A guide to diagramming
Choosing the right diagram type, and the habits that make any diagram readable.
Most diagram problems are choice problems. The drawing is rarely the hard part; picking the wrong form for what you are trying to say is.
Choosing a type
| If you are describing | Use |
|---|---|
| A sequence of steps with decisions | Flowchart |
| Ideas radiating from one topic | Mind map |
| How ideas relate to each other | Concept map |
| Who reports to whom | Org chart |
| A process crossing several teams | Swimlane diagram |
| Messages between systems over time | Sequence diagram |
| Tables and their relationships | ER diagram |
| What happens when, over months | Timeline or roadmap |
Habits that help regardless of type
- One direction of flow, consistently
- Labels specific enough that someone outside the room can act on them
- Every branch followed to an ending
- Fewer elements than feels complete — completeness and clarity are usually in tension
When not to draw a diagram
If the thing you are describing is genuinely linear and short, a numbered list is better. Diagrams earn their cost when structure matters — branches, cycles, parallelism, relationships. A flowchart of five sequential steps is a list with extra work.