HD·ID·04 Advanced
Diagrammatic & Schematic Design
Drawing processes and systems, not just objects.
Diagrams and schematics represent processes, relationships, and systems that have no natural visual form, flowcharts, network diagrams, transit maps. This course covers the conventions that make an abstract diagram readable and the trade-offs between geographic accuracy and schematic clarity.
In Development
This course's full module content is being written. The outline below is final, subscribe for updates when it publishes.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- 01 Distinguish a diagram's purpose from a literal, geographically accurate representation
- 02 Apply standard flowchart and process-diagram conventions consistently
- 03 Design a schematic (transit-map style) representation that trades geographic accuracy for clarity
- 04 Represent relationships and hierarchies using network and tree diagrams appropriately
- 05 Evaluate whether a diagram's abstraction level suits its intended audience
- Diagrams reveal structure prose and photos cannot
- Abstraction level should match what the audience needs to understand
- Standard conventions let strangers read a new diagram correctly
- Inventing new shapes without explanation defeats the convention's purpose
- Geographic accuracy and diagrammatic clarity often conflict
- The right trade-off depends on what the viewer actually needs to do
- Trees imply hierarchy; networks imply non-hierarchical connection
- Choosing the wrong structure misleads about the relationship type
- More labels is not always clearer
- Label density should scale with audience expertise, not maximise information shown
- Expert and novice audiences need different abstraction levels
- Consider producing multiple diagrams rather than one compromise version