Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
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
-
•
Diagrams combat the VUCA forces—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—by providing stability, transparency, understanding, and clarity.
-
•
A fifth superpower of diagrams is kindness, offering emotional relief and a pause mechanism when people feel stuck.
-
•
Diagramming is a craft informed by multiple disciplines, including cartography, math, machine design, and metadata systems.
-
•
Designing diagrams requires clear consideration of audience, including individual and group dynamics.
-
•
Effective diagrams can serve as life rafts through volatile and complex challenges, such as cyber hate or public health crises.
-
•
Simplicity is not always the goal; understanding the audience’s needs and context determines the best level of complexity in a diagram.
-
•
Diagrams must be accessible; providing alternative text or alternative content is crucial for people with visual or cognitive impairments.
-
•
Excessive color coding without clear structure can increase ambiguity rather than clarity.
-
•
Narrative storytelling can be a powerful alternative content strategy complementing complex diagrams.
-
•
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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"No two re-platforming journeys are exactly the same, and there isn't one single formula that works every time."
Malini RaoLessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey
June 9, 2021
"Meta-analysis is like looking at the average Rotten Tomatoes score to get an overall sentiment from many individual reviews."
Katie HansenFinding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
March 12, 2025
"If executives are responsible for the why and managers are responsible for the what, then directors are responsible for the how."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX
July 13, 2023
"Personally, if I was gonna go into some aspect of UX research, I would jump in with both feet into research repositories."
Maria Rosala Shivanjali M.Research Repositories
March 12, 2026
"Language can be vague, imprecise, and even contradictory, but the body can be a bridge to understanding."
Dane DeSutterKeeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not
March 26, 2024
"We created AI OKRs allowing our team members to experiment and then share their findings with the team."
Ebru NamaldiDesigning the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps
September 11, 2025
"Government isn’t always trusted, so we worked with local partners to connect with underserved communities."
Aaron Stienstra Lashanda HodgeLeveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
December 8, 2021
"We have do’s and don’ts, but approaching it from a rules-based perspective just reduces buy-in."
Dave Malouf Amy ThibodeauPanel: Design Systems and Documentation
November 7, 2017
"More math is coming our way into research into UX."
Scott PlewesWhy Isn't Your UX Approach Going Viral?: A Mathematical Model
March 28, 2023
