01
Relationships should say something
A line between two concepts is not enough. A connection should be able to explain whether one idea supports, contradicts, causes, depends on, influences, or changes another.
Knowledge is relational. Its tools should be, too.
KnowMapped grew out of our frustration with mapping tools that forced ideas into hierarchies, treated relationships as simple lines, and produced maps we did not want to look at.
We wanted a tool for mapping knowledge, not sorting information.
We had tried plenty of mind-mapping and knowledge-mapping tools. Most were built around the same basic structure: a central topic, branches beneath it, and increasingly smaller categories.
That approach can be useful for outlines and brainstorming. It is less useful when the material includes competing explanations, causes, consequences, contradictions, people, events, and ideas that cut across categories.
We also found that many of the available tools produced maps that were visually dull, mechanical, or difficult to present. That was not a minor issue. A map can contain the right information and still fail if people cannot see the pattern.
KnowMapped was built to handle both problems: representing the relationships that make knowledge meaningful and producing maps that are clear, useful, and worth looking at.
Organized information is not yet knowledge.
Information can be collected, labeled, grouped, and stored. Knowledge begins when we understand how the pieces relate.
A list of concepts may tell us what is present. It does not tell us what influences what, where ideas conflict, what depends on something else, or why a particular connection matters.
KnowMapped treats those relationships as part of the knowledge itself. Connections can carry their own descriptions and meanings, and maps do not have to follow one center or a fixed tree.
A map should be accurate, useful, and visually convincing.
These principles shape how we design KnowMapped and how we decide which features belong in it.
02
Maps should look their best
Layout, color, spacing, emphasis, and balance all affect whether a map can be understood. Visual quality is part of the work, not decoration added after it.
03
AI should assist judgment
AI can help identify concepts and propose relationships across complex material. The result should remain open to correction, removal, expansion, and reorganization by the person using it.
04
Maps must be useful
Maps should be usable outside the application. Exports, public publishing, embeds, plugins, and developer tools are part of the product rather than afterthoughts.
Built for material that does not fit neatly into an outline.
KnowMapped is for anyone working with a complex body of knowledge or ideas.
That might be a researcher tracing arguments across a body of literature, a team organizing meeting notes, a planner mapping a system, a writer developing a difficult argument, or an educator helping students understand a complicated text.
While designing and testing the app, we often returned toHamlet. We imagined a high school teacher mapping the characters, motives, alliances, deaths, political tensions, and consequences across the play.
It worked as a test because Hamlet does not fit neatly into a tree. Neither do most subjects worth examining closely.
Created by Education Futures
Built from work with learning, research, systems, and change.
KnowMapped was created by Education Futures and led by Dr. John W. Moravec, an education futurist, researcher, author, and software development lead.
The product grew out of our need for a better way to work with complex material, but it was built for anyone who needs to see how a body of knowledge fits together.
Learn about Education Futures →