What is a bubble map, a complete guide to create and use it?

That's why it can be extremely beneficial in project management and other tasks. Here we will discuss what is a bubble map and everything you need to know about it.

An Insight into What is a Bubble Map?

It is a way of visually representing a noun surrounded by its qualities as adjectives and those adjectives by their values. All the bubbles are connected with lines to show the relationship with the main bubble.

A bubble map can be beneficial when teams have to work on a project where different goals and roles are needed to be shared to solve problems.

Use Cases of a Bubble Map to know about

Now that you know what a bubble map is, you must know how it improves your work progress by simplifying several problems. Whether you are working as a team or as an individual, a bubble map can be effective for your project in many ways, and here are a few of them.

1. Understanding the Hierarchies of an Organization

The hierarchy can vary from organization to organization, and sometimes it can be very complex. A bubble map allows managers to visualize different teams, team roles, and project milestones easily. A bubble map also defines different qualities that employees can maintain with their goals. Additionally, it can help different teams and employees collaborate with others regarding specific goals.

2. While Brainstorming Any Problem

Brainstorming problems together helps quickly generate newer ideas and solutions to the problem. For efficient brainstorming, having all the aspects of a problem is necessary. Through its visual representation, the Bubble map provides an idea about the structure of the problem and sets a good base to try different solutions. So, bubble maps can be an efficient way to enhance brainstorming whenever there is a team meeting.

3. To Enhance Creativity

Bubble maps can be vital to increase creativity and generate new ideas. Whether it is about giving your project a new name or coming up with marketing campaigns, a bubble map can quickly give viewers an idea about all the qualities/ points to be considered, and when working in a team, you can easily generate creative ideas to be used for the goal.

4. While Keeping Track of a Project

If you are working on a project that includes different modules, then a bubble map can help keep track of the progress. For example, if the software has 3 different pages with several functionalities, you can easily divide them according to their specific page, helping you keep track easily.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Bubble Map?

Knowing what is a bubble map and how to use it can bring so many benefits to you. It is effective for increasing productivity and better understanding. Here are the top 5 benefits of bubble maps.

1. Better Brainstorming

Bubble maps help with better brainstorming. All brainstorming sessions can be improved and made more efficient by creating bubbles and connecting them with the right bubbles.

From identifying problems to proposing different solutions, you can easily add any thought of yours to the bubble map. Doing so also helps while implementing the solution to a specific problem.

2. Better Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills need you to be aware of the whole problem in a perfect way. It also needs you to think so that you do not contradict any other ideas while proposing a new one. With a bubble map, it gets easier to keep track of all the ideas allowing you to easily add new ideas without disrupting older ideas.

Meanwhile, it also makes it easier to fit the newer ideas into their right place by using bubbles and connecting them.

3. Easy to Comprehend

Adding a new person to the team or passing the project on to a newer person needs you to explain everything in detail. Regular documentation will take a long time, whereas a bubble map can quickly provide all the information about different project parts. The whole structure becomes extremely easy to comprehend with specific keywords and connections.

4. High-level Visualization

A bubble map comes with high-level visualization, which can help recall all the ideas quickly, and sharing is also made easier. Meetings revising progress on a project can be made much easier by sharing the bubble map across the team, as it will only include the most meaningful stuff.

5. Keeping Track of All the Little Details

When you are working with a bubble map, you have the freedom to add as many details as you want. For example, if you are working on an apple as your main noun, its colors, like green, yellow, and red, will be the adjectives, and sizes and colors can be the further qualities. Hence, you can add as many qualities to a bubble map as possible to keep things easier to comprehend.

What Are the Limitations of Using a Bubble Map?

While there might be several benefits of using a bubble map, there are also a few limitations. Here are some important limitations of the bubble map that you must be careful about.

1. It may Not Be Easy for Everyone to Understand

A bubble map is a way of using keywords in specific connections to explain things to certain people. Say that you are working in a software company, and you share the bubble map with a client without technical knowledge.

In such a scenario, the bubble map can get confusing instead of making things easier to understand. So, it is not an efficient choice for everyone.

2. Complex Things Are Not Easy to Describe With a Bubble Map

Sometimes, you cannot describe complex things using a bubble map. It is mainly why a bubble map is hard to explain to some people. A bubble map is designed to keep everything as simple as possible. In some cases, different qualities are related to different attributes, and going for other diagrams makes a better solution.

3. You Cannot Put a Huge Amount of Information in a Bubble Map.

The right way of making a bubble map is only to include specific keywords. For example, for a mobile application, the adjectives would be:

·   Responsive

·   Fast

·   Secure, etc.

You do not have the option to add more details in a bubble map, and this may make you miss some important points.

Step-by-step Guide to Make a Bubble Map

Making a bubble map is not complex, as you only define different qualities and connect them through lines. However, there are a few rules that you must follow for the best results. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to make a bubble map.

1. Start With the Main Noun in the Center

You will start by defining your noun and making its bubble in the center. It is important to keep it in the center because all other bubbles will be easier to see on the whole map, and the noun will function as the main goal that you are working on.

2. Enlist All the Adjectives to Define That Noun

Now you need to enlist all your adjectives that will define your noun. For example, your adjectives can be responsive, secure, fast loading, and optimized for a website. Now you need to make bubbles around the noun for each of these objectives.

3. Enlist All the Qualities Among Those Adjectives

Once done with the adjectives, you need to enlist the qualities of those adjectives and create bubbles around every objective containing its qualities. In the example of a website, the responsive bubble may include mobile responsive, pc responsive, tablet responsive, etc. After you create all these bubbles, you only need to create them into the right bubbles so they all come down to the main bubble.

How to Be Efficient While Making Your Bubble Map?

Knowing what is a bubble map and how to create one is not enough. You need to be efficient while making yours, as it will help shorten the process.

So, if you want to be efficient while making your bubble map, try using some online or offline software to make it. It will not only help you with an easier design process but sharing the bubble map with your team for better collaboration will also be easier.

There are lots of paid and free software and tools available online that you can check and go for the one that brings the best value.

Conclusion

What is a bubble map? A bubble map can be a very effective way of visually representing and easing complex problems into smaller parts. That's why it is extremely beneficial for project management, team roles, writers, artists, and several other fields of life.

Now that you know how to create one and how beneficial it is, we hope that you will be able to simplify your project using a bubble map as well.