The Art (and Science) of Diagramming: Communicating Effectively Using Diagrams

DAMA Sydney is delighted to offer this one day course on producing effective diagrams. This has been previously presented at Enterprise Data World in Tampa, Florida, the DAMA International Symposium in Boston the IRMAC in Toronto, the DAMA Europe Conference in London and DAMA Scandinavia Conference in Stockholm. It comes highly recommended by the current President of DAMA International (Dr. Peter Aiken), Past President of DAMA International (John Schley), David Hay (author of “Data Modelling Patterns”) and Steve Hoberman (author of “Data Modelling Made Simple”).
Diagrams play a critical role in data management practice: they are used to represent data models and enterprise architectures and communicate these throughout the enterprise. Despite this, data management practitioners typically receive little or no training in how to produce “good” diagrams. As a result, most diagrams produced in data management practice do not communicate effectively. Although they are intended as a way of communicating with business users and senior management, they more often act as a barrier than an aid to communication.
Presentation of diagrams is often considered as a matter of “aesthetics”, implying that it is just a matter of personal taste. However research in diagrammatical reasoning shows that the form of a problem representation has an equal, if not greater, effect on human information processing as its content. The human mind is highly sensitive to the exact form information is presented to the senses, and apparently minor changes in visual appearance can have dramatic effects on understanding and problem solving performance. This suggests that decisions about the presentation of diagrams are far from trivial, and should be taken with as much care as decisions about their content.
This presentation describes a set of principles for producing cognitively effective diagrams (ones that are optimised for processing by the human mind). These principles are not based on common sense but on scientific evidence drawn from a wide range of fields, including visual perception, cognitive psychology, psycho-physics, graphic design, information visualisation, and diagrammatic reasoning. The principles apply to all types of diagrams, from formal diagrams used in application development and enterprise architectures to informal diagrams used in presentations and reports.

For more details please go to the registration page.