Introducing IDEAVIS

Last summer I kicked off a new project called IDEAVIS, a visualization tool built for design researchers and ethnographers. My intention was to scratch a personal itch, mentioned in several previous posts about idea visualization.

Creating relational maps and models can be quite an ordeal with static vector editors like Illustrator, where every little tweak or adjustment means refactoring dozens or hundreds of shapes and path endpoints. The digital rendering process also doesn’t really lend itself to open collaboration… someone inevitably becomes the document owner and surrogate pixel-pusher for the rest of the team.

Enter IDEAVIS: the goal is to make rich qualitative modeling lightning fast, intuitive and collaborative. There’s still plenty of work to do and the overall site design is very crude, but create an account, kick up a new canvas, and take it for a spin!