Diagrams drawn, not pasted

TL;DR:

• On the blackboard, DuckyHelper draws its diagrams as it explains, instead of pasting in photos or stock images.

• A drawn diagram can show just what matters, in the order you need it.

• Labels point at the parts they name.

When you ask how something works, the quickest answer to build is a picture lifted from somewhere else. The blackboard does not work that way. DuckyHelper draws its diagrams there itself, while it talks. This post covers why.

Pictures that explain

Think about a photograph of an engine. It shows an engine, but it shows everything in it at once, with all the parts the same weight, and most of them irrelevant to your question. You are left to work out where to look.

A drawn diagram can be made for the question. If you ask how air moves through an engine, the drawing can show the air path and leave out the rest. What you see is what the explanation needs, so nothing is there to distract you.

Drawing as it talks

The other advantage of drawing is time. A finished picture arrives all at once, and you have to take in the whole thing before the explanation starts. A drawn one grows with the explanation. DuckyHelper says what comes first and draws it, then says what comes next and draws that.

Because of that, the picture and the voice stay together. A part appears as it is mentioned, so you are not left looking at things that have not been explained yet. It is the way a teacher builds a drawing on a board, and it is why we call the surface a blackboard.

Labels that point

A diagram without labels is a puzzle, and one with labels crowded onto it is hard to read. On the blackboard, each label is placed beside its part with a thin line leading to it. The line is what ties the name to the thing, so there is no doubt which part is meant.

The board around them is drawn out in chalk, one line at a time, so a label reads as part of a teacher's drawing and not as a caption on a slide.

What this lets us do

• Match the question. The diagram shows the part you asked about, not a generic picture.

• Go in order. Parts appear when they are explained.

• Stay light. A few clear shapes and labels, not a dense image.

• Change course. If you ask a follow-up, the board can be redrawn or extended to fit it.

When a photo would be better

We do not think drawings win every time. If you need to know what a real object looks like, a picture of it helps. The blackboard is for explaining how and why, and for that, drawing is the better tool. For pointing at a place on your own screen, DuckyHelper draws there too, as described in why DuckyHelper draws on your screen.

An example

Say you ask how a seesaw balances. DuckyHelper draws a plank and a pivot, then puts a weight on one side and says what happens. It adds a second weight on the other side, draws a short arrow for each push, and labels the distance from the pivot. You see the idea assemble in the order it is spoken.

Nothing on that board was fetched from a library. Each shape was put there to make one point, and each point leads into the next. If you stop it and ask "what if the weight is further out?", the board can change to show exactly that.

Why this is a principle and not a style

We treat this as a design principle because it affects how well you understand. A picture that was made for your question can be as simple as the question allows. A found picture was made for someone else's question, and the mismatch is left for you to sort out.

What this means for you

Ask for the thing you want to understand, and expect to watch it get drawn. If a diagram is going too fast, say so and it will slow down and go step by step, which is the subject of the next post in this series, teaching one step at a time. You can try this in the 10 minutes you get to try DuckyHelper, with no card; see the download page.