I don't believe in brainstorming and mapping ideas and stuff like that. I consider it a huge waste of time as (at least mine) a brain works better when you actually give him a task to solve. However... mind mapping software has a lot of uses beyond what the name suggests...
If you are building a complicated structure or environment where you need to keep track of what is interacting with what and how and when... system allowing you to draw the lines and create an actual object/project map can be very useful. To keep track in user-server interactions and in the big data structures I started to use mind mapping software. First it was freemind - which was great free tool but had a lot of pretty harsh limitations - but then I found out about Smartdraw. It was prepared for the cases I needed to use it for, it had great range of tools and possibilities and the new versions have everything from classic tree structure to graphs, process structures and myriad of other tools including even a floor plans (not that I ever needed the last one). I was using this tool the most as a game designer when I was working on a strategic game Infinitum where complicated economics, the interconnection of war units and a lot more was too complex to follow through text to be understandable. Which was, of course, one of the mistakes we made when designing the game in the first place. But I'll leave that story to some other time.
The tool is in a lot of ways automated, the good part is that it is not done the dumb way. Not every time you will be a fan of the solution but most of the time it will save you effort and it will mostly not act like it know better what you want to do than you.
To check the SmartDraw out follow to the: http://www.smartdraw.com/
P.S.: Avoid the "guided tour" video, that thing is just a lot of marketing bollocks that will tell you nothing.
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