2083#comment-888 And a second caveat about colour would be to spare a thought for those who actually find colour confusing! When you use colour, keep it simple and with strong contrast. When you're not colour-sighted contrast is good, subtle variations just don't exist (trust me, I speak as one who knows). And don't assume that just because two colours look very different to you, they will look that way to the non-colour-sighted. I spent two years at University wondering why they'd put a pink carpet in a male student's room only to find out it was actually brown! Having said that, I find mindmapping to be one of the most useful tools for preparing talks and analysing all sorts of thins. Even without colour! And a second caveat about colour would be to spare a thought for those who actually find colour confusing! When you use colour, keep it simple and with strong contrast. When you’re not colour-sighted contrast is good, subtle variations just don’t exist (trust me, I speak as one who knows). And don’t assume that just because two colours look very different to you, they will look that way to the non-colour-sighted. I spent two years at University wondering why they’d put a pink carpet in a male student’s room only to find out it was actually brown!

Having said that, I find mindmapping to be one of the most useful tools for preparing talks and analysing all sorts of thins. Even without colour!

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