Design me some information

February 15, 2025 2:13 PM

Let’s say you are not especially analytical but you are expected to master a complicated decision flow anyway. Fortunately, someone you trust has volunteered to put the decision flow into a series of diagrams, flowcharts, or another design pattern of your choice. Which examples of information design would you point to as having been very helpful to you in the past?

I’m in an environment where most of the people explaining complicated decision processes are lawyers and members of other professions. Not surprisingly the result is suboptimal. I’d like to make things easier for the “kids” in the classroom.

posted by rabia.elizabeth to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Best answer: Whenever I need inspiration for complex data visualization, I like to peruse Information Is Beautiful. Here is a decision flow they did on solving the plastic crisis.
posted by oxisos at 2:51 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

previously
posted by memoryindustries at 3:02 PM on February 15 [1 favorite]

Long ago I used to like decision tables. You can put them in simple spreadsheets. There are two sections separated by a dividing line.

Above the line: conditions in column 1, such as 'it is red', 'it is a Dodge', 'it has a V8', etc.
Below the line: actions such as 'Buy the car', "Do not buy the car"

In the columns next to the conditions you would have 'Y' or 'N'
In the columns next to the actions you could have 'X' (take the action), or alternatively you could have numbers representing the order to take the actions

Hopefully here is a visual representation, if the fonts line up:

It is red__________|YYYYNNNN
It is a Dodge______|YYNNYYNN
It has a V8________|YNYNYNYN
==================================
Buy the car_______|____X___
Don't buy the car__|XXXX_XXX

There used to be software programs to read these from a text file, and generate a program, if you needed this decision flow to work on a computer. These days you could at least put it into a spreadsheet. The main problem is that you need 2^N columns for 'N' conditions.
posted by TimHare at 9:43 PM on February 15 [2 favorites]

One of the most common techniques for project management is the Gantt chart. There are plenty of apps that facillitate the process. It helps you focus on the order in which tasks have to be done and to create a timeline. It also helps you determine the critical path: the sequence of tasks that determine the shortest possible path to the end. Any delay on the critical path means a delay on the project.

So, if the big decision is whether we can get the new widget out the door in time for the Christmas season, Genre chart could be a big help.

A different kind of decision might be about probabilities. How sure are we to get funding? To find the warehouse space? To get the components delivered from China? You need to determine the order (sequence ) of key requirements and the dependencies so you can focus on the situations where multiple things have to go right in order to succeed.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:35 AM on February 16