Introduction
The Ideabook user interface is structured into four main areas built around common innovation management tools:
- Ideas. A list of all your ideas - with your best ideas on top by default
- Spaces. An open space for organizing your ideas visually - typically done per portfolio
- Bubbles. A bubble chart for rating and analyzing your ideas using configurable criteria
- Roadmap. An agile roadmap visualized as a drag & drop Kanban board for helping implement your ideas
We will take a brief look at each of these areas as well as the idea's details and more in the following chapters.
The "Ideas" View
The Ideas view is your overview across all your ideas - by default ordered by descending score (i.e., the average of the ratings across all configured criteria). This means your best ideas will be on top unless you change the sort order.
Using the arrows button you can adjust the sort order to title, votes, score, or any active criterion (both in ascending and descending order). Alternatively, you can simply tap on a column header to adjust the order for all visible columns.
With the filter button you can narrow the view to a single portfolio (you can also create new portfolios directly from the filter). Portfolios can be used to group related ideas. The portfolio filter is shared across all overview tabs.
Drag down to display the search field in order to search in ideas (titles and notes). If the portfolio filter is active Ideabook only searches within the currently selected portfolio.
In landscape mode or on iPads idea rows will also display all starred criteria as long as there is sufficient space.
Tap on an existing idea to view its details, or press the + button to create a new idea. On an iPad you can also inline edit individual rating values by tapping on them.
The "Idea" Details
Whenever you tap on a single idea or when you create a new idea using the + button Ideabook will present you the Idea detail view.
An idea's details are made up from the sum of the following fields:
Title. The Title of your idea - be as concise as possible
Status. The current Status of the idea (e.g. collected, decided, or completed)
Portfolio. The Portfolio the idea belongs to. Every idea can only belong to a single portfolio
Source. An optional Source of the idea - this is simply a text field
Rating. The Rating field takes you to the ratings editor where you can rate each configured criterion using 1-5 stars. Only rated ideas can be displayed in the Bubbles view
Score. The Score cannot be directly entered, but is calculated based on your average criterion rating (from 1 to 10)
Votes. Votes are intended to keep track on how many of your key stakeholders (e.g., customers) want or like the idea
Horizon. The Horizon denotes if and how seen you want to implement the idea. A horizon must be set for an idea to appear in the Roadmap view
Notes. Notes can be entered on the bottom of the idea details. The notes field grows as your enter more text and starting with Ideabook 5.3 you can use Markdown to add more structure to your idea notes
Additionally, you can share and delete an idea using the respective buttons located in the navigation bar.
The "Spaces" View
The Spaces view is intended as an open idea space where you can brainstorm, create ideas and organize your thoughts. Idea cards display the title and the notes of an idea, as well as the number of votes an idea got so far. The background color is derived from the current score of the idea (based on its rating) ranging from blue (cold) to red (hot).
By single tapping on an idea you get into the idea details. Double tapping lets you inline-edit the idea's title (notes can only be edited in the idea detail view). You can move the idea within the idea space by dragging it across the screen.
The Spaces view is typically used with an active portfolio filter in order to limit the displayed ideas to a manageable amount.
Using the share button you can save the current view as an image to, e.g., use in a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, or as a PDF document. If needed you can of course also print it.
The "Bubbles" View
The Bubbles view is the heart of the Ideabook app: it lets you visualize your ideas in four configurable dimensions using a bubble chart (x, y, bubble size, and color). Note that only fully rated ideas are rendered in the chart (in terms of the visualized criteria that can be configured in the "Settings" area located under "More").
The idea behind such bubble charts is to let you analyze them across different criteria in order to help you deciding which ones to implement and which ones to delay or abandon altogether. The most famous bubble chart visualization is probably the "Eisenhower Matrix" where you rate ideas regarding importance and urgency. We use these criteria also in our demo data together with uniqueness (in terms of unique selling point or USP) and (market) potential.
As usually, tapping on an idea takes you to the idea's detail view. If multiple ideas are on top of each other you first get to a small popover where you can select a single idea.
Similar to the Spaces view, the share button allows you to share the current view as image or PDF document.
The "Roadmap" View
The Roadmap view is our most recent addition to Ideabook. It displays a so-called "agile roadmap" meaning that it is not visualized using a timeline with explicit dates, but instead as a Kanban board with the following columns called "horizons":
- Now. You are in the process of implementing these ideas.
- Next. These are the ideas you want to realize next.
- Later. These are ideas you have already put some thought in them, but they are not quite ready.
- Someday. You might want to implement these ideas at some point, but not in the near or mid-term future.
Since the horizon of an idea determines whether the idea shows up on the roadmap you have to initially assign a horizon in the idea's details. After that you can use drag & drop to move the idea between horizons.
Use the Roadmap view to maintain your personal, agile idea implementation roadmap. You cannot do everything at once: You have to focus. On the other side, you also want to make progress. The roadmap view helps you with both.
Use the share button to share the current roadmap as an image or a PDF document.
The "More" Tab
The More tab presents you with a number of additional, more seldom used functions as well as the Ideabook Settings area.
Portfolios
The Portfolios view allows you to manage the portfolios that you can use to organize and filter ideas. While porfolios can be created directly from the portfolio filter, this area also allows you to modify and delete existing portfolios.
Settings
The Settings area contains all the app-specific settings for the Ideabook app. It is organized into four sections:
- General. The General settings section allows you to switch on iCloud syncing and to configure the Spaces background (plain, rules, checked)
- Criteria The Criteria section allows you to configure up to ten idea rating criteria. By enabling a criterion and providing it with a unique name it is available for rating and bubble chart configuration. By starring it you can see it in the tabular Ideas overview tab when sufficient space is available
- Bubble Chart The Bubble Chart section lets you configure which criteria are mapped to which dimensions of the bubble chart (x, y, bubble size, and color)
- Database. The Database section allows you to export all your ideas as a CSV text file using the ... button in the top right corner. It also provides a deduplication function should the automatic deduplication not work and you get duplicates when syncing ideas (usually not necessary) and the ability to delete all data in order to start over (please be careful with this: If iCloud syncing is switched on it will delete all Ideabook data across devices! Otherwise only the local data on the local device will be deleted).
Help
Finally, the Help item takes you to our Support area on the Ideabook website where you can find frequently asked questions (FAQs) and information on how to contact us should you need additional help, or for submitting a feature request.