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.
Stuck? Diagrams Help
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
"I don’t know anyone who uses the configuration out of the box without customizing it heavily and extensively."
Sam ProulxEverything You Ever Wanted to Know About Screen Readers
June 11, 2021
"If you are a cohort participant and don’t see your private Slack channel, please let us know so we can guide you."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
November 17, 2022
"This is a moment to rethink identity beyond UX and get creative with income streams and career paths."
Corey Nelson Amy SanteeLayoffs
November 15, 2022
"Blaming the system for failures is like blaming the garden for not growing—the system is made by the people within it."
Milan GuentherA Shared Language for Co-Creating Ambitious Endeavours
June 6, 2023
"Stakeholders aren’t ready to write their own briefs or manage recruitment, so it ended up being a hybrid model initially."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"The little sounds that VoiceOver makes are like bird song; you only notice them when they're gone."
Sam ProulxUnderstanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
June 6, 2023
"Our AI-supported mornings were no longer about just dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, but deeper analysis sessions including clients."
Mujtaba HameedThe new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
March 11, 2026
"When something of massive consequence happens that no one predicted, it usually means we have failed to point our imagination in the right direction."
Ilana LipsettAnticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
December 10, 2021
"It can cost up to 200 times more to remediate and retrofit a solution as opposed to designing it correctly in the first place."
Samuel ProulxFrom Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins
September 10, 2025
