MapsOfMind - My first side project. Requesting feedback!
Hi,
Longtime IH stalker here :P I just completed my first major side project.
It's basically a mind mapping tool. The idea came to me after using various mind mapping tools - but none of them catered to my use and most of them lacked features which I wanted. So, this is something I made to scratch my own itch.
I am not really a UI/UX guy (actually not a web dev at all) so I would really like some feedback on the usability and the features of this tool.
A round-up of all important features of MapsOfMind: https://www.mapsofmind.com/blog/features
Please try using it! I would love to hear any kind of feedback from your guys! :)
Edit 1: I have changed the banner on the landing page to show parts of the maps itself. I think this better shows a visitor what exactly I offer. It would be great if you can give some feedback on this new change.
Before: https://ibb.co/hzq5n6
After: https://ibb.co/bBqS0R
Edit2: Thanks everyone for the feedback! I have fixed some reported bugs and added a sandbox feature where you can experiment with all the feature of the mindmap without registering! The link is on the first CTA in the landing page itself.
Link to sandbox mode: https://www.mapsofmind.com/sandbox/
Wow, this looks great!
It's an incredible job for one who only has been played with web development for 3 months. I have been playing with it for 4 years, and yesterday I created for the first time ever a frontend I actually really like.
Best of luck! I hope you can learn and nail the marketing as good as you nailed the web development!
Thank you. That means a lot and I'm glad you like it! :D
Marketing is the tough part! :S I've still got a lot to learn in that department! Hope everything goes well! :)
This is really cool. I like that you implemented a graph instead of a tree structure. Could be just me, but the mind maps that are tree structures are less useful than graph based ones like yours
Thanks! :)
The reason why I did a graph structure instead of a tree structure is that in the tree structure, the amount of info you can plot/store is very less i.e. you can store information in one or 2 liners and that's pretty much it. I wanted to create something that is more versatile and can store a variety of info and give you more freedom in the organization of the information!
Hope this tool is useful to you! :D
This is a really well put-together and thoughtfully designed project. Well done on the launch!
I haven't had time to play with the app properly yet, however my main criticism of the landing page is the lack of information/cta in your hero image banner...
This is the first thing a prospective user looks at when your site loads and should tell me why I want to use MapsOfMind and give me an exciting CTA (for example a button stating 'create a map'.
As it is, you're wasting your prime chance to attract and convert users.
Good luck!
Thanks for the kind words! :)
This makes sense. Would an example map (an image) make the image banner more attractive? or perhaps a GIF of some actions being done on the map? (like the ones on the features page I mentioned in my original post)
Sorry, i don't have much time to respond. IMO you're making the classic feature/functionality mistake - this podcast by the founder of drip is a great walkthrough and mentions exactly what I think is wrong with that part of your page in the first 3-4 points. Good luck!
http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-256-the-10-elements-of-highly-effective-saas-landing-pages
Thanks for the resources! I will defeinitely look into this!
Edit: I have modified the landing page banner and it now readily shows what I offer (mind maps) and how it helps the consumer (I think). Please let me know if this is any better than the previous landing when you have time.
Thanks!
This really looks great!
Look this tool for inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=87&v=j-M_z_7_Nkw
it's Drakon language, i'am use it, think, you can add some futures to your project.
But i really inspired qualitative work.
Hey! Thanks for that link! it's really interesting! I will definitely take a look! :)
Don't make me register to create a mind map. See how e.g. Gliffy does it (https://www.gliffy.com/products/online/).
Let me start anonymous/non persisted mind map.
After I've invested some time playing around, I'll be more likely to create account to have my work persisted.
Just wanted to reply again to let you know that I have added a sandbox-like mode in the landing page itself. You can try out all the features in that mode without signing up.
Link: https://www.mapsofmind.com/sandbox/
There's a JS error on main page. You can see it easily if you install https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/javascript-errors-notifie/jafmfknfnkoekkdocjiaipcnmkklaajd in chrome. Or you can watch the debug console.
I would pre-populate the mindmap with at least one box. Empty canvas is a bit over-whelming.
That is a very useful extension!
I fixed the error and added a few boxes to encourage new users to try and edit the map!
Nice suggestion! I never thought about it! I will be implementing this soon! Thanks! :D
Edit: I've thought about this, but it seems this would require me to remove the email authentication part if you want the map to be saved directly to your account when you register on the page (like gliffy). Maybe atm, I can provide something like a sandbox where you can play with all the available features but the changes are non-persisted and will not be carried on your to account even if you register.
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Your project looks great to me, congrats on your launch!
Now I want to ask a little bit tough questions... how many users do you have now, how many mindmaps they already created? And... how much have you earned on this project? Of course if it's not a secret :)
Thanks! :)
I haven't marketed it anywhere other than reddit (a post on /r sideproject) and here on IH. So, I only have about 15-20 users currently.
There are a total of about 40 mind maps created.
0$
If you signed up and checked out the subscription tab, it says that we have not yet implemented the payment system. This is due to the fact that in my country we don't have Stripe yet :( and its very hard to process recurrent payments here. So, I am trying out another service atm which hopefully I can completely integrate with current backend in 2-3 weeks and make payment work.
Hope these answers your questions ! :D
Thanks for your response! Good luck with your project!
It's like Trello for MindMaps! I like it! Definitely see myself using it for some projects.
That's a nice way to put it :P
Very happy to hear this! Thanks! :D
Wonderful and useful stuff.
Congratulations on shipping your product. Would love to see collaboration features as well in future updates.
Thanks! :)
That's a big feature I have planned for in the future! :D
Hi pk78, what library (JS?) do you use for the graph layout? That looks like a valuable tool in and of itself.
I tried making some mindmaps, its easy and works well -- good work.
So the front end is just Javascript? Really clever. jsPlumb looks unaffordably expensive :(
There is a MIT version also!
https://github.com/jsplumb/jsplumb/blob/master/jsPlumb-LICENSE.txt
Thanks for trying it out! :D
Edit: Wow, it has been quite some time since I visited their (jsplumb) home page, lots of improvements have been made and new features have been added - but only for the toolkit version (duh).
Nice, MIT version, YUM :) However, its not stated under what conditions the MIT license applies and when you're supposed to use the GPL license.
I suspect if you make modifications in jsPlumb itself then probably you should use the GPL license to force you to publish the source code for these modifications and allow others to use them. Kind of a moot point for Javascript ;)
Thanks, I'm also looking at JointJS, seems very capable as well
This is very impressive for someone who started coding just 3 months ago! What's your tech stack if I may ask?
Thanks! :)
Actually, I did not start coding 3 months ago, I started learning web dev 3 months ago! Sorry if my other post gave you a wrong impression! :( I have experience working in python/R in other fields such as ML/AI.
I don't really know how to use any proper frontend library like angular/react. So, for front-end its just plain javascript, bs4, jQuery + few other small libraries.
For the map part, I used jsPlumb for connections and few other small libraries for scrolling and stuff and of course, jQuery.
For the backend, I am proficient in python so I used Django + WebSockets + celery (for async tasks). For web server, I use NGINX.
Did you look at JointJS? The product is now renamed Rappid but JointJS is still free (MIT license) and open source, as far as I can tell.
I remember seeing Rappid, but did not know it had an MIT version also. Looks good! Might look into this if I run out of features in jsPlumb! :)
Very interesting project, and beautifully put together. Mind if I ask how long it took for you to create and launch?
Thanks! :D
I started 3 months ago with zero prior web dev knowledge. The website was in the launch(-able) phase on the first week of December. I've been asking feedback from friends and family and some online forums (like IH) and I've been iterating on design/fixing bugs since then.
Wow thats actually impressive especially since you didn't have experience in web development. Keep it up!
Thanks a lot! :D
Well, I don't have anything helpful to add, but I'm impressed. I have a feeling you will find success whether with this or with something else.
This made my day! Thank you! This means a lot! :D
I signed up and tested it a bit. I'm not a UX person myself but to me the interface looks great. It really does seem to have some unique features compared to other mind mapping tools I've used. The only issue I noticed is that I have to zoom out to 90% to see the top menu (with the circle buttons). I'm using Windows & Chrome. Also I wish I could see more of the title of a node when it's minimized (but maybe there is a font size setting I missed?). Hope that is useful & good luck with it!
Hey! Thanks for the feedback! :)
I am not sure I understand you here, do you mean the buttons are on top of each other? its supposed to be in one single row. Can I know the window size you're working on?
There are no font-settings as of now. The InfoBox summary (i.e the little box which you see after minimizing the InfoBox) is just a few words (probably 20-30 chars max) depending on the amount of text inside the InfoBox. So, you think it would be better if there was more text inside the summary?
Edit: Thanks for signing up and testing! I was able to understand why you needed to zoom out. I am working on fixing it atm.
On showing more text in the summary...probably my resolution but it just seems to show so little of the title. Here is a screen shot with your app next to a mind mapping app used for a project I was involved in. I think when you see the two side-by-side you'll understand what I'm trying to explain. thanks! https://www.dropbox.com/s/hcs7wlyi5a8w8j1/mindmap.jpg?dl=0
The problem is not your resolution. The way I built the summary was that - even if you did NOT have a title, it would fetch text from ANY box inside of that InfoBox and display few characters of it - just so you get an idea of what that InfoBox contains when you collapse/minimize it.
But I guess that "small" summary is too small for actual use. I'll increase the word count and maybe decrease the font-size to accommodate more. I can make it as a summary of 2 lines, but I think it would defeat the whole point of "minimization/collapsing" - I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Btw, MindMeister is a very good and well-polished mind mapping tool, I am not sure if my tool is good enough to be compared to MM for now :S But I am working towards it! :D
Regarding the zooming problem, it should be resolved now. You can now work on the mind map in even smaller window, and the icons/buttons on the toolbar are automatically hidden/shown depending on the current size of the window.
I hope you keep your website up and running forever. It is awesome. I've just used it for a week and I love it than any other apps out there
Thanks a lot! :D
I'm happy people are still using it :)
I will definitely keep it running. It's been a full year since I started dev on MapsOfMind and I'm very happy to still have new signups and active users everyday!
Also, I see some criticism on your landing page. It looks ok to me but may be you should check it with this guide (it's not mine, the author sent it to me on my landing page :) https://www.julian.com/learn/growth/landing-pages
Hey! Thanks for the info! I will definitely look into it! :)
I'm not sure if anyone highlight it before, but lack of mouse wheel support make navigation in the mind map painful for me and I'm not sure about business model, why limit on number of mindmaps? My 2 cents are: let everyone play it, use it, get feedback and better over time, but don't limit on mindmaps number, limit on features and integrations for example
How exactly would you use the mouse wheel for this application? I thought - since its a pannable area, only mouse drag is intuivite. I recently added a feature to navigate (move around) using WSAD like in google maps.
TBH, I am not sure about it either. When I started this, I thought this would actually be useful to many and that it provided a value - so people would be willing to pay for it. My thought was that I had to differentiate between paying/non-paying feature from the beginning itself. If I give the 2 things you said (no. of maps, features) for free at the beginning itself, would there even be a point in thinking about a business model?
hey thanks for reply I appreciate it
Many mindmap programs I've used before (freemind on desktop or https://bubbl.us/ ) works with zoom in/out using mouse, so for me taking care of competitors UX is important.
About business model I think only way to get answer is to test with real customer, did you do a test ?
Not yet, I am looking for some atm.
Thanks for the suggestions about the mouse scrolling. I don't quite remember why I made the switch to ctrl+mouse scroll instead of only mouse scroll. But I will look into it.
you are welcome!
be aware about ctrl+mouse scroll, in firefox/chrome is used to zoom the page, so could be even more confusing.
Hope you can do the best!
Yea, I know about the ctrl-zoom in browsers, but that only happens when your cursor is outside the map canvas so it won't be a problem when you use ctrl+zoom inside the map! :)
You've got an awesome looking product mate :) And the fact that you had no prior web dev experience is impressive. Out of curiosity, what was your approach?
Good Luck!
Thanks! :D
The reason/approach would be the 2nd option.
But, I didn't need to learn to code, I just need to learn web dev. I have prior experience in ML/AI and I coded in python/R for all my previous projects. I've just never learned web dev nor have I ever built a website using web technologies. So in that way, this is my first project ! :)