How to model state, flow, etc. using something more ‘engaging and trendy’ other than pretty diagrams?
- Using thought visualizations (2d) (This is different from the ‘data visualizations’ thingie which means bar graph, pie chart, etc)
- Using innovation games (full 3d; toys)
I refer this post: Making a game of agile
Why use ‘sequence diagrams’ and ‘state charts’ that are only two dimensional if you can use real world physical toys like trains and ferris wheels and attach post it notes to them (three dimensional, concrete model).
Example
A Train on a railroad = represent a sequence of actions that can move forward only when the leading task moves forward. Each task is dependent on the previous task to proceed.
Here are some of my scribbles from Oct 2010 intended for storyboarding and brainstorming sessions. I originally intended for them to be drawn on whiteboard while the Innovation Games company has gone a step further to realize them as concrete touchable objects: This allows the participants to ‘visualize’ processes and complex concepts much more kinesthetically using their psychomotor skills rather than having to form a mental pic in their heads to ‘get’ the visualization being discussed.
Cause-Effect
Goals and Strategy
Best practices of research project
Also on the line are ‘Lego meant for business’ product line (“SeriousPlay” product line)
as well as using the Ruby Goldberg-like contraptions to represent and model real world processes.
You can find more inspiration and ideas in Microsoft Word’s SmartArt and the Exploratree site and other sites listed below.
Microsoft Word SmartArt. Scroll down until you come to the table where it says ‘use this’ to ‘represent this’. Example: use ‘List’ to show non sequential information.
Interactive graphic organizers. The page gives you seed ideas like ‘Master-details’, ‘Conclusion chart’ where several premises lead to conclusion etc. This is actually intended as a teaching aid.
Exploratree’s ready-made thinking guides. This is a research project from Microsoft Research. They call this readymade thinking guides where they provide you with the framework for ‘in-the-box’ thinking so now your thinking can be directed towards putting contents in-place.
Thought Visualizations/Concept Illustrations
You can get more resources if you google for ‘template thinking maps’.