2. Introduction - the value of clear diagrams

This book provides a simple, proven approach to drawing clear, memorable technical diagrams. Although the focus is on whiteboard sketches, the principles apply to chalkboards, paper notebooks, and even digital tools. The techniques are applicable to a wide range of technical disciplines, including:

• software architecture
• systems architecture
• business process modelling
• chemical engineering
• mechanical engineering and robotics
• electronic and electrical engineering

The approach is designed to be suitable for people with a range of learning and visual needs, including:

• people with dyslexia and other learning differences
• people with visual impairments in colour or acuity
• people who learn visually or audibly
• people who like to categorise in order to understand

The techniques lead to diagrams that still make sense many months or years after drawing them. The diagrams tend to be clear enough to include directly in slide decks and even official documentation. The techniques make it simple and quick to redraw diagrams if needed, without having to begin from the very start each time.

A well-drawn diagram can help a diverse group of people to understand and remember concepts and details, saving time and effort in avoiding repetition and misunderstandings. People who draw clear diagrams gain a reputation for being more understandable and helpful and their ideas and approaches are therefore more likely to succeed.

Recent research has begun to acknowledge that “reliance on [digital] information management infrastructures is probably not sufficient to enable organizations to utilize their intellectual capital effectively” [8]. Digital tools are hugely powerful and valuable, but analogue, physical tools and techniques - such a whiteboard sketching - also have an important place, as they help to “facilitate interaction and turn-taking, increase vividness and memorability”.

Through the companion training workshops, the techniques in this book have been tested and refined with people from around the world. “A picture is worth a thousand words” goes the English saying, but too often whiteboard sketches and notebook drawings quickly lose their meaning after they are drawn. If you have ever looked at a technical diagram and thought “these squiggles are meaningless!”, then this book is for you.

2.1 Why sketch?

Both artists and architects of buildings have long valued sketches as a key part of the design process [2]. In particular, the sketches by Leonardo da Vinci demonstrate how value sketching was to this great artist and designer [7]; although the technical sketches we make to design systems and products are rather more humble than those of da Vinci, we should expect to refer back to them as our designs progress.

Award-winning software architect Ruth Malan has studied the notebooks of Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci renowned for his sketches 10 and identified a wide range of reasons for sketching:

• To observe (more attentively)
• To study, think, reason
• To record
• To invent, to combine, to make connections
• To test ideas
• To persuade

Some people have a negative view of whiteboard sketching, that it’s somehow not “real work”, but this is misguided. When we use whiteboard sketches to test ideas, invent, study, observe, make new connections, and persuade people, sketching is clearly valuable work. In particular, whiteboard sketching can avoid hours, day, weeks, or months of re-work to correct an implementation that was based on faulty assumptions.

As we will see in Chapter 1, before starting a sketch it is valuable to take a moment to consider why we’re drawing a whiteboard sketch. A sketch to help us study or observe might include very different elements to a sketch whose primary purpose is to persuade other people.

2.2 Typical problems with whiteboard sketches

Whiteboards are great for rapid sketching of concepts, ideas, interrelationships, data flows, systems, and many other technical purposes. The transient nature of the drawings helps people to focus on communicating ideas and details because changes are quick and easy. However, this ease of use comes at a price: many whiteboard sketches are difficult to understand, leading to confusion and wasted time.

In his excellent article The Art of Crafting Architectural Diagrams [9], Ionut Balosin lists many of the typical problems with whiteboard sketches, including:

• Missing key or legend - what do different shapes mean?
• Ambiguous arrows - do arrows represent ownership, data flow, or something else?
• Ambiguous colours - do the colours have a consistent meaning?
• Confused concepts - what level of detail/abstraction is being showm?

The advice and approaches in this book address problems like these through the use of simple, structured rules and heuristics for clearer whiteboard sketches.

2.3 Drawing helps us to understand and remember

Another reason to use sketches as a regular part of the design process is because sketching actually improves memory formation and recall. In a study published in 2016, Jeffrey Wammes and colleages from the Universtiy of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada conducted a series of experiments to assess the effect on drawing on memory and recall of information [1]. They concluded that:

“drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace”

So drawing sketches helps us to remember things better than simply writing things down, which suggests that if we want to remember things better, we should sketch more. {icon=chalkboard} G> To remember things better, sketch more.

2.4 Use a physical whiteboard

Over the past decade or so there has been increasing awareness that their bodies strongly influence the way that humans learn and think, a concept called embodied cognition [11]. With embodied cognition, “knowledge is grounded in sensorimotor systems, and that learning can be facilitated to the extent that lessons can be mapped to these systems” [12].

In the context of sketches, there is significant value to be gained from interacting with a physical whiteboard rather than a software version at a single computer. Large digital whiteboards can be very effective if they use digital pens, not a standard mouse or trackpad pointer.

In a study published in 2016, researchers used a variety of learning environments (including whiteboards) to assess the effect of physical interaction with tools on retention of learned information [12]. They found that:

better retention of certain types of knowledge can be seen over time when more embodiment is present during the encoding phase

Information seems to be more strongly “encoded” in the brain when the person learning is using their body in a physical way. People who can use physical whiteboards should take advantage of this: prefer large physical whiteboards - and the act of physical drawing with pens on a large surface - and enjoy the increased learning and retention that comes with embodied cognition!

Although wall-mounted whiteboards are probalby the most effective type, even small/portable whiteboards can be effective for diagramming. Portable whiteboards have the advantage that you can easily take to whiteboard to another part of the office to show a colleague or move the whiteboard to a room with a video conferencing camera for a video call.

Some digital whiteboard technologies encourage embodied cognition due to their size and interaction tools. For example, the Microsoft Surface Hub has a Whiteboard feature that is quite natural using physical-digital pens on the screen. In this book, a digital whiteboard with natural physical interaction counts as a physical whiteboard.

2.5 Take photographs and share

After a useful whiteboard discussion, take photos of the whiteboard sketch and upload to a wiki or group chat to share with colleagues. If your workplace forbids photography, try to use a digital whiteboard from which you can save an image directly.

2.6 3 core principles: concepts, colour, repeating

This book sets out three core principles for drawing better whiteboard sketches, which are covered in the nex three chapters:

1. Define and group key concepts - Chapter 1
2. Use colour but think in monochrome - Chapter 2
3. Use multi-stage sketches to help discussions - Chapter 3

Any one of these principles will improve a whiteboard sketch, but when used together they form a powerful approach to more understandable, more useful diagrams.

2.7 Summary

Many whiteboard sketches are unintelligible to people who did not see the diagram being drawn. This leads to confusion and sometimes significant wasted effort for teams building and running systems or engaged in knowledge work.

Through embodied cognition, a physical whiteboard helps to encode learning better than software tools alone, and because whiteboard sketches are very useful for learning and exploring, using a physical whiteboard is best.

By considering the needs of people with different learning and perception needs, the Better Whiteboard Sketches approach produces clearer, more memorable sketches for everyone.