We’ve been hard at work for half a year developing a set of cool new features in bCisive, so we’re excited to finally release this major update. New in bCisive: The Collaboration option. With this new feature, you can invite other bCisive users to work with you on building a map. To find collaborators, contact bCisive users…
The Guides hereunder were made for bCisive for Windows. There may be some functions in bCisive Online that are not described in these Guides or some functions described in these Guides that are not available in bCisive Online. How does bCisive help you decide? Read the Overview and Guide to business decision mapping with bCisive. bCisive…
This week we started with the development of bCisive Online, our program to visually support decision making processes. The now existing program bCisive Online – quite limited in functionality – will be replaced by this new version that will be based on the bCisive software program you can downl0ad here. When you want to participate in…
Screen-sharing programs like WebEx, GotoMeeting, etc. allow you to show a desktop over the internet. They allow one person to present at a time, by broadcasting that person’s computer’s desktop to all participants. bCisive Online instead provides access to a common virtual workspace — and a superbly functional one at that! — with one person able to edit…
Top-down and bottom-up thinking are complimentary. Let’s see why: The alternatives (all images produced in bCisive Online) Both top-down and bottom-up thinking cut across the critical / creative thinking divide: Critical thinking Structuring and categorizing (mainly bottom-up) Hypothesis testing (top-down) Argument mapping (top-down and bottom-up aspects) Creative thinking Brainstorming (bottom-up) Mind-mapping (top-down) Dialogue and issue mapping (top-down) Let’s…
Microsoft Visio is primarily a computerized drawing program. With it you can draw very precise diagrams in a multitude of different styles. It is great for visual communication. In fact Microsoft suggest that we all “Learn why Visio is the key to Visual Communication”. Fair enough! But before visual communication, you need to think and work through…
Manual tools are not good enough for real visual thinking. The conventional whiteboard is big and tactile, but has only two operations: Draw Erase You can do visual thinking on a whiteboard, but rearrangement — which is crucial if you are trying to solve a problem or gain insight, rather than simply present — is only possible with constant rubbing out and rewriting, which is prohibitively difficult.…
My favorite box is the plain box. It has three great uses: Brainstorming Categorizing When no other box will do Brainstorming In bCisive (Online and desktop) and Rationale you can get an empty box by just double-clicking on the workspace. This is great for brain-storming — just getting ideas onto the workspace: Brainstorming for this…
Visual thinking is probably most effective when using a suitable methodology as an aid to construction and communication. Simply said Visual methodology = visual language + rules of thumb For example, bCisive Online comes with the following set of boxes, which together making up its out-of-the-box visual language: This set descends from the non-visual Issue-based information…
We aim to use this blog to show how visual thinking can make a big difference and talk about our direction and ideas going forward. We make a range of visual software tools: Rationale 2: Educational tool for critical thinking, clearer writing, and analysis bCisive 2: Individual and group problem-solving, and presentation preparation bCisive Online (beta)…