UX Glossary | C
Concept map
Also: Knowledge map
A graph of concepts as nodes joined by labelled, directed links, so that each connection reads as a short sentence.
A concept map shows ideas as nodes and the relationships between them as labelled arrows. The test of a good one is that you can read any two nodes and the link between them aloud as a sentence: “Invoice” “is sent to” “Customer”, “Customer” “pays through” “Payment method”.
The form was developed in education research by Joseph Novak and colleagues at Cornell in the 1970s, as a way to show what a learner understands about a subject.
What the labels do
The labels on the links are the whole point. Without them you have a diagram of things that are somehow related. With them you have claims, and claims can be wrong, which is useful. A stakeholder can point at an arrow and say “no, that is not how it works”, and that disagreement is the information you wanted.
Concept map, mind map
A mind map is a tree with one centre and unlabelled branches, good for generating ideas. A concept map is a network: nodes can have many parents, and links can cross between branches. Use a mind map to explore, a concept map to be exact.
In practice
Concept maps earn their place early in complex domains, such as insurance, energy or medical devices, where the team needs to agree on what the objects are before designing screens for them. The result feeds straight into information architecture and naming. Keep it to around 20 nodes. Beyond that it stops being read.