One of the devices we use often when explaining complex concepts, processes or technologies is the so-called “Hero Graphic” – a diagrammatic visualization of a business model or process. A successful diagram can telegraph information at a glance that would otherwise require pages or explanation.
Hero Graphics are often called for when a new business is forming and a complex business model or process needs to be portrayed on the Home Page of its website. They can come in many shapes, sizes, and styles, and can represent anything from a simple overlap of two elements to an elaborately detailed process flow.
In addition to pure communication, many clients lust for an amazing rendering that can pull peoples’ eyeballs out from their sockets. This is a worthy goal, but should not come at the expense of clarity.
Attracting attention is important but what do you do with that attention after you got it? Most diagrams will get noticed by virtue of being a lone picture standing out in a crowd of words. How will this thing contribute to communicating your premise and sell your business?
When developing Hero Graphics, I believe it’s best to start with pencil and paper. It’s unglamorous, but we need to establish the bone structure first before applying the makeup and jewelry. The drawing should be simple enough to draw on a whiteboard while standing in front of your most challenging future client. When your prospect goes to the website and finds the “fancy” version, the structural essence and your explanation should ring true.
From there, the process requires more drawing, more input from associates who know the business as well as or better than the designer and testing ideas with key customers. It’s also critical to establish the key words and concepts and organize the flow: left to right, top to bottom, or outside to inside is also critical.
Most diagrams fall into two camps: sequential process or orbital onion. The sequential process is more time-obvious and depicts stages within a flow; the advantage is being able to show overlaps, simultaneous functions and other features that language can’t explain as easily. The orbital onion is like an atomic model where a nucleus is surrounded by layers or orbits of elements contributing to a core; the focus can be inward, outward or both.
Some examples:
Kavi is the leading provider of enterprise-class solutions for standard-setting organizations This simple diagram depicts Kavi’s highly scalable infrastructure and set of management services that allows them to efficiently serve a large number of organizations, manage their security, monitor site performance, and back up their data and content.
DoubleClick needed a diagram to show the interrelatedness of its services that surround its customer base. The use of translucency on the three colored rings shows how the primary services are woven together.
In 1999, SlamDunk needed a way to show how they send and receive complex business messages across a global network in less than 4 seconds. The process is bracketed by two hands throwing one of the company’s icons, a red ball.
MetaJustice handles the distribution of sensitive security information. Using simple icons and carefully applied color tones, the chart becomes engaging without being overpowering.
This graphic represents the research and analysis processes behind the Emerging Consumer Consortium, an initiative studying changes in consumer needs, attitudes and behaviors during the current economic crisis. The use of overlapping and narrowing arrow shapes infers a methodical process where each stage builds upon the previous and refines the data to reveal definitive results.
