Diagrams Mean Nothing
Most technical blog articles have diagrams, charts, flowcharts, etc. And again, in most cases, these all don’t make any sense. I mean sense for readers. Such schemes and graphics notes are very helpful for writers to arrange their thoughts while creating an article.
For example this illustration: if you haven't read the text, you’ll never understand what all this is about. Actually, this mess could be described just by one sentence: “The data of single stripe was damaged on several disks at the same time”.
Good Words Worth Thousand Rects
If you have enough talent and time to write a simple and clear text, you won’t need a single piece of diagram then. If you don’t, try at least to use it better.
No one can neither read nor understand block diagrams. Every time someone uses it, he spends tons of words to make it clear. And at the end, you don’t remember what was in the beginning. One can easily omit block diagrams by describing a few critical points of the flow.
Use complex and abstract schemes when you are 100% sure your readers know the base and conventions. If so, then diagrams and charts become meaningful and you can use their strength at full capacity. Here we dive a bit into some of the key points to improve your diagrams.
First is a Second Dimension
Maybe Feynman Diagrams are most extensive and dense in the sense of represented information and knowledge.
Actually these diagrams describe four dimensions. By the horizontal axis here’s time and all of our 3D world is represented in the vertical axis. And it remains true in reverse directions, so it can be read back in time too (and it does). Hence Feynman Diagrams reveal a huge amount of information in a very elegant and ascetic manner. Each symbol, element, and shape has its particular meaning.
And last but not least is using of text. Text appears as much as it needs to mark key points. No legend, no coordinates, no terms. This is the first sign your diagram is on its way to being perfect.
Flowcharts use both directions as well. But in contrast with Feynman Diagrams, Flowcharts use inconsistent way: in some part time is on the horizontal axis, in some not.
Much easier is to read the outline itself instead of the chart representing it. So, don’t hesitate to just write down a list. The advantage of a list is that it has one dimension hence it would be much clearer (if it’s not too long).
Second is a Third Dimension
A flat image has its own z-depth. It could be emulated by shadows, focus-depth, blur, color palette, or using gradients.
Here we have an impression of a 3D picture, but it does not have any additional value. It’s just decoration. And as it normally happens with decoration, the graph has lost a lot of its readability. Never place text on a gradient. Of course, if you want, it could be read easily.
Third dimension helps us to layer information. Color is the most significant tool for this purpose. We can filter parts of the diagram by their colors in a few moments:
Note how fast you can find the endings of each chain colored in yellow. This schema may be a bit overcolored and colors are too saturated. Anyway, color layering works well.
We’ll discuss coloring in more detail in the next articles. Here are just a few points so far:
- Use the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software and its powerful Flowcharts solution to design a Flowchart of any type without effort.
- Use colors from the palette.
- Using 3-4 colors maximally is recommended.
- Take into attention that as more colors, as less their saturation.
TEN RELATED HOW TO's:
Computer networks nowadays are spread all across the world. The large number of parameters, such as geographic scale or communication protocols, can divide networks. One of the most common types of networks is called local area network (LAN). It convenient to represent network examples by means of diagrams.
This local area network (LAN) diagram provides an easy way to see the way the devices in a local network are interacted. The diagram uses a library containing specific symbols to represent network equipment , media and the end-user devices such as computers (PC, mac, laptop) , network printer, hubs, server and finally a modem. There are two types of network topologies: physical and logical. The current diagram represents precisely a physical type of LAN topology because it refers to the physical layout of a local network equipment.
Picture:
What is a Local Area Network?
Examples of LAN Diagrams
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Activity diagram describes the business and operational step-by-step workflows of components in a system. An activity diagram shows the overall flow of control.
Picture: Diagramming Software for Design UML Activity Diagrams
When we start to speak about databases, we must always mention database structure visualization. One of the most common ways to do it is to create an entity relationship diagram, and to put appropriate symbols on it. It is important either for database projecting and for its' future maintenance.
Entity Relationship Diagram describes data elements and their relationships within a database. There are a set of special symbols that depict each element of an entity relationship diagram. Entities - represents some stable components such as supplier, employee, invoice, client, etc. Relation symbols show how the entities interact. Attributes define characteristics of the relationships. Attributes can be one-to-one or many-to-many. Physical symbols is used in the physical models. They represent items such as fields, tables, types and keys. ERD physical symbols are the building material for the database. Notation lines are used to illustrate the relationships. The most common method is Crow’s Feet notation. You can use ConceptDraw Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) solution to represent a database using the Entity-Relationship model.
Picture: Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols
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While creating flowcharts and process flow diagrams, you should use special objects to define different statements, so anyone aware of flowcharts can get your scheme right. There is a short and an extended list of basic flowchart symbols and their meaning. Basic flowchart symbols include terminator objects, rectangles for describing steps of a process, diamonds representing appearing conditions and questions and parallelograms to show incoming data.
This diagram gives a general review of the standard symbols that are used when creating flowcharts and process flow diagrams. The practice of using a set of standard flowchart symbols was admitted in order to make flowcharts and other process flow diagrams created by any person properly understandable by other people. The flowchart symbols depict different kinds of actions and phases in a process. The sequence of the actions, and the relationships between them are shown by special lines and arrows. There are a large number of flowchart symbols. Which of them can be used in the particular diagram depends on its type. For instance, some symbols used in data flow diagrams usually are not used in the process flowcharts. Business process system use exactly these flowchart symbols.
Picture: Flowchart Symbols: Meaning and Examples
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ConceptDraw DIAGRAM software is a great assistant in electrical engineering and electrical design. It is efficient in creating ✔️ complex and simple electrical designs, ✔️ power generation, transmission, and distribution electrical schematics, ✔️ transformers diagrams, ✔️ electrical schematics with transformers
Picture: Electrical Symbols — Transformers and Windings
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Now, thanks to the new HR Flowcharts Solution, it become also ideal for designing HR Flowcharts and visually displaying the hiring process steps.
Picture: Hiring Process Steps
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Matrix organizational structure is one of the main forms of structures which is actively used by organizations to carry forth the functions of a company visually and effectively.
Now we have ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software extended with 25 Typical Orgcharts solution from the Management area of ConceptDraw Solution Park which will help easy represent matrix organizational structure of any degree of complexity.
Picture: Matrix Organization Structure
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It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, a bar or a gym, there are common concepts for any of them. One of those concepts is accounting, and to facilitate the work with the figures, you can use accounting flowchart symbols and create a clear and representative scheme. You can create flowchart for auditing, tax accounting and even for planning your own budget.
A graphical tool for displaying successive processes is flowchart. This method is mostly suited to represent an accounting process. The sequence of steps in the accounting process usually consists of standard accounting procedures, that can be depicted by using a minimal number of symbols, applied for the basic flowcharting. The advanced opportunity to create professional Accounting Flow charts is provided by ConceptDraw Accounting Flowcharts solution. It includes contains a library of accounting flowchart symbols used when drawing the accounting process flow.
Picture: Accounting Flowchart Symbols
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When thinking about the process of decision making, it's easy to imagine it as a pyramid. We will look at a three level pyramid model as an example. Operational decisions are first that come to mind, and it's the first level. Tactical and strategic decisions are the second and the third levels.
Pyramid (triangle) diagrams are used to show some hierarchical data. Because to the pyramid form of diagram, each diagram slice has a different width. The width of each segment depends on its hierarchical level.
The current image illustrates the model of information system types. Most graphically the model can be represented as a three level pyramid. The first level shows a system of transaction processing It is concentrated on operational tasks. The second level is devoted to tactical solutions of the information system management. And at least, the third level addresses strategy and represents the executive information system. This three level pyramid sample is supplied with the ConceptDraw Pyramid Diagrams solution from Marketing area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Picture: Pyramid Diagram
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How to describe the necessity of using network security devices and visually illustrate this information? Now, it's very easy thanks to the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM diagramming and vector drawing software extended with Network Security Diagrams Solution from the Computer and Networks Area of ConceptDraw Solution Park.
Picture: Network Security Devices
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