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Feedback Archive
2

Common and appreciated things

  1. Tools that focus strictly on connecting text or images. Diagraming is NOT drawing, the tools listed below serve only the purpose of connecting thoughts only.
  2. Tools that try to serve both use-cases do a poor job at serving any use-case
  3. Tools that afford friction-less item/element creation—double-clicking on the canvas creates the next thought.
  4. When connections can be made fast. The purpose of diagraming is to show connections, so it shouldn’t be overlooked.
  5. When the user doesn’t have to spend time resizing elements—boxes should have auto-layout. Nothing ruins flow more than adjusting the size of things to look right.

Things to consider

  1. Consider making the connections in a diagram real.
  • Maybe a dashed line represents a block reference of a parent and a solid connection line takes the form of a parent-child relationship?
  1. Avoid allowing for too much customization.
  • There should be set shapes with maybe the option to adjust the background color.
  • Too many options will take away from the real work of connecting thoughts.
  1. Share-ability
  • How should a diagram be exported so it can have an audience? Almost all diagrams will need to be shared, so support for something like a PNG export should be first-party (you can only survive on screenshots for so long :slight_smile: )

Where I take inspiration

Roam Diagrams

CleanShot_202021-07-30_20at_2016.44.40@2x_1627677890148_0
CleanShot_202021-07-30_20at_2016.44.40@2x_1627677890148_02410×1278 167 KB

What they do well
  • The diagrams were integrated into the actual graph, not an external tool that is embedded (unlike excalidraw).
  • Diagram elements are actual blocks—the tool is not a closed system—it interacts with the graph and generates bullets
  • Element creation is simple. Just double click anywhere on the canvas and a new block was added.
  • The canvas was infinite.
  • It supports block references
  • Drag and drop connections felt seamless.
Where the tool is lacking
  • There wasn’t a true parent-child relationship between connected elements. The output was just a list of blocks behind the scenes
  • Only one card style (just a white rectangle card). I would like the ability to change the background color.
  • VERY buggy—I don’t think they ever moved past the first version of the implementation. It felt like it was a personal hack day project of Conor.
  1. Connection arrows wouldn’t render correctly
  2. selecting multiple elements doesn’t function well
  3. Pasted images wouldn’t scale to fit
  4. No support for connection line text
  5. Limited to only one type of connection line (solid arrow)
  6. No auto-layout for block cards

Scapple

CleanShot_202021-07-30_20at_2016.56.00@2x_1627678568711_0
CleanShot_202021-07-30_20at_2016.56.00@2x_1627678568711_03231×2101 535 KB

What they do well
  • Frictionless element creation—just double click to create a new item. It would be great if they allowed you to set the default style that is set on a double click.
  • Connections on drag and drop
  • Also supports a dashed arrow type allowing for a difference of association.
  • Allows users to set style patterns for a workspace
Where the tool is lacking
  • No way to curve a line around an element.
  • Connect line text is available, but implementation is poor. (It is almost like a setting menu). This is one of the biggest pieces of friction with the tool.
  • Almost no viable way to export files. Only support for a unique file type—the share-ability is limited to taking screenshots of your diagrams.
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