User-Centered
Information & Diagram Design
How to Make Lasagna
Instead of Spaghetti
Noah P. N. Iliinsky
InfoCamp Seattle
September 27th and 28th, 2008

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Spaghetti and Lasagna Diagrams (Linkbat, n. d.; UNL, n. d.; Vittlesvamp, n. d.)

A Simple Diagram (USNS Niagra Falls, n.d.)

• Why is more complexity difficult?
• there are a finite number of visual properties to
use to encode knowledge
• encoding more knowledge makes selecting
properties more difficult
• Why are qualitative relationships difficult to
represent?
• fewer conventions than with quantitative
relationships
• the author must convey metaphor as well as
message

Intentional choices are superior to arbitrary choices.
How do you make good, intentional choices?
• Your Goals
[Different Goals Require Different Methods]
• Their Needs
[Audience Brings Context With Them]
• What to Include
[Principle of Information Availability]
• Where to Put It
[Principle of Semantic Distance]
• How Does it Look
[Principle of Informative Changes]

The Diagram Design Process
• Definition of goals and needs
• Selection of content
• Encoding and placement of content
• axes
• nodes
• links

Your Goals
[Different Goals Require Different Methods]
•Inform / Educate
•Broad overview?
• Focused detail?
• Persuade
• Get a raise?
• Protest war?

Different goals
require different
methods
(Votemaster, 2008) (Werschkul, 2004)

Their Needs
[Audience Brings Context With Them]
=
You Them

• Their Needs
[Audience Brings Context With Them]
• accounts for the needs of the diagram user
• the design of the diagram must address its use
• Understanding context is critical
• facilitates learning and acceptance
• applies to every phase of the diagram design process
• includes inherent and learned contexts

What to Include
[Principle of Information Availability]
• only present necessary information
• redundant encoding is good
• more detail can be good or bad
• extraneous decoration is usually bad

Redundant Encoding (Community Mesh, 2003)

No Redundant Encoding

Where to Put It
[Principle of Semantic Distance]
• people ascribe meaning to location
• relative placement matters
• absolute placement matters
• lines & boxes join or divide groups
A
B

Axes give you information for free!
(and it contributes in two different ways)

Lack of axes gives you spaghetti!

Abstracted spatial relationships (Moscow Metro Map, n. d.)

How Does it Look
[Principle of Informative Changes]
• people will detect patterns, and ascribe meaning to
patterns and pattern violations
• Implications: Consistency!
• establish patterns and stick with them
• things that are the same should look the same
• things that are different should look different
• preserve order in placement and lists

Consistent, differentiable encodings

A diagram with arbitrary
design choices

A diagram with intentional design choices

• too much information
• no clear goal
• arbitrary placement
• doesn’t consider my needs
• semi-consistent encoding
(Poyser, n. d.)

Thank you!
Full thesis available at ComplexDiagrams.com
Please send thoughts, questions, or interesting data sets to
gmail: iliinsky
•Community Mesh. (2003). Community Mesh diagram. Retrieved February 7, 2005, from http://www.communitymesh.com/images/diagram.jpg
•Horton, W. (1991). Illustrating Computer Documentation: the Art of Presenting Information Graphically on Paper and Online. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
•Kosslyn, S. M. (1994). Elements of Graph Design. New York: W. H. Freeman and Co.
•Leiper, Q. (2003). ICEngineering Knowledge. Retrieved September 16, 2004, from http://www.ice.org.uk/downloads/EK_contribution_to_ICE Strategy.pdf
•Linkbat. (n. d.). Entity Relationship Diagram. Retrieved November 18, 2004, from http://www.linux-tutorial.info /Linkbat/Development/ERD.png
•McNamara, T. P. (1986). Mental representations of spatial relations. Cognitive Psychology, 18, 87-121.
•Minard, C. J. (1861). Figurative chart of the successive losses of men of the French Army in the countryside of Russia. Retrieved February 8, 2005, from http://
www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/graphics/minard_lg.gif
•Poyser, M. (n. d.). Wall Street Follies diagram. Retrieved February 22, 2005, from http://www.wallstreetfollies.com/diagrams.htm
•UNL Lancaster. (n. d.). spaghetti.jpg. Retrieved March 16, 2006, from http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning/programmes/BSc%20diagram.jpg
•USNS Niagra Falls. (n. d.) ORG CHART.JPG. Retrieved January 13, 2006, from http://www.msc.navy.mil/niagarafalls/Life%20Onboard_files/ORG%20CHART.JPG
•Vittlesvamp. (n. d.). lasagna.jpg. Retrieved March 16, 2006, from http://www.vittlesvamp.com/images/lasagna.jpg
•Votemaster. (2008). Electoral Votes Cartogram. Retrieved September 27, 2008, from http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Carto/Sep27-c.html
•Votemaster. (2008). Electoral Votes Map. Retrieved September 27, 2008, from http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Sep27.html
•Werschkul, B. (2004). Election Results Graphic. Retrieved September 27, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONRESULTS_GRAPHIC/
index.html
•Williams, T. R. (2000, August). Guidelines for Designing and Evaluating the Display of Information on the Web [Electronic Version]. Technical Communication, 47, 383-396.
•Winn, W. D. & Holliday, W. G. (1982). Design Principles for Diagrams and Charts. In D. Jonassen (Ed.), The Technology of Text (pp. 277-299). Englewood Cliffs: Educational
Technology Publications.