1. Have you thought about who the audience of your mind map is and what needs they have? What that implies in terms of the way information is presented in your map?
2. Are my topics and subtopics well organized and grouped logically? Pretend you’re someone who has never seen your mind map before. Would this “newbie” understand what you’re trying to communicate?
3. Look only at the first level topics of your map. Is there a logical flow in a clockwise direction beginning from the top center and working your way around in a circle?
4. Review each branch of your mind map one at a time and ask yourself: Is this branch complete in its present form or do additional subtopics need to be added to make it more complete? What’s missing, and should be added? What’s extraneous, and should be removed? What needs to be clarified?
5. Does your mind map contain icons and symbols that are placed on specific topics to add meaning and context to them?
6. Are these icons and symbols used consistently with a legend to help the viewer understand what they mean?
7. What external resources (files, folders, links, e-mail messages) do you want to be able to refer to later? Make sure they are connected to your mind map.
8. How long are your topics? If they are over 4-5 words in length, you ought to consider moving some information into topic notes, to help reduce visual clutter in your map.
9. What do you want to emphasize in your mind map? What do you want viewers to notice first? Consider placing a colored boundary around an appropriate grouping of topics and subtopics to add visual emphasis to it.
10. Should you walk away from your mind map for a few hours or days? If you’re stuck, and can’t figure out how to finish your map, this technique can really help. When you return to it, you’ll be viewing it from a different mental perspective. This should help you jump over the hurdles you’re now facing.

What types of questions do you use to assess the quality and completeness of your mind maps? I welcome your input, which will help all of the readers of this blog!

By default, most mind mapping programs utilize a white background for the maps they produce. While this provides an excellent contrast for the map itself, it can get rather boring to look at visually. To add visual impact to your maps, you may want to consider adding a background image or pattern (click on the image above to view a PDF of the Gettysburg Address – as a mind map!). There are several reasons why you may want to do this:

• To help your mind map get your audience’s attention, especially if you’re making a presentation from your mind mapping program.
• To enforce consistent branding of the mind maps produced by your company. If you’re a consulting firm, for example, you may want to create a simple map background and incorporates a screened back logo. If you create a custom map template that incorporates this background, then each of the maps that your team produces will include it – ensuring that each one clearly communicates your firm’s brand to your clients and prospects.

Here are some tips on how to incorporate backgrounds into your mind maps:

Where can you find background images? Many mind mapping software programs ship with a selection of images that are specially designed for this purpose. In addition, you can utilize any image from your computer’s hard drive, or purchase inexpensive stock images from a website like iStockPhoto.com. Check your program’s help file for instructions on recommended sizes of images for map backgrounds, tiling (using your image as a background pattern) and other options.

Use a color gradient effect: If you want to keep it simple, consider adding a gradient of a solid color as your map background. This effect can add a whole new level of depth to an otherwise flat mind map.

Relevance to your map’s topic is always a good thing: Try to make the map’s background relevant to the content of the map. For example, if you created a mind map that summarized the content of a book you read, you could include a screened back photo of the cover in the map.

Branding your mind maps: If you want to add a corporate logo to your map background, I recommend positioning it in one of the four corners of the map, where it is least likely to interfere with any of your map’s content. You may need to experiment with image size and placement (in other words, placing your logo in one corner of a large white or colored rectangle) to get this to work right.

Tile effects: If you want to “tile” your logo in a repeating pattern as the background of your maps, I strongly recommend that you start with a black-and-white image of your corporate logo, and then use your favorite image editing program to screen it back 70 to 80%. This should convert it to a very light gray, something like a watermark. This is exactly the effect that you are going for. This will help to ensure that your logo is clearly visible, yet it shouldn’t interfere with the content of your mind map.

Test, test, test: Finally, if you plan to share such a map with others, I strongly recommend that you print it out both in black-and-white and color, so you can verify if there is enough contrast between the map background and the content of the map itself. You may discover that your background image or pattern conflicts with elements of your mind map when it is printed out in black-and-white, or that a solid background color may obscure the color of your map’s connector lines, topics or other elements.

If you have a creative technique that you have used to add background images to your mind maps, please share it in the comments area below. I’d love to hear from you!

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