ABSTRACT
Diagrams, such as maps, charts, graphs, and widely used as cognitive tools to promote memory and information processing, serving a variety of situated roles. One reason for the effectiveness of diagrams is that they map real or conceptual elements and relations to graphic elements and spatial relations in diagrammatic space. Diagrams, such as maps, charts, graphs, and widely used as cognitive tools to promote memory and information processing, serving a variety of situated roles. They offload limited capacity working memory; they promote the use of space in inference and reasoning, they provide common ground for collaborative design. Diagrams can be used to organize and convey information and instructions, as in route maps and assembly directions. Diagrams can also function to aid inference and promote creativity. The goal is to come up with new ideas, ideas not anticipated by the designer of the diagram. In both cases, diagrams are inevitably replete with ambiguity. In the former, context disambiguates, instilling clarity and avoiding confusion.
