Recommended by James Le and 539 others

Christina Wodtke Following

Designing business, and the business of design. www.eleganthack.com
Feb 12 9 min read

thinking about modeling, and modelingthinking

Five Models for Making Sense of

ComplexSystems
In the San Francisco Bay Area? Join me for a one day workshop on
Business Drawing for People Who Cant Draw
https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-and-
personal-development/visual-thinking-working-with-
pictures/20163_WSP-307

Registration open now!

In one of the classes I teach at CCA, students were confused by mental

models, conceptual models, concept maps, etc. I ended up drawing a
taxonomy for models on the whiteboard, and it may help others. This
post is for them rst, then you!

Admittedly, there is no worldwide agreement on these terms, because

humans make things and name them as they see t, often without
searching for previous work. UX Design (a.k.a. product design a.k.a.
interaction design a.k.a. information architecture etc etc) has a
tendency to name and rename things. Ambiguity is inevitable.
I live in hope of a controlled vocabulary for digital design.

By Scott Berinato, author of Good Charts, but drawn byme.

Lets start with this model of models by Scott Berinato, author of

Good Charts. The ve models we are about to explore are
exploratory/conceptual or exploratory/declarative models (or maps
or diagrams.) That means they are based in IDEAS not DATA. In
theory a MAP should document existing territory, and a MODEL
proscribe a new one. But hey, see above.

These ve diagrams are particularly useful for understanding complex

systems. This seems more important every day, as we are all
complexifying things full time.

This post will cover

Mind Maps, to gather your thoughts

Concept Maps, to organize your understanding

System Maps, to map the system (a tautology, but an accurate

one)

Mental Models, to understand and communicate your users

understanding

Concept models, to message a way to think about a complex

system
The rst two diagrams are exploratory, i.e. for ordering your thinking.
You can do this alone, or with your team. Of course, once youve
explored, you can tidy them up and make them explanatory.

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.

From Design Thinking Pioneer, Rolf Faste http://www.fastefoundation.org/publications/mind_mapping.pdf

You can use it to diagram contexts, take notes of readings, or just

wander from concept to concept in your head. You can make them on
a whiteboard with a team to create a shared vision of the world. You
can scribble them in a notebook to brainstorm. You can ask a potential
user of your product make one, so you can understand their
understanding more eectively (which is useful later, when we make
mental models.)
 I predominantly use mindmaps and ow charts to get an understanding of my research or game development
practice. Andrew Reid @AJReid93

Because Mind Maps are easy and have few rules about how to make
them, they are a great way to begin modeling a system.

From Rolf Fastes MindMapping article

The basic principles of mind mapping are:

1 Create a Center Statement.
2 Develop ideas radially outward.
3 Capture ideas quickly.
4 Use lines to show connections.
5 Create train-of-thought structures.
6 Follow an idea as far as it will go.
7 Work from the known to the unknown.
8 Return to the center when ideas are exhausted.
9 Increase density to create richness.
10 Avoid being judgmental.
11 Have fun with the form.

Even though MindMaps started as a simple way to get the stu in

your head out where you can see it, some people make them fancy
 From https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm

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

Concept Maps can be a powerful tool for helping a team understand

the space they are designing in. I had this model of Search on my
cubicle wall at Yahoo in 2002, and the engineers and I would use it to
discuss innovations and ferret out issues.
 http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps/understanding-internet-search.html by @mleacock

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.

System diagrams can encompass content or behavior. They can map

existing system, or document ones to be built.
 Battle.net UI by @StoneLibrande

When I was working at Blizzard I was making UI ow diagrams and I

noticed that a few engineers were hanging the documents on their walls
for reference.
-Stone Librande

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.

This is my favorite example ever.

 Map of your Grocery Store http://pleated-jeans.com/2012/11/29/a-map-of-your-grocery-store/

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.

If I was naming it, I would have called in the mental model/oering

analysis, but it is too late now. The cat is out of the bag.
 Because the internet was invented for cats http://indiyoung.com/cat-mental-model-diagram/

Concept Models

A conceptual model is an explanation, usually highly

simpli ed, of how something works. It doesnt have to
be complete or even accurate as long as it isuseful.

from The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and

ExpandedEdition

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.

Ive seen the concept model used several ways.

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/

Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin, draws concept models to

explain the world. The world is a messy complex system.
 by Dan Roam see more at http://www.danroam.com/visual-lessons-from-our-election/

You can also use Concept Models to explain processes

The double diamond approach to design

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/sites/default/ les/asset/document/ElevenLessons_Design_Council%20(2).pd
f
For TheTeam
You can use concept models inside your company, to communicate to
your team members how to visualize the system your are designing.

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.

BBC Weather Sitemap http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/11/bbc_weather_design_refresh.html

Most designers moved from making system models (complete) to
making concept models (core ideas) to message the key organizing
principles.

http://architecture.31bio.org/information-architecture-concept-model/

by Andrew Hinton, @inkblurt

Stone Librandes One Page Designs are concept models of game

design decisions. He makes posters for his team to create shared
understanding.
From @StoneLibrandes talk on One Page Designs

Here is a simple template to use.

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.

Concept Models can be super sexy

By Stephen P. Anderson http://www.poetpainter.com/thoughts/?

utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Or simple things you draw on the whiteboard

Bill Verplanks Model of Interaction Design

Learn How to Make a Concept Model in this article I wrote for Boxes
and Arrows.

a model for making concept models, byme.

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!

Model, Maps, Canvases

There are many more models and maps out there, and a new category
of interactive models, canvases. The ve models I have covered in this
article are just a handful of sensemaking tools we can use.
 A famous canvas by Alex Osterwalder. See the post-its!

For now, young designer, start with

Mind Maps to gather your thoughts

Concept Maps to organize your understanding

System Maps, to map the system

Mental Models to understand and communicate your users

understanding

Concept model to message a new way to think about a complex

system

Go draw, and make this wacky world make sense!

See also:

One Page Designs (mind blowing, I promise)(if you read this entire
article, that is)

Models, Maps and Canvases by Dave Gray