# 3 Why do people use diagrams?

Influences on how we perceive diagrams

A few people find diagrams unhelpful; but many people who regularly use words find the discipline of conveying ideas in diagrammatic form both sharpens their understanding of the ideas and opens their eyes to alternative views. Diagrams are, like words, intensely personal ways of sharing information and seeing someone else's ideas in diagrammatic form can give a new view of what they are trying to communicate. Diagrams can also suggest new and unexpected relationships between ideas about a situation and new and unexpected ways of moving forward in a situation.

OpenLearn - Systems diagramming
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