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Stuck? Diagrams Help
Summary
This month our DesignOps community was joined by Abby Covert, a founding member of the Design Operations community, and eMcee for DesignOps ‘18. Abby has two decades of making and teaching diagrams to other people. She is currently on a mission to rid the world of bad diagrams, one diagrammer at a time. And we think the DesignOps could learn a thing or five from her about how we could up our diagram game.
Key Insights
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Diagrams combat the VUCA forces—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—by providing stability, transparency, understanding, and clarity.
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A fifth superpower of diagrams is kindness, offering emotional relief and a pause mechanism when people feel stuck.
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Diagramming is a craft informed by multiple disciplines, including cartography, math, machine design, and metadata systems.
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Designing diagrams requires clear consideration of audience, including individual and group dynamics.
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Effective diagrams can serve as life rafts through volatile and complex challenges, such as cyber hate or public health crises.
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Simplicity is not always the goal; understanding the audience’s needs and context determines the best level of complexity in a diagram.
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Diagrams must be accessible; providing alternative text or alternative content is crucial for people with visual or cognitive impairments.
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Excessive color coding without clear structure can increase ambiguity rather than clarity.
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Narrative storytelling can be a powerful alternative content strategy complementing complex diagrams.
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Diagram accessibility solutions, like structured summaries or phone-tree style navigation, empower users to consume information at their own pace.
Notable Quotes
"When was the last time that you felt stuck? The one where you feel a sense of being stuck trying to understand something."
"Diagrams are life rafts crossing the sea of volatility, helping to get everyone on the same page."
"Diagrams provide transparency in the face of uncertainty by showing what there is to know, even if the news is not good."
"Simplicity is not always the answer to complexity, but understanding often is."
"Just because you can color code something doesn’t mean you should."
"Diagramming is kindness we give to ourselves and others to get our bearings on things we’re stuck on."
"Providing alternative content is often a kinder gesture than any lengthy alternative text could be."
"The key to good diagrams is accessibly rendered, content driven, and visually supported."
"Diagrams help when we feel stuck—providing stability, transparency, understanding, clarity, and kindness."
"Diagrams allow us to emotionally hit pause and come back ready to dig further."
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