There are also some interface design choices that negatively impact the user experience, especially on iOS where it can be difficult to discover things. Like MindNode, there are several templates and themes you can use with iThoughts, but the ones included in MindNode are significantly better. iThoughts does a pretty good job balancing design and features, but leans more toward the features side and the result is that the app just doesn’t look as nice as MindNode. There are lots of options available, but it is difficult to add these features without cluttering up the interface. IThoughts also offers a clean user interface, but it’s not nearly as polished as MindNode. MindNode looks incredible, even on the small screen of an iPhone. It even has cleverly-designed floating toolbars that give you access to all the features without cluttering up the interface. If you really can’t find one that you love out-of-the-box, you can even create your own themes by editing the style elements for things like child nodes and cross connections, then saving it as a theme from your current mind map for future use. It has several great-looking themes to choose from, and in our opinion every single one looks good. In fact, it’s hard to create a mind map in MindNode that doesn’t look great. The design is simple, but it still gives you everything you need to make beautiful mind maps. It is an absolutely beautiful app and a joy to use. The design of the user interface is where MindNode really stands out. Mind mapping is one area in particular where you really need an app that is fun to use, because the better mental state you are in the better your ideas are going to be. What your mind mapping app should do is give you a great looking interface that helps get your creative juices flowing. It should help you capture and develop your ideas, but the value is in the ideas themselves, not the features.

The app is not the hero of the story, nor should it try to be. Our ethos in evaluating mind mapping app design is that the app you choose to use should give you the features you need, then get out of your way. In this post, we compare these two apps side-by-side, using the following criteria:

But two apps rise above the others as the true cream of the crop: MindNode, with a stunningly beautiful user interface, and iThoughts, with powerful features and impressive flexibility.īoth of these apps are great, but they take very different approaches to mind mapping that can make it difficult to choose which one is right for you. When it comes to mind mapping on Apple hardware, there are lots of great options available.

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