Stuck? Diagrams Help.

an NPR reporter recently call introspection mesearch. Yuck, but

Think about my process less like a standard to follow and more like a set of training wheels to rely on while exploring your bravery around this new skill you are acquiring in your own unique context.

zoom out of a process or event far enough so that the abstraction can provide a new perspective on how an intention is being met or hindered by the (often unintended) results of the whole.

identify the mindset or action that you want from the audience’s engagement with the diagram.

There are two sets of elements that are common to all diagrams: Visual elements: What the audience sees as the diagram In-visual elements: The decisions behind the diagram

Simply put, complexity will always win, and we need boundaries to survive it.

When I diagram, I start by setting a diagrammatic intention. This provides focus as I research the audience I seek to serve and set the diagrammatic scope that best aligns to those decisions at the diagrammatic scale I am working at.