Is this feature still on the table? I was wondering how this was coming along since it looks so cool. I tried expanding one of my documents into one and it was like a mini nuke had gone off 
7 Likes
Depends on what you mean by āon the tableāā¦ I think thereās a good chance that weāll resume development on this feature, but it wonāt be before other must-have things like mobile apps.
Relevant link for others: Trello
1 Like
We should definitely tune down the bouncing animation in future iterationsā¦ thatās a little too much. Sorry for scaring you. 
Of course. I definitely think itās more important to get the different platform apps out 
It didnāt scare me, but it was so bizarre! Really fun to play with 
What library did you use to make it?
Also, hereās an app I used a few years back to organise some projects. Itās called Subtask and itās basically a mindmapping tool. Would be something interesting to look into, as itās really nice how itās styled.
Mainly RaphaĆ«l, a bit of jQuery UI too (not essential), I think. Itās been a long time, I hope my memory is still working .
Looks cool! Reminds me of MindNode. We plan to use this style too, as everything is more stable and their positions are more predictable.
The mindmap feature is really nice.
For the interface I wouldnāt mind if the central node refocused on the one clicked. A great example of this mode of āinfinite mindmapā is TheBrain. And of course the best live example of TheBrain in use is Jerry Michalskiās brain
4 Likes
It would be AWESOME to have the mindmap feature included in parallel with the outliner!
This would also differentiate DL and set it ahead of several other tools.
Especially for overall planning, review and so on, something magic happens when all your stuff becomes visualized like that.
Integration or coupling with mindmaps is a frequent feature request to most of the task managers.
And also for outliners / information managers like Evernote, it comes up repeatedly.
ADDITIONALLY, if you really bring in the full power of TAGGING (filtering etc.), then this IN ITSELF will also be an advantage compared to most other mindmap tools.
It is a mystery to me why the mindmappers have not picked up on this aspect. Good old MindManager (which is now too pricey for typical non-corporate users) is the only one I recall having included this.
A mindmap where one can quickly filter out e.g. action items or questions (such as notes from a meeting or a webinar) is a powerful tool.
[sidebar]
Ah, MindManager! Still have some old versions. Stopped using it because when your map becomes large it becomes very unruly.
Personal Brain (now TheBrain) fixed that as the map recenters around the item you just clicked. Very nice tool for visually associating ideas and concepts. Never became my main knowledge tool the way it did for Jerry simply because getting information in wasnāt always that simple.
[/sidebar]
1 Like
I looked into jerrybrains, while its an interesting concept, the prezi-like zooms is cancerous imo (also the theme is kinda outdated too)
I prefer simple hierarchial list approaches to get a point across.
Also, I am not really sure about mindmaps. I had to use it to do international sourcing of products overseas before using US customs data, with pure mind maps. That came in handy, only because I did not know what data I needed until I saw it. I also used Xminds before, but it didnāt really scale that well in the end, since data entry and retrieval quickly was sort-of slow, and it was really complicated / scaled poorly.
On the other side of things, you could go with a more mySQL workbench approach to mindmapping diagrams
Thereās some core questions I have regarding this:
-
I imagine you want to have the mindmap, based purely on whatever designated listās hierarchy you have. Thereās a few android tools that do this like āMindlyā, where you can make a mindmap, and extract hierarchal data off of it
-
How much text are you going to be viewing on the mindmap? Thereās no limit on characters when you write a bulletpoint, however, you are limited to so many characters on a bulletpoint when viewing it in a mindmap (real estate is important). Are you going to go with a cutoff bulletpoint description that most ecommerce sites do on their categorical landing pages?
-
How will you select how much data will be previewed when you open up your mindmap? Is iti going to mimic all the existing opened bulletpoints in that designated list, and closed/open in paralell with dynalist (as you collapse and uncollapse bulletpoints?)
-
What about inlining images?
-
Is the mindmap going to be a seperate tab opening, or is it a popup window? What would the UI look like when you close and open it?
-
Search parameters on it (@ and # )tags? (would there be built in search parameters on dynalist)
-
Are you going to be entering data on your mindmap mostly through dynalist, or on the dynalist mindmap? What sort of data analysis (think of financial forecasting / project management /lean analysis) are you going to get out of it? How would this benefit you, in comparison to just regularly adding items on dynalist?
-
Zoom in and out functions.
-
How many parent / child items would appear on the mindmap? Most times its just one levle deep, until you click and expand and go further
-
What is the maximum number of items you could have on that mindmap, for one parent node: child node ratios? At a certain point, it starts becoming too small to look at text, also would you be having a fixed size on the mindmap, and how would you naturally zoom in and out (would it behave similarly to a CAD programās zoom in on assets, etc?)
-
Where would you start on your mind map? Do you click the dynalist bulletpoint (expansion open) to select that mind maps desgianted view (think of the zoom in view mode as of right now)
I havenāt really used mindmaps in years, Iām not sure what the currently accepted UX norms are. those are just my opinions about mindmaps
1 Like
Interestingā¦ so you want to see the outline AND the mindmap side-by-side together?
1 Like
Oh well, by āparallelā I just meant that they are updated simultaneously, rather than syncāing between two different tools. Not necessarily side-by-side. It looks neat in XMind (the only place I have seen it, as in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBeE0OB69JE ) but I wouldnāt say it is a must. Just a really easy toggle with keyboard shortcut would still be great IMO.
Yeah. I donāt know about recent MM versions (I still use v7.1 from time to time) but XMind is doing a better job of this. They included a sheet concept in the map files (ie. tabs within the file, like in spreadsheets) and an easy feature of creating new sheet based on topics. This means it is easy to spread out parts of the map in sub-sheets as the tree grows. But not forced to use separate files like in MM.
I always loved the ālimitlessā concept of TheBrain with endless hierarchies and multiple parents/connections etcā¦ I really WANTED to adopt it for that reason but I never could get to grips with the UI. It is not intuitive for me. I get lost in it and canāt navigate.
Also, it is more of a āvisual databaseā (with the current node/entity always in the center) than it is a map.
In fact, to me it is almost not a map - but more like a series of nodes and connections.
I do think, though, that a tool like DL with Mindmaps could be successful in also offering the zoom/drill down option. As long as it is not the only way. Basically, the same freedom as with the list bullets. Either expand the tree, or zoom.
I also think it is the only way to really stay consistent with the concept. I donāt see any other way if it is to be possible to fluidly navigate/toggle between outline and mindmap - and not lose track.
1 Like
By the way, about the ādrill-downā concept in mindmaps, comapping.com found a quite unique way to facilitate ābread crumbsā in that respect.
Here is a sample from their demo map:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByeCxPqqscU-c2k1QVM1MTM0cDg/view?usp=sharing
It can be played with here, live:
http://go.comapping.com/comapping.html#trial=true
(Use Tab key to focus on a topic and watch how the bread crumbs / lower tree fold up in the left side of the screen).
Just throwing it in here for inspiration in future creative work. 
2 Likes
FWIW, mind mapping, for me, is not used for productivity purposes. I use mindmaps for understanding relationships between nodes. (after I have analyzed and reconfigured the nodes, branches, and leaves) From my perspective, there are more purpose-built tools like kumu.io that better serve this function. I have exported from dynalist.io and then imported (via Excel spreadsheet) into kumu.io.
4 Likes
An amazing visual of the notesā¦I see mind mapping functionality as a great future for Dynalist Pro.
1 Like
I would love if this feature was refined, I just checked it out and it has promise. The map does not function as I would expect; when I click a node to view its children my expectation is that the clicked node becomes the new center node and a back button is how you would return to the next level higher. The mobile app Mindly implements this workflow very well and could be used as an inspiration.
Thanks for the pointer to Mindly!
We realize that itās really rough right now, and thatās why we call it an experimental alpha version. Hopefully we get to work on it more when the main product is more polished.
FWIW, have you seen mubu.com/?
It has some of the Mindmap functionality that has been discussed in this topic.
Yeah, weāve tried that. Their mindmap feature is pretty nice, although for huge document the lines tend to go crazy sometimes.
Understood about huge documents and connecting lines. Just like with any mind mapping software, there is a diminishing return with the number of nodes that you are trying to see and manage at the same time.
1 Like