An exploration into the visual aspects of roadmaps: the views from a panel of experts

Abstract

Roadmapping is an established and popular method for strategic planning. Its strength is often characterised in terms of the visual way in which it can embody future plans and present pathways to realising an organisation's vision. However, although a roadmap is a visual management tool, the visual aspects from a graphic design perspective have been largely overlooked. In order to explore this perspective, a panel of experts was brought together for a research workshop which consisted of a focus group activity and a visual critique. The focus group elicited the good versus bad visual features of roadmap visualisations. This was followed by a critique exercise where a sample set of representative roadmaps were examined in terms of their structural layout, graphical objects and population with content. These roadmaps were also empirically assessed (scored and ranked) to give an indication of their 'visual design goodness'.

Mapping Stakeholder Engagement Needs in Early-Stage System Development Process

“…The aim of the study is to refine the proposed tool that can be used by practitioners. The attractiveness of exploring the usage of visual representations for earlystage system development is that using diagrams has the advantage of making the invisible relationships apparent (Kazmierczak, 2001), improving perception of system relationships (Logan et al, 2018), preventing cognitive inertia, and mobilising actions (Kerr and Phaal, 2017). The remaining of the paper is as follows.…”