TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Whimsical

Score8.5 out of 10

60 Reviews and Ratings

What is Whimsical?

Whimsical is a visual workspace application from the company of the same name in Denver, allowing users to create collaborative wireframes, mindmaps, flowcharts, and sticky notes.

Whimsical Comprehensive design tool.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We predominantly use Whimsical in the product development process. It helps us in rapid wire framing, flow chart creation, and user journey mapping. Whimsical also helps us collaborate with team members across the globe to sketch out concepts from scratch. It also gives our development team a visual blueprint of the features we want to build.

Pros

  • Wireframe creation.
  • User journey mapping.
  • Custom templates.
  • Flow charts.
  • AI prompts.

Cons

  • AI prompting.
  • Mind Mapping.
  • Icons

Return on Investment

  • Reduced our time in testing concepts by 30%.
  • Active collaboration led to more productive outcomes.
  • It support agile development.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Figma, Miro and Excalidraw+

Other Software Used

Deepnote, Zoho Analytics, WebEngage

My go-to mind mapping tool

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The feature I use from Whimsical is the mind mapping mode.

I've tried many other mind mapping tools (e.g. Clickup) in the past including desktop apps like Freemind, but in terms of cloud-based mind mapping tools, their mind-mapping tool is the best one or the one I prefer using the most.

I use mind mapping to work out product development, doing brain dumps to organize thoughts and ideas.

Pros

  • Mind maps
  • Generous usage on free plan
  • Very intuitive

Cons

  • Getting out of a selected view is not quite as intuitive.

Return on Investment

  • No hard numbers I can quote. Other than the free plan has been adequate for my needs.
  • It's my go to mind mapping tool.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

ClickUp and Xmind

Other Software Used

Notion

Whimsical delivers for UX professionals.

Pros

  • Very learnable and memorable.
  • Easy to present.
  • Ability to comment.
  • Ability to share.
  • Simple interface.

Cons

  • Customization of colors would be nice.
  • Adding chains can be finicky.
  • Moving boxes around is clunky - interferes with connections.

Return on Investment

  • It's helped present ideas to clients clearly.
  • Allows us to organize our ideas logically.

Alternatives Considered

Figma

Usability

Other Software Used

Figma, Gusto, Harvest

An amazing playground for ideas

Pros

  • Mindmapping.
  • Workflow.
  • Business/department structure building.
  • Basic wireframe builds.

Cons

  • The ability to share is a bit lacking (you can only share the link if the document is public).
  • Would be great if we had the ability to make the notes smaller.

Return on Investment

  • Clear flowcharts for processes.
  • Great visuals for team presentations.
  • Keeps ideas organized and brainstorming simplified.

Alternatives Considered

Lucidchart and MindMapper

Other Software Used

Calendly, MindMapper, Lucidchart

Whimsical is Wonderful

Pros

  • Simple low fidelity wireframing
  • Site mapping
  • User flow mapping

Cons

  • Limited design capabilities for more detailed wireframing

Return on Investment

  • Whimsical has saved us hours of time in the information architecture phase of our projects.

Alternatives Considered

InVision

Other Software Used

Sketch, InVision, Figma