Bubbl.us is a cute web application that helps brainstorming. You maybe familiar with the concept of mind-maps. I would also refer to it as a very simple UML diagram maker.

It takes about 10 seconds to be up to speed as it was designed to be really simple. It takes a bit of getting used to for the custom controls (when you roll over each bubbles).

You can generate structures such as organizational charts, development reference or plan your next holiday. If you are a bit geeky, you could use this application for nearly any type of planning.

The interface is cute but features quite unclear icons to: move, remove, link-to, change colour and add sibling/child.

The powerful use of keyboards shortcuts such as Enter to add a child and Tab to add a sibling make it really quick to prototype a structure. The moving around of bubbles is handled quite well, but you can easily waste minutes getting it to look okay.

An annoying error message “Your session expired” appears if you try to generate a new sheet in demo mode. I can see why this would happen as a developer, but there is obviously room for improvement in that area.

Nevertheless, Bubbl.us is a free application that does exactly what you need it to do in good fashion. Options like save to Jpeg or PNG, embed to HTML, print and e-mail make it a must have for daily use!

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