Noda

I purchased Noda back in 2019 (early access) because it's a novel use of VR; a rare 'productivity app' - great to see! The interface is easy to use, everything works well and looks nice. I don't have a huge need / demand for 3D node maps in my life, so I've just built a few maps to play around with the tool... there's a lot of potential here, especially for collaboration with the multiplayer feature. Your mileage may vary based on your use cases. Try the free demo and let your imagination run wild! For the price I paid, and what the devs have achieved, I give this THUMBS: UP!

Noda was pretty bare-bones to begin with, and then they slowly updated it, adding some necessary functionality.
Then they removed that functionality and put it in a $20 "DLC."
Such a dick move by the devs, especially for such a mediocre program.

This is fantastic! I got this to map out a book im writing and it has helped me stay on track with plotting and stuff. I cant wait to see what cool stuff they add to it. :)

Need your own space to think and connect your ideas?
Then I recommend you give Noda a shot.
Because you're definitely missing out if you don't.

[PROS]

Someone make Visio in VR. You create nodes and it's easy to snap lines in between

There's some level of customization with colors, shapes, and images.

Having a diagram that's room scale is super useful for programmers: data schemas, software architecture, etc...

It looks great and it even has cool background music

[CONS]

You can only size each node / shape a certain amount. That was a little disappointing.

I either wasn't able to teleport or I couldn't figure it out. Either way, it's a problem.

This is a minor gripe but it would be nice if this was social. That would be a cool work meeting

[VERDICT]

Even though it's a little limited, this is still totally worth the buy.

If this keeps getting continually improved, I wouldn't be surprised if either Microsoft or Facebook bought out the developer.

Developer hasn't updated this in a long time. I'd say with the current features its pretty useless and doesn't help you visualize better than making a sketch on a notepad.

Save your money.

good idea and ok execution.

the best way to approach it is to support external file input, e.g. thru OPML or Mindmanager/Mindnode support
then NODA can become a visualization tool and part of a larger workflow and a demo

linking to external files, URL
search thru Google (e.g. image)
easy IO type things can make this infinitely more useful.

understand that the development might need more resource,
we can offer to help thru our Computer studies students and add to the team

The delete option for nodes is horrible to say the least. Frustrating to have such a simple problem destroy a good product.

Update..07-21-19.. After much gettting used too I got the hang of the delete. The rest of the software is great. The last update caused all the shapes to become invisible from imported csv files and old maps. I am sure they will fix it soon.

I personally use it for my brainstormings as a freelancer.
Great alternative if you have no space for a whiteboard.

For me it was worth the money from the first session!

I have about 75 titles in my steam library, and have not ever reviewed anything on Steam before. That will change! Noda is exactly what I was looking for.....is it minority report? no, but software like this should be used for exactly what it provides...this is more of a tool than a game, and the question with all tools is: how well does the tool work?

Noda works greatly for what it is....creating and linking nodes with speech support for labelling.....I love it! Simple, and to the point.....mindmaps are for thinking and connecting, then the actual work comes later with processing and acting on those thoughts. Noda is a great tool for initial ideation, congrats to the developers and thanks!

Definitely an interesting app for mind mapping/brain storming. I used it for mapping out a research paper, and it worked well enough for that. Voice dictation is very nice and intuitive, and the atmosphere in the app is quite good as well. I would say this app is a bit nicer for brainstorming than any 2D app in the same genre.

There are some features I would like to see down the line:

1. Arrows on lines -- there is a line type that sort of works for this, but it isn't very clear to see on thin lines.
   
2. Easier editing of node style presets -- currently it seems you need to delete and re-save a style to change it
   
3. A way to import images from within the interface
   
4. A more extensive virtual keyboard -- some useful/standard keys are missing
   
5. More color options (a limited set is fine, but the current set is too limited) and more shape options
   
[*]Handwriting option -- for mathematics, the current features don't work unless you can plan in advance to make images of every needed equation. Something like a whiteboard node could be added to facilitate including math?

Hi devs !

I bought Noda and immediately spent a whole night on it, working on my story.
It felt amazing, so thanks for that !

Here are my observations and suggestions :

- My first working environment choice was "Sky only", but i had to renounce it when i noticed the teleport couldn't be used there. Could you add an invisible floor to make moving possible there, and in the empty environment ?

- I made mistakes sometimes, deleted elements, moved this or that and then changed my mind.... I had to redo a lot of things. I don't know what kind of coding it would implie, but i would definitely have gained some efficacy, had i had a "Ctrl Z" of some sort.

- I did not use a lot of different node colors and shapes, but i didn't like the default ones, so i had to change them indivually everytime i created a new node, which felt like a waste of time. I think a possible solution would be to have the default node settings change automatically to the last settings chosen.

- At one point, I was looking at a whole set of story elements and the connexions i had made between them, and I had the idea of a new, completely different way to arrange them. I didn't want to lose the current arrangement though, and so i found myself stuck between two options : having to recreate every node individually, which is a long and boring task, or making a second copy of my project and work in it, which wouldn't allow me to compare both arrangements in the same space. I would have liked to be able to simply select and duplicate the nodes i needed in double.

That's all !

Thanks a lot for your work, i've been waiting for that kind of software to come out for some time now, and this one is obviously very promising.

The sensation of standing inside your own mind is beautiful.

Keep up the good work !

It's a start. Make some of the items more intuitive (like touching an object to edit it) and I could see myself using this often for school and work projects. Also, the camera for capture seemed to be off.

[Initial thoughts on the Early Access version, from a fellow VR dev, focusing on UI/UX.]

Jumped into the app without reading any guide/tutorial, but did watch the intro video. Figured out the controls pretty quickly (the "Control Layout" poster in the app was helpful).

Checked out the menu panel/tablet first, which pops into view near your controller upon button press. I played mostly with the settings, changing the environment and its time of day. Was a nice surprise to realize that the sun is moving.

The menu is placed below and beyond your controller, which makes sense for being immediately able to interact with it. If you're looking upwards, however, you won't see the panel until you look down a bit. This could be frustrating if I have a map that's all around/above me, and I'm looking upwards a lot. The bottom 4cm (or so) of the panel was not grabbable for me (and also doesn't cause a highlight) -- maybe the hit area is too small? I naturally reached for the bottom of the panel to move it, so this was confusing until I realized I needed to grab higher up.

I didn't have a real "mind-map" goal for this round, so I mostly just drew some patterns. Creating new nodes and edges is quick and easy. The linking tool was fun to use, and I liked that I didn't have to release the trigger when drawing many edges (the next edge just starts with the most-recently touched node).

I added several tags at one point, but didn't realize where they were appearing (I had moved the menu a bit). After I looked up, I saw where they were stacked up. I forgot how to delete for a moment -- I kept looking for a delete button on the tag menu, and tried to clear all the text to see if it would go away. Then I remembered that I had seen a delete option on the thumbpad menu, and was able to use that. The delete tool requires some care when using it -- if the "delete spike" is touching more than one thing, it will delete both of them.

Grabbing the nodes was a little tricky for me. Like the menu panel (and also the other panels) with its non-grabbable bottom area, the nodes didn't seem to be grabbable in all places. There were times when the controller was near to the node, and made it highlight, yet still wouldn't grab it. Once grabbed, the node would jump into a particular position relative to my controller -- I'd like to see it maintain the relative position upon grab instead (i.e. capture the controller-to-node offset upon grab).

The menu interfaces were easy to use. It was clear how to navigate the main menu (via tabs), how to use the keyboard, and how to use the drop-down inputs.

I have grown used to a particular type of menu-positioning behavior (with EXA), so I was surprised when my node/tag menus would jump to a new position when I selected a new one. This approach does make sense, ensuring that the menu is never far away from the selected item. However, I found myself wanting to put the keyboard menu in front of me, at a comfortable position, and have it stay in place while I selected each new item.

Noda is a really fun spin on mind mapping. The user interface is very clean, and there are lots of delightful touches that make "work" fun.

Some of my favorite things in the app:
- How the labels always spin to face you.
- The super cool spark animation when you connect nodes
- The simple way of picking new colors (which are from a nice color scheme)
- Keyboard works really well and typing is effortless
- Environment is really nice and simple without distracting at all.
- Nice animations when switching tools.

Some features I'd love to see added:
- Ability to walk around through some sort of locomotion.
- Try and find some ways to automatically change tools in an intuitive way. For example after creating a node, maybe the controller could automatically change to the "text" tool for labelling it. This could reduce the amount of menu clicking quite a bit.
- The grip gesture to reposition nodes is nice, but doesn't work if your holding a tool. It would be nice if it always worked for quickly organizing nodes while creating/editing them.

This app is off to a great start, and it's clear that the person building it knows what their doing. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing this grow over time!