'''Name''' 	Illustrations Clarify Text

'''Problem''' 

Often in technical documentation, diagrams
and other forms of illustration are either ambiguous or
poorly placed (i.e. hard to locate in reference to text).
These illustrations can distract and complicate ideas rather
than clarify them, making your document difficult to read.

'''Context'''

You find a need to summarize or visualize
an idea that text cannot do justice to.  At some point,
you may envision a picture taking the place of text, or
text providing the ''roadmap'' to the picture.

'''Forces'''

Pictures should fit on one page.  Pictures
should not be dense and too busy.  Pictures should not overwhelm
text.  They should complement text.

'''Solution'''

Avoid rampant use of figures and tables.
They are difficult to place in a document and will often 
require a reader to flip several page forward or backward
from the referencing text.

Keep diagrams simple.  If they require more than a paragraph
or two to explain them, break them up into multiple diagrams.
A diagram should not occupy too much of the reader's time.

Choose diagrams that can stand in for text.  Consider
developing diagrams that summarize or convey the
guts of a body of text. Diagrams are great for perusing or
providing a way for a reader to skim your document.

Try embedding your pictures or diagrams within the body
of the referencing text.  Make the diagram part of the text.
That way you don't have to force the reader to ''refer''
to a diagram and lose his or her place in the text.

'''Resulting Context'''

Your document becomes easier (and more pleasurable)
to read.  You may find your diagrams as 'quotable' as
your text.  

In EnvisioningInformation, Edward Tufte writes:

'' In 1613, when Galileo published the first telescopic observations of Saturn,''
'' word and drawing were as one. The stunning images, never seen before,''
'' were just another sentence element. ''
'' Saturn, a drawing, a word, a noun.  ''
'' The wonderful becomes familiar and the familiar wonderful. ''

http://www.nineplanets.org/gif/Saturn.jpg

See ArchitectsOnBlueprints

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-- ToddCoram
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I would love to see some of your examples!

I have created over 100 single page illustrations in the past 4 years, some were useful some were not.  I'm still learning when a picture can be effective and when to spend time on something else.  I have posted 2 of them on ArchitecturePictures, I'm also using AnimatedArchitecture to communicate movement in systems. --PaulCaswell