Dividers

A divider is a line or frame on the canvas that names and bounds a region. Use a divider to group cards by what they’re about — “Discovery,” “MVP,” “Phase 2” — without making one of them the parent of the others.

Dividers come in two shapes:

• Line dividers run horizontally or vertically across the canvas, slicing it into stripes.
• Frame dividers enclose a rectangular region, bounded on all sides.

Which shape is available depends on the map type. A story map uses horizontal lines to mark releases. A canvas-zones map (persona, business model canvas) uses frames to mark zones. A tree map uses lines to mark depth.

A divider has a name, and that name becomes the name of the outcome the divider creates. Cards inside the divider’s region automatically belong to that outcome — move a card into the region and it joins; move it out and it leaves.

Dividers survive deletion of their cards, and outcomes can survive deletion of their divider. When you delete a divider that has cards in it, its outcome converts to a drawer-only outcome — the geometric anchor is gone, but the grouping (and the name) stays.

A divider is not a card. It’s lighter — no description, no status, no tracker link, no reactions. It exists to label and bound, not to hold work.

Caution

• Don’t use dividers to express parent–child hierarchy — that’s what card hierarchy is for. Dividers are about co-location, not nesting.
• Don’t nest two dividers of the same orientation. Card membership resolves by smallest area, but overlapping same-orientation dividers makes intent ambiguous to readers.