I'm talking about pictures that show technical concepts. Each day
at our clients, we use whiteboards and visio diagrams to explain
difficult concepts to others, technical and non-technical. A few
things that might not be obvious to you:
1. The picture
INFERS 1000 OTHER words - Depending on the person's background, what
experience they have with teh existing systems and what their
expectations are for the new system of which you may be explaining a
component, the result that ends up in the person's head might be very
different than what you intended. As such, you need to make sure you
are thikning about this when you are drawing the diagrams
2.
The picture RECALLS 1000 words - After you are done drawing a diagram,
you should think of the result in the person's head as the result of
both the DIAGRAM AND THE CONVERSATIONS. As such, when the person sees
teh diagram in again, they won't just be seeing what is statically
depicted on the diagram, they'll be remembering the entire conversation
and how you said data flowed from one piece to the other as you drew
the diagram
3. A drawn picture CAPTURES 1000 OTHER words
- More than 1000 words are created if the viewer sees the picture being
drawn. If you have ever created a really complex diagram, you know
this is true. If you can sit down with a person and draw the diagram
piece by piece while explaining each piece, you will have a much better
chance of them remembering and understanding than if you give them the
fully created diagram and try to explain it. More often than not,
people are overwhelmed by the complexity and can't get past it.
4.
A picture AVOIDS 1000 words - Sometimes it doesn't matter what the
words are. Sometimes, your objective is to just show the viewer that
"it's complex" and "i know what i'm doing". In that case, showing them
a fully laid out diagram is better. They dont' want to know or
understand the details, they just want to know you do and you have it
covered. This is a useful strategy at times.
5. A
picture GUARANTEES 1000 words - If you want the same 1000 words, don't
change the picture. I've seen this done many times. You are in a room
w/ a person explaining a concept and you draw a diagram on teh board.
Then, you go back and formalize it into a Visio diagram. You figure
out some new information that makes you draw the diagram differently
(you drew systems horizontally on teh whiteboard, but vertically in
your Visio). This is bad b/c you are losing all the words and the
viewer has to start over from scratch again (see #2 & 3). If you
want the viewer to make the connection and remember all the concepts
you talked about when you first drew the diagram for them in person,
you need to make sure the diagram is fundamentally relatable to what
they are seeing in the formal/visio version.