Many people believe that design is about how things look. Is a laptop, logo, or coffee mug pink or green, classic or contemporary, dumpy or sleek? Designers will tell you that design goes way deeper than appearances. Design is about thinking. It’s about strategy and structure and systems.

Yet thinking itself often takes a visible form. Many people do their best thinking with a pen, pencil, or keyboard. By making ideas visible, we make them concrete, giving thought an understandable shape. From quick sketches to detailed blueprints, visualization is an essential tool for thinking. It’s also a tool for communicating. A project team creating a new software application might compile a wall of PostIt notes to collaborate and brainstorm. Teachers use chalkboards to explain how a bill becomes a law, and kids learn to add and subtract by drawing pictures of apples and oranges. With that in mind–and in sight–here are four visibility principles for organization.

Show, don’t tell. A sign saying “Show, don’t tell” hangs in my daughter’s fifth-grade classroom. Generations of writers have embraced this slogan, learning to build an argument or tell a story using concrete actions and images rather than disembodied abstractions. (“The dog wagged his tail” trumps “The dog was happy.”) Thinking and communicating with examples that people can see–whether through literal pictures or mental ones–works better than trafficking in generalized “objectives,” “goals,” and other corporate vagaries.

See and be seen. Work is a social activity. Even writers, whose work requires periods of sacred isolation (fifteen minutes is often all we can find), also crave the buzz and jangle of people and public places. Everyone values some degree of privacy, but in today’s workspaces, people are increasingly visible to each other, not only through direct contiguity (Sheila’s desk is next to Fred’s desk) but also through social media and networked devices.

Out of sight, out of mind…for a while. The stuff sitting on Alicia Cheng’s desk and hanging on her wall is stuff she wants to keep in mind and find easily. The problem is, many of us post photos and reminders on our bulletin boards and soon stop looking at them. Eventually, even materials staring you in the face become invisible, fading into the background like a pee-stained rug. A vital personal workspace is constantly changing, inspiring you to keep looking.

Make a list. (You’re reading one.) Lists are one of the oldest genres of written communication. Long before people wrote down poetry, they were keeping track of flocks of sheep and bales of hay. Freeform and non-linear, lists are quick to make and easy to absorb. The act of writing a list helps you kick-start your memory and ignite new ideas. To-do lists are interactive: we often put things on lists for the sheer pleasure of crossing them out.

This week, Ellen Lupton is exploring the Visibility Principle. Whether you manage a big office or run your own show from home, you can use it to enhance your productivity.

Related:
Introducing Guest Blogger Ellen Lupton: Welcoming Design Into Our Daily Lives