Sean D. Francis

Android App of the Week: Thinking Space

Posted on 14 April 2010

I have a soft spot for apps that help capture my creative impulses. I usually rely upon note taking apps or voice recording apps to capture my insights through the day, but sometimes I will run up against an abstract issue that needs to be puzzled out.

Thinking Space is an application that allows the user to create a mind map – a brainstorming cloud. It only takes a moment to figure out how to use, so instead of wasting mental energy in learning how to use it, I was able to jump right in to the issue I was working with.

Thinking Space isn’t feature rich, I’d love to be able to generate an outline from it or vice versa, import a basic outline to create a mind map. I often will start working out a problem in text first and realize that I need to see interconnectedness between the different concepts and have to start all over using the app. This is a minor complaint because when I am using my Droid, I don’t have access to the type of text application that I would normally use to do this. My desire to have this feature is purely speculative and a bit of a nod to how much I enjoy using Thinking Space. The app does let you export an image or a file that can be used in other applications which could achieve what I would like. Here is a sample of an image exported from Thinking Space:

Being able to transport the data is becoming a critical feature for me. I am getting to the point that I don’t like my data locked into any one application. I want my data to move around to any app I want to use at the time.  Thinking Space is one of those apps that you won’t necessarily need every day but when you need this functionality, you will appreciate just how quickly you can start using this Android app.