Mind mapping on the iPad is one of the “quiet revolutions” of mobile computing. You don’t hear much about it, but it’s making a massive difference in the way that a growing number of people think and work. Here are the top 10 reasons why the iPad is the perfect platform for mind mapping:
- Screen size: The screen size of the iPad is “just right” to enable visual mapping. Compared to the screen of the iPhone, it feels positively expansive. If you’ve ever tried to create a mind map on an iPhone, you know what I’m talking about.
- Portability: The iPad is small, flat and very portable, which makes it more likely you’ll carry it with you to capture your ideas.
- It’s fun: Its form factor – not too big, not to small, unobtrusive and easy to balance on your lap – makes it fun to create mind maps. In fact, I prefer it to working with a mouse and keyboard to develop my mind maps.
- Tactile qualities: The touch interface of the iPad just feels right when mind mapping. Unlike a desktop PC or laptop, the user interface of the iPad doesn’t get in the way when you’re creating maps on it. With the iPad, you use your fingertip to add and manipulate your map’s content. There’s something very tactile about it that brings the whole experience much closer to the organic feel of hand-drawing a mind map.
- Capture your ideas – now: Because the iPad is an “instant on” device (you don’t need to wait for it to boot up) and has a long battery life, it’s ideal for quickly capturing ideas or adding content to one of your maps when you have 10 minutes to spare.
- Connected mind maps: One of the most common usage scenarios for mind mapping apps on the iPad, iPhone and other portable devices is that you get inspired, fire up your device and capture some ideas on the fly, and then transfer them to a desktop mapping program for further development. This is a very powerful way to work.
- Access your maps anywhere: You can carry your collection of mind maps with you wherever you go. Several mind mapping apps automatically sync with “cloud”-based services, ensuring that you always have one-tap access to your full library of ideas, projects and other visual summaries.
- Presentation punch: You can easily use it to present your ideas to small groups of people, which will help to give your ideas a definite “Wow!” factor. Plus, you can annotate your ideas as you discuss them.
- Team productivity tool: With several of today’s visual mapping apps, you can contribute to a team-based mind mapping environment without spending several hundred dollars on desktop mind mapping software.
- Try it – you may like it! It’s an inexpensive way for you to figure out if you like mind mapping or not. Before you invest in desktop software, why not try out a low-cost mind mapping app for your iPad?
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