How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert

Chapter 3: Face Reality | Page 61

Rhetoric matters.

Rhetoric is communication designed to have a persuasive effect on its audience.

Here are some common rhetorical reasons for making diagrams and maps:

• Reflection: Point to a future problem (e.g., a map of a local landfill’s size in the past, present, and projected future).
• Options: Show something as it could be (e.g., a diagram showing paths a user could take to set up an application).
• Improvements: Show something as it should be (e.g., a diagram pointing out opportunities found during user research).
• Identification: Show something as it once was or is today (e.g., a map of your neighborhood).
• Plan: Show something as it will be (e.g., a map of your neighborhood with bike lanes).

Chapter 6: Play with Structure | Page 135

The way you organize things says a lot about you.

Classifying a tomato as a vegetable says something about what you know about your customers and your grocery store. You would classify things differently if you were working on a textbook for horticulture students, right?

How you choose to classify and organize things reflects your intent, but it can also reflect your worldview, culture, experience, or privilege.

Those same choices affect how people using your taxonomy understand what you share with them.

Taxonomies serve as a set of instructions for people interacting with our work.

Taxonomy is one of the strongest tools of rhetoric we have. The key to strong rhetoric is using language, rules and structures that your audience can easily understand and use.