Whimsical is a great visual workspace that allows users to create diagrams, flow charts, and sticky notes. Software companies and digital agencies can benefit from this cloud-based tool in many ways. While the visual tool Whimsical may not replace mainstream wireframing tools, it has great potential to evolve and is easy to use to improve procedures and workflows.
As mentioned, Whimsical has several functions, ranging from wireframes, sticky notes, flowcharts to mind maps. Each of these functions has a set of tools that are specific to the intended function. Furthermore, the free version of Whimsical comes with 5 free boards for every mode. Use cases for the visual tool Whimsical include the following.
Flowcharts are a widely used function in Whimsical, especially by digital agencies. The tool allows users to create:
workYou can use Whimsical to create the following:
Whimsical allows users to create custom Kanban boards and to-do lists. The sticky note feature is especially helpful for labeling and marking specific tasks. Users can even change the sticky note colors for easy reference. This provides a great place to keep your stuff organized.
Whimsical is very intuitive and easy to use. It has several contextual toolbars that are well-displayed, giving you all you need to design efficiently and with speed. Moreover, here are the ways the contextual toolbar is beneficial.
It is a standard practice that modern app designs have toolbars full of icons. However, unlike other visual tools, Whimsical only has six icons, helping to eliminate screen clutter.
Every toolbar on Whimsical is tailored or customized to what you are working on, reducing cognitive overhead. You no longer have to struggle to find available icons or search for disabled icons every other time.
The contextual design means that you can access relevant icons or controls without moving across the screen to reach them. Close controls mean that you spend less time navigating across the screen, giving you ample time for content creation.
The contextual toolbar design makes onboarding for new whimsical users less intimidating. If you just started using this tool, you can start with a few primary controls and add more gradually. Since these options are tailored to every function, you don’t need as much mental processing to master them.
Exporting diagrams and other visuals from whimsical is fast and incredibly simple. Just highlight the diagram, flowchart, or sticky notes you want to export and choose your preferred background. The final product is a high-resolution .png export format. Therefore, this makes Whimsical suitable for exporting visuals into emails and documents.
Whimsical packs all the features you need from a visual tool. It is a great tool for brainstorming, creating product specs, user flows, wikis, and architecture diagrams, among other uses. However, it has its fair share of shortcomings that avid users have reported. For instance, most people wish it had custom lines and pre-loaded templates. However, the Whimsical team continues to improve and add features so who knows what the future will hold.
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