Software advice: visualization tools for complex relationships?

[usernamenumber]

There is a kind of software I'm looking for, but I don't know if it exists.

I guess you could think of it as a cross between a mindmapping tool and a diagramming tool like dia. I guess you could also think of it as a sort of digital whiteboard with some very specific feature needs.

See, I've got this extremely complex network of services, each of which plays a different part in an extremely complex process. I need to be able to explain this network and this process to people. I think the best way to do this from a teaching perspective is to start with the Big Picture, zoom in on each bit when it's time to provide more detail, and then zoom out again to the Big Picture to reinforce what the things we've learned mean in context.

The problem is that the Big Picture is so big it can be hard for me to wrap my head around it, especially when there are gaps in my knowledge that I still need to identify and fill in.

So, here's what I want to be able to do:

1) Create a set of visual objects that represent components of the Big Picture. Ideally each object could have an arbitrary icon, color, etc associated with it, but most essential would be the ability to attach HTML (or similar) formatted text to it to store all of my notes and commentary.

2) I want to be able to add annotations and connections to illustrate how objects interact with one another. So far, what I'm describing is basically nodes in a mind map, but...

3) I don't want a structured tree of objects. I want to be able to drag them around wherever, group them however, and create multiple sets of connections between them. This requires more flexibility than the structure of a mindmap would allow.

4) Bonus points for the ability to hide or collapse annotations, and super mega bonus points for the ability to export as an interactive HTML5 or (less ideally) Flash page that I can then integrate into the courseware.

Has anyone heard of such a beast? I can't be the first person to deal with a problem like this... right?

Comments

[lowellboyslash.livejournal.com]

You're not! This sounds a lot like the kind of software I was spamming you about this summer. Maybe we should hire someone to make this shiz.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Take a look at the valadil's comment below and see if maybe that could be something like what you want? (probably not, as it's not really designed for online collaboration, but just in case...)

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

...would still love to work on that project, btw. I just don't know when I'd ever have the time for it. :(

[valadil.livejournal.com]

I feel like I've bludgeoned xmind into doing something similar to what you want. It lets you create new topics that are not part of the hierarchy, which kind of satisfies #3. It also lets you draw lines between objects that aren't part of the hierarchy structure. I'm not sure if there would be a good way to manage the sets of these relationships like you describe though.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Huh... I've tried a bunch of mindmap tools and never even heard of this one. Thanks for the tip, will check it out!

[laurion]

Huh. Sounds like it should then be turned into a Prezi for the explanations to the people.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Prezi looks really cool, but sadly since this is for internal stuff at work, I can't use an external service.

[laurion]

You might draw further inspiration from the tools listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

This is a pretty good open-source alternative if you're willing to make your own SVGs:
http://alternativeto.net/software/sozi/

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

A bit ago I started to put together a massive flow chart for myself using Tikz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGF/TikZ) in LaTeX, which I planned to output as a pdf, convert to an SVG, and then make into a Sozi presentation using Inkscape. I didn't actually finish, so I can't comment on how it worked out overall, but it's a thought.

Using Tikz/LaTeX permits some level of automation, but may or may not be useful depending on how much you want to deal with the text interface...

[laurion]

Also, it occurs to me that this is a similar problem to what larpwriters face in mapping out nodes of a game and detailing the complicated interrelationships they have. You might reach out to see what tools that audience is using.

I still do my larp diagramming on a whiteboard, so....

[mindways]

Around ?10? years ago, I ran across Tinderbox.

It might well do what you want - you're looking for "visual representation of relationship structures with notes attached to nodes"; Tinderbox is a program for organizing notes in a graphical fashion using nodes with arbitrarily definable relationships.

The emphasis / direction of coming at the problem is a bit different, but I'm positive that 80-90% of what you need is there, and suspect there's a reasonable chance that 100% of what you need is there. (I'm less confident about the bonus points, but perhaps? I found this page on exporting HTML5 articles from Tinderbox content, which isn't exactly what you're looking for, but suggests it might not be impossible.)

[mindways]

(Oh, and IIRC, nodes can contain other nodes, so you can represent "composed of" relationships sensibly, too.)

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

How about a UML diagramming webapp? There are many of varying quality, and you can definitely get exportability if you pay...you may be able to find it for free as well in some cases.