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Mind maps
This is a great way to dump all the stu in your head onto a piece of
paper so you can see it all and make connections. You can move from
related items to emotions to ideas.
Because Mind Maps are easy and have few rules about how to make
them, they are a great way to begin modeling a system.
Concept Maps
Concept Maps are a bit more formal than a Mind Map. In a concept
map you name the relationships between the items. Hugh Dubberly
pioneered their use to understand complex systems, but many folks
have since adopted them and they should be a standard part of your
toolkit. Dan Brown explains them thusly (well pointedly ignore him
calling them concept models for now.)
by DanBrown
In Hugh Dubberlys article, Creating Concept Maps, he lists these steps
for creating them.
List terms
Edit the list
Dene the remaining terms
Create a matrix showing the relations of terms
Rank the terms
Decide on main branches or write framing sentencesFill in the rest of the
structure
Revise
Apply typography to reinforce structure
Revise
Concept Maps can be simple, if its just for your own use in your
design process, or they can get fancy if you want to make a poster for
a client or your team. Posters are great for keeping a shared vision
and inspiring conversation.
They can get fancy http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps/creative-process.html via Dubberly DesignO ce
The next three models are mostly explanatory, i.e. about messaging
understanding for internal teams or for your customers and users. Of
course, rst you have to understand, then you can explain.
System Models
A system models job is to document a system as accurately as
possible.
via http://sce.uhcl.edu/whiteta/sdp/createSystemModel.html
They can be overwhelming if you arent familiar with the system.
Making one can help you become an expert in understanding the
system. System models are great as posters for the same reason as
concept maps: to keep a shared understanding of the system where
the entire team can see it. I cant tell you how many times an engineer
has walked past a system model and said, thats not right. As the
system changes, team members can update with is a marker. On the
wall means it lives in a state of permanent critique.
The danger of system models is that once you know the system, you
forget how confusing and complex it is. Thats when you need a
mental model.
Mental Models
This is a model of how the end user thinks about a complicated
system. Users will ignore the complicated irrelevant parts of a system
and attend what they care about. They are often inaccurate,
incomplete and editorial.
You draw mental models to help your team (and yourself) understand
how the potential user of a system currently thinks about the system.
Indi Young took the mental model concept, used a end-users task as
an organizing principle, applied research using a gazillion interviews
because she is THAT GOOD, and came up with a way to map your
oerings (or your competitors) to it. Its the love child of mental
models and gap analysis, and its a powerful tool. You should buy and
read her book, Mental Models.
Concept Models
A Concept Model is how you WANT people to think of the system. You
dont want to include every little thing as in the system model, but
you also want ot avoid users making stu up as they do in the mental
model. A concept model is rst and foremost a message.
One is to tell your end user how to think about the system. Or more
likely, the value of the system.
Today Team http://www.todayteam.co.uk/how-our-service-works/
A long time ago, we used site maps to explain to the team what we
were designing. Site Maps are essentially System Diagrams. But sites
got really big. Thousands of pages. Hard to show in a diagram.
http://architecture.31bio.org/information-architecture-concept-model/
1)What is the title of your document? If you dont know then ask yourself
why you are making it.
2) Make sure to date everything. Since these will be printed out and
passed around the oce it is the only way to keep some sort of version
control.
3) Give your diagram a lot of whitespace. If you cram things too close
together than no one will want to take the eort to read it.
4) A central illustration in the middle of the diagram can help draw
attention and acts as a focal point.
5) Under the central illustration put a description with additional
explanation text.
6) Use callouts around the illustration to give extra detail.
7) Some of your callouts may be illustrations, too. Add notes underneath
to clarify important concepts.
8) Use sidebars and bullet points as checklists, high-level goals, or other
necessary information.
Pay attention to the size of things. Make important things bigger. This
includes font sizes as well as illustrations.
Start out at letter size, then work up to legal, 11 x 17, and posters as the
need arises.
Learn How to Make a Concept Model in this article I wrote for Boxes
and Arrows.
I also should point out Ive been chided by some of my peers for not
calling them conceptual models. Tough luck guys! Concept Model is
shorter to type!
See also:
One Page Designs (mind blowing, I promise)(if you read this entire
article, that is)