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Diagramming at the speed of thought

By Olle Fahlén

Updated 27 Sept 2025

Published 08 Sept 2025

Why is it that drawing diagrams and keeping them updated are such a hassle? Today's tools always get in the way by being too slow and too complex, forcing you to focus on visual details like positioning relation lines and resizing boxes. Drawing diagrams should be about conveying ideas. A diagramming tool should therefor be supporting you in that journey by automating all repetetive and boring tasks. Fast, intuitive diagramming unlocks creativity, speeds up iteration and therefor improves communication. When it is easy to draw diagrams, they stay relevant and guide better decisions. Making it easy to draw diagrams allows everyone to contribute and that will make diagrams being living assets that drive continuous improvement.

The importance of diagrams

Diagrams are not just illustrations. They are a language to simplify and communicate complex ideas. By drawing a diagram you can transform abstract ideas to concret visual information that can be shared with others. Patterns, relationships, and processes become easier to grasp visually than through text alone, reducing cognitive overload and the chance of misinterpretation.

Diagrams also improve decision-making, problem-solving and planning. They are invaluable when it comes to visualizing workflows, processes and relationships¹.

The challenge of drawing diagrams

Drawing diagrams is deceptively difficult. It might seem easy at a first glance, just draw some boxes, connect them with some lines and put in some text. The real challenge lies in making the diagram clear and precise enough, so that it can be used to share your thoughts and ideas with others.

The act of diagramming is about translating complex and fuzzy ideas into a visual structure that others can quickly grasp. Some of the challenges you will need to handle are:

• Balancing abstraction vs. detail: If a diagrams contains too much detail it will most likely be cluttered and hard to understand. Contrary, if it contains too little detail it will loose meaning.
• Evolution of ideas vs. static diagrams: A diagram is per definition a snapshot of a past state. The only method to avoid making diagrams too static is to keep them updated.
• Planned layout vs. ad-hoc placement: A diagram isn't just a collection of boxes and lines; it's a spatial representation of relationships and hierarchies. Before you start drawing a complex diagram you need a sense of how boxes relates to each other and how the viewer will read the diagram. Trying to keep the diagram in your head before drawing it is almost always gonna fail. What you would want to do is just place boxes ad-hoc and reposition them as the diagram grows. Unfortunatly no tool supports this way of work.

The cost of bad tooling

Today's diagramming tools might seem powerful. They give you a thousands shapes, templates and formatting options. They are trying to be the do-it-all tool that makes everybody happy. They give you the freedom to draw whatever you want. But just looking at all options given to you might make you tired.

Here are some of the costs of fighting the tool:

• Lost time: Hours spent nudging shapes, fixing relation lines and resizing elements.
• Broken concentration: Constant interruptions pull you out of “flow” and slow down creative or analytical thinking.
• Reduced clarity: Energy goes into layout and aesthetics rather than improving the logic and meaning of the diagram.
• Discouraged iteration: Making changes feels costly, so you avoid experimenting or refining ideas.
• Shallow outcomes: Diagrams may look polished but fail to capture depth and intent.
• Frustration and fatigue: The tool feels like a barrier, it is draining motivation and making diagramming feel like a chore.

The cost is not just wasted time, it’s lost clarity. When tools force attention onto alignment, resizing and routing, they pull attention away from what you want to convey. The result is that diagrams often end up neat-looking but shallow, optimized for appearance rather than understanding. They will also just be a snapshot of a paste state that is not valid anymore.

Our solution

Our solution aism to remedy most of the classic pain points of today's diagramming tools.

Relationships

Our algorithm takes care of relationship lines for you! The relationship lines arranges themselfs whenever needed to optimize the readability of the diagram. This means much faster diagramming, fewer erros and more consistent diagrams no matter how complex the they get.

The algorithm's main purpose is to keep diagrams clear and readable. This means that the algorithm must prioritize:

• Avoid crossings: The algorithm aims to avoid crossings of relationship lines if possible.
• Visually pleasing: To make the diagram as neat and readable as possible the algorithm optimizes for a balanced and symmetric relationship lines.
• Optimally using the space: It also tries to make use of the available space as much as possible. The relation lines should neither be too close or too far away from each other.

Elements

We think you should have the power to position the elements. Allowing you to arrange your diagram as you see fit. Repositioning elements gets much easier when you do not have to waste time on adjusting relationship lines.

There are some tedious tasks that we think you need help with though:

• Alignment of elements: Make elements automatically align horizontally or vertically to each other to make the diagram neat.
• Inflating diagrams: Expanding space between elements to create room for more content or just to create some breathing room and reduce visual clutter.
• Deflating diagrams: Condense spacing to fit more into view, helping you see the whole picture without endless panning.
• Automatic layout: Instantly reorganize a messy diagram into a clear, structured layout, giving you a strong starting point you can refine.

Texts

The easier it is to write, the easier it is to think. When text flows naturally, diagramming becomes part of the way you design. With our solution, users can focus completely on what they want to express.

• Positioning: Texts associated with relationships will be automatically positioned for maximum readability.
• Line breaking: Texts will always be automatically wrapped for optimal readability.
• Autocompleting: Texts can be autocompleted to speed things up. It cuts out repetitive typing so you can focus on the ideas instead of syntax and phrasing.
• Context-aware assisting: By leveraging the power of AI that understands the context of your diagram, it can automatically suggest a lot of the text content for you. It knows what kind of element you’re editing, what it connects to, and how it fits into the bigger picture. That means smarter suggestions that match intent, reduce errors, and help keep diagrams consistent.

Benefits

Rapid idea capture

Diagramming at the speed of thought enables quick externalization of thoughts and ideas. It becomes easy to brainstorm by allowing spontaneous editing of diagrams, fostering new angles and solutions.

Improved comprehension

Clear and correct diagrams simplifies complexity, which allows stakeholders to gain understanding much faster³.

Enhanced collaboration

Fast diagramming encourages active participation from all team members. Letting everybody to see and build on each others work. Being able to draw more diagrams reduces communication barriers and drives consensus faster.

Better problem-solving and decision-making

Being able to create and update diagrams fast as thoughts occur increases agility in exploring and refining solutions. Issues and bottlenecks are surfaced earlier in the design process and solutions and trade-offs are easier visualized which improves decision-making.

Greater creativity

Quick diagram iteration supports non-linear thinking which enables more flexible exploration of ideas and solutions.

Increased productivity

Productivity rises if teams can iterate diagrams quickly which makes it easier to adapt to feedback or changing requirements without unnessecary delays.

Summary

Diagrams aren’t just about showing a past state of your software system. Diagrams are also about visualizing the future. They can excel in supporting both your thought process and facilitating discussions in your team. They help you visualize, explore and refine ideas and gives you and your team a deeper understanding, better alignment and faster iteration throughout the design and development process.

But for diagrams to truly reach their potential, you need the right tooling and practices: ones that make them effortless to create, easy to maintain, and naturally integrated into your team’s workflow. When diagrams are kept up-to-date, they become living information that evolves with the software system.