As an instructional designer, I am on the constant lookout to find ways of visualizing information in 2D, 3D, 4D, etc. The value in visualization is that one may surface new ideas. Further, one may convey ideas in somewhat fresh ways. A new visual conceptualization method enables doodling around with ideas that may surface new insights.

Recently, I came across a graduate thesis by a student writer who clearly had fallen for fishbone diagrams. She used these visuals excessively, even when they did not particularly add more to the narration. She repeated information from the text in her visuals, which did not necessarily add further insights. She published her work in regular portrait format, but she had plenty of fishbone diagrams in landscape layout. In other words, she dedicated whole pages to showcase some visuals in that work.

What are Fishbone Diagrams?

Fishbone diagrams aka Ishikawa diagrams after Kaoru Ishikawa’s popularization of these visuals in 1943 illuminate causal relationships that lead to particular effects. These 2D images are read from left to right. The “spine” is a left-to-right arrow that leads to a certain effect. Arrows on the core spine show the factors that lead to the cause and those that “prevent” or hinder movement towards the cause.

These have traditionally been used to represent relationships. They are also used for analysis and problem-solving. Plenty of visuals of these are available online, with a variety of lightness of thought in some cases and depth of analysis in others.

A Visual-Sensual Perception

While I started this entry sounding maybe a little skeptical about such wholehearted enthusiasm for one form of visual representation, I will own up to being sufficiently enamored of this form of visual communication to stay late and create my own first fishbone diagram. As a person who generally likes to convey complexity (because the real world contains plenty of complexity), my first diagram was actually very simple and didn’t much represent visual fishbones. Had I had more time, I would have thought more deeply and tried to represent the relationships with more complexity and depth.

The building of the diagram added some fresh insights for me, but there were no earthshaking ones. After some thought, I decided to submit that image along with others for a work that has been accepted into a forthcoming publication later this year.

This image will enable readers to visualize dynamics that would not be as obvious in a non-image format. This image could encourage some rumination and introspection that might not occur otherwise. This image could increase memory retention.

The Full Potential of the Form

It will take more iterations and plenty more practice before I can actually fully exploit this visual form, but I fully intend to. In a world of ideas, words can only take one so far. Visuals can only take one so far. The smart mix of these various elements though can add potency that these elements could not as stand-alones. There is something very engaging about representations of information, and that fascination is carried forward with fishbone diagrams. (While entries in this blog are mostly textual, all chapters I write have visuals. If people only knew how long it could take to create a visual, they would understand why a quick blog entry is mostly text alone.)