Graphic Modeling: Visual Thinking for Researchers, Innovators, and Strategists

Kilian Krug
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read

How working visually and mapping abstract topics systemically will help you to master complexity.

Exchange knowledge and collaborate successfully in interdisciplinary teams.
Reflect on complex topics, focus, and present your research and ideas vividly.
Design, prototype, and develop successful services and innovative products.


Firstly, what do I mean by a model? Very generally speaking, a model is a simplified representation of something, manufactured for a specific purpose. It is highlighting or even exclusively displaying relevant features.

Models serve to conceptualize, convey or even generate knowledge and ideas. They are used in product development as well as in science communication. Simple examples are a prototype of a product in development, a DNA model in a natural history museum, the first sketch of your future house, or a business strategy map. Knowing how to work with models helps in note-taking as well as in reflection, collaboration, and presentations.

The something represented by a model may be an object, a process or a system. Since the quality of a model lies in its practical value for a very specific purpose, the purposeful reduction to only the relevant features is most essential: a good model must be as detailed as necessary, and as simple as possible.

Example: An escape plan of a building highlights all exits and your current position, while intentionally not showing any details of the building, which would be distracting in an emergency. It won’t tell you where to find a certain office, while a plan for another purpose might want to tell you exactly this. Also, the escape plan differs completely from the 3-dimensional architectural models, which were used during the design and development of exactly the same building. Each of those models represents the building perfectly by emphasizing different aspects depending on the model’s specific purpose.

“All models are wrong but some are useful.” — George E.P. Box, statistician

A diagnosis support tool employing graphic models inspired by doctors’ mental models (ada.com, pluralnet.de)

Mental models: To deal with the world out mind uses knowledge, concepts and preconceptions. Like all models, also those stored in our minds need to be useful — not necesarily detailed or accurate. They don’t even need to be correct. Often knowing a simple causal relationship suffices. (»If I push this button, the lights will turn on.«) In other cases, as in the operation of a nuclear power plant, a more detailed understanding of interrelations is desirable. Mental models can be very complex, interconnected and even irrational. To weed out inconsistencies in your own thinking, you can use graphic models to prototype your ideas and concepts.

Prototyping: Models can serve as early representations of a product which is still in development. They are invaluable tools in constructive creation, helping to test materials, usability, or aesthetic value from different angles — and to get valuable feedback. Systemic prototypes on the other hand can address intangible aspects of products or services, as for example underlying processes or organizational structures. Systemic graphic models are useful for example in design sprints, design thinking workshops, or service design.

From research to innovation: Graphic models can help to facilitate complex thinking processes or collaborative concept development. They are great tools to structure and restructure information, complex thoughts and first ideas. They enable to take a step back to contemplate the bigger picture, to approach the topic from different angles, and to remodel it. Graphic Modeling helps to evaluate and rethink concepts, processes, and systems. They help to communicate ideas and work on complex projects collaboratively.

Examples: Research, collaborative innovation, science communication

Strategic modeling: In a strategy process, Graphic Modeling is the link between structurally analyzing the actual state (how something is) and deciding on the target state (how something ought to be): as a creative and constructive method it helps to explore how something could be by mapping out different hypotheses. The result will be a first blueprint for later on communicating the strategy and managing its implementation.

Examples: Company structures, service processes, partner relations

Presentation posters, condensing complex law research to thoughtfully reduced models (mpil.de, pluralnet.de)

How to start? Identify the elements most relevant to you, for example by text marking them in a concept paper. Put all the information and your ideas on paper. Sort them by trying different categories and also redefining those categories by rethinking their criteria. Depending on your topic, use a graphic model of a process, i.e. a timeline of a workflow, of an interrelated system, i.e. a chart sketching different types of relations in a company or team, or place everything into a coordinate system (try different coordinates and see which work best). Also, you can start by trying various basic types of information visualization, i.e. for quantitative or geographic comparison.

How to proceed? Enrich the map, add third-level information, define areas, and establish different types of connections. Let the content grow more complex, and don’t hesitate to combine several visualization types (wisely). To shift your perspective start over. The point of Graphic Modeling is to create and explore various alternative models.

Mapping: Putting the elements you have (pieces of information, data, thoughts, notions, ideas) on paper means putting them into a first structure, which automatically creates visual relations by closeness, visual similarity etc. When you write or draw, you can’t help but put all elements into some order and to structure the format: You are creating a first ›layout‹. If you know how to employ colors, shapes, sizes, etc thoughtfully, you will be able to add many dimensions to your 2-dimensional map.

Create constellations: The visual logic appearing after ›throwing‹ everything on paper might still be unintentional to some extent. But when looking at the arrangement, the visual constellation will ask you and others in your team to rearrange and to reorganize relations, until they make sense. Then try alternative ways of making sense.


Use Graphic Models to facilitate analytic, constructive and creative processes. Visualization of thoughts and concepts will help you to explore alternative hypotheses. They will help you to not unintentionally throw out or forget important, integral parts, and also not to add things that don’t really fit or that disturb or unbalance the whole. Any designer’s virtue, to balance complexity and simplicity, will be a driving force throughout the process.

“Thinking means comparing.” — Walter Rathenau


An earlier version of this text was published in the ›Guide Book‹ (PDF download) of the Gdynia Design Days 2018.

Kilian Krug

Written by

Usability consultant, system designer and information architect. I facilitate Graphic Modeling workshops for researchers, strategists, and innovators.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade