SpicyNodes is an online service which essentially allows you to create mind maps as a way of presenting information. The theory is that through the ages, man has gathered information through picking things up and looking at them, taking items and comprehending them one-by-one.
In essence, SpicyNodes allows you to create a ‘speech bubble’ interface where users can venture along whichever trail of information is relevant to them. It won’t be useful for everyone but it’s relatively user-friendly even in Beta, and is fun to play around with. My initial instinct is that it would be very useful as an educational tool. And as many people who run their own business are keen to educate potential clients about what they do and why they are so brilliant at it, this tool could come in handy.
SpicyNodes is also potentially useful for bloggers or anyone who wants to represent information in a more interesting and creative way. When readers navigate your nodes or bubbles, they can choose to go down the path of information that most interests them rather than have to read through chunks of irrelevant content as they would in standard pages of text.
The service is still in development and therefore a bit slow in places with occasional glitches. However, it’s worth playing around with the free version on a slow work day.
Overall, Spicy Nodes will appeal to freelancers with a creative instinct and an interest in presenting content in new and fresh ways.
