How to Draw Beautiful Diagrams Users Will Love

By nsillk | Oct 16, 2011 | 0 Comments | Rating: 0

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Get the Attention of Users with Attractive Diagrams

There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, what is equally true is that a bad diagram is worth thousand words. Diagrams are popular because people can easily grasp the message presented through them. Lets take a Flowchart, one of the most commonly used diagrams in the world. They help you break down a complex process into sub processes and clearly shows the decision points, so you can focus on optimizing the sub processes. Wire-Frames, Mind-Maps, UI Mockups etc all make it easier to understand problems.

However there are ways for you to improve your diagrams even further. Creately diagram community is one of the best places in the world to explore diagrams. Hundreds of diagrams are created everyday and the best diagrams come up through the system by a qualifying and a voting process. Below are some of the top characteristics of the top diagrams, which you should consider when drawing diagrams yourself.

Add Color to Your Diagrams

Adding colors to your diagrams is very important and helps you get the attention of the viewers. Light colors are easier on the eye, so tend to get the best rating. When you are drawing things like Venn diagrams the color combination is very important because circles tend to intersect. Another thing to consider when adding colors is the color of the text. Text color and the color of the background object should be contrasting enough, so users can easily read the text. Color can also be used to identify different objects in a diagrams more easily. For example in a Flowchart you can use one color for the processes and another color for decision blocks. Getting a peer to check it after adding some colors is a good idea, especially if it's a company wide presentation.

Clear Lines, Arrows and Connectors

Arrows and Connectors are very important in any diagram. They should be clearly named and have arrows at the end to show data flow or process flow. Adding arrows and naming arrows is an area most users struggle with. Most of the diagram software in the market don't focus much on the connectors. And with most diagram tools adding the arrow and naming the arrow is done separately, leading to a messy diagram. This is especially true for somewhat complex diagrams which has diagonal arrows.

Another important thing is to not to have arrows going across objects. This makes the creator look careless and have an immediate impact on the audience. The importance of this is highlighted by the fact that most diagram software makers are focusing on adding super easy to use connectors.

Follow the Standards

Another important things is to follow the standards in drawing certain types of diagrams. This is very important when working in a technical area like software engineering, business drawing etc. One of the best example of this is the decision points in Flowcharts. The standard method is to add a decision block, with two arrows for different alternatives. But many people ignore the decision block and just your arrows. This defeats the purpose of Flowcharts because they are there to make complex processes simple.

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