ArticlesA tutor at university once told us about a commercial software development project that she worked on, where the architecture was so complex that they had to draw the diagrams on a bedsheet, and the developers would take off their shoes and walk all over it in order to read it.
At the time, I was impressed at the project’s complexity.
A few years later, I recalled the story and became impressed at the architect’s incompetence.
Unfortunately, I still see people trying to explain complex issues with similar diagrams. Universally, the audience members either get caught up with the details, scanning the diagram to trying to find items of interest in the mess, or they just vague out as a protective measure.
Smaller, simpler diagrams work better. If the system is complex, present more of them, with carefully thought through layers of abstraction.
Of course, there is a limit to this rule about small, simple, diagrams. I also see diagrams presented that could more easily be explained with a five word sentence.
Is a picture is worth a thousand words? No, it’s not. Please don’t even try. I think the sweet spot is around a hundred words, plus or minus fifty percent. Any more, and no-one will get it. Any less, and you’re wasting your time.
Comment by Julian on May 18, 2011
I recently saw the winners of the Worst PowerPoint Slide contest. The fourth entry (titled IT Modernization Roadmap) took me quickly back to the diagram in the presentation that triggered this diatribe, six years ago.
Comment by Chris on May 18, 2011
That slide does look eerily familiar. I think the author of the one you recall, if I recall, was hedging by presenting a diagram that included the thousand words.
Comment by Julian on May 19, 2011
It had (what seemed like) a thousand boxes, and each contained an acronym, in a font too small to read comfortably, in cryptic and hard-to-read colours.