PE5_Dabbleboard vs. Simple Diagrams

I just came across another cool visual thinking tool that is actually a bit easier to use for simple diagrams, like those suggested in Dan Roam's book The Back of the Napkin.  This tool is called Simple Diagrams and the free version is available at http://www.simplediagrams.com.  Here is an example that illustrates the same info that I shared in BP4_Dabbling with Dabbleboard.  I am going to share this tool with my executive MBA students too and see which one they like the best.  Actually we might end up using both of them because the Simple Diagrams can be exported as PNG files and then uploaded to Dabbleboard.  I'll let you know which tool my students like the best.

Simple Diagram of Google's Where Problem

After playing around with the free version of Simple Diagrams and watching a video review of the tool that was posted by Chuck Frey on his Mind Mapping Software blog, I decided to spend $15 to upgrade to the full version and get access to a few more tool libraries.  One of the things I really like about the libraries in Simple Diagrams is that the elements have the "hand drawn" look - for some reason using these images has lessened my anxiety about actually having to draw the pictures myself.  It is easier for me to "think in pictures" if I can just drag and drop images that will work, rather than having to draw them freehand as is the case in Dabbleboard.  It will be interesting to see if my MBA students are able to create some easy to use visual thinking toolkits for Dabbleboard that will reduce or even eliminate this weakness of the Dabbleboard toolkit library.  My second example uses the Simple Diagrams program to illustrate a How and Why problem confronting Google as they must deal with changes in how customers use the web and figure out an effective response to those changes.

Simple Diagram of Google's How and Why Problems

The final example shown below is a test of how it will look when we import Simple Diagram images into the Dabbleboard canvas to evaluate and revise them in small, collaborative groups.  Having the two tools juxtaposed against each other like this reinforced my impression that the Simple Diagrams tool is much easier to use than Dabbleboard without an appropriate toolkit for our visual thinking strategies.  If you end up trying out these tools, please come back and post a comment to let me know which one you like best.  As always, thanks for your interest in my work.

Importing Simple Diagram image into Dabbleboard for comments