What is a bubble map?

Adjectives, not tasks

A bubble map places a single topic in a central circle and surrounds it with bubbles that describe the topic. David Hyerle's Thinking Maps use this layout to separate describing from sequencing or comparing. The center is a noun. The outer bubbles are qualities: cold, crowded, late, bright. They are not sub-tasks and they are not a story order.

People search bubble map and bubble maps for this figure. It is easier than a mind map because it refuses extra levels. If you feel the need for branches on the branches, you have left a bubble map and started a mind map.

Example

Center: 'the Monday assembly.' Outer bubbles: loud, standing-room, short, prize-giving, restless. A reader can turn that into a sentence: the Monday assembly is a short, loud, restless gathering where prizes are given and people stand. The map did the inventing. The sentence does the explaining.

Do not put solutions in the bubbles ('start on time', 'use a microphone'). Those are actions. Actions belong on a flowchart or a planner. A bubble map that mixes qualities and actions becomes a junk drawer.

Bubble map, mind map, concept map

A bubble map describes. A mind map radiates ideas of any kind from a center, often several levels deep. A concept map connects nouns with labeled arrows ('condenses into', 'causes'). If your arrows need verbs, stop and draw a concept map. If you are only listing qualities, stay with bubbles.

Steps

1. Write a noun in the center. A person, place, object, or event. A full sentence will not fit and should not.
2. Add qualities only. Ask 'which words describe it?' Reject words that answer 'what should we do?'
3. Keep one level. Outer bubbles do not get children. A second level means you wanted a mind map.
4. Read it aloud as one sentence. If the sentence is nonsense, a bubble is in the wrong diagram.