Let Placement Do the Talking

You've seen this diagram before. Boxes everywhere, arrows crossing arrows, and your finger hovering over the page as you trace one line through the tangle to figure out what leads to what. By the time you find the answer, you've forgotten the question. The diagram contained all the right information, it just made you work too hard to get it.

There's a simpler way to show that two things are connected, and it doesn't require a single arrow: put them next to each other.

The Principle: Proximity

Proximity is the design principle that objects placed close together are perceived as belonging together. Distance reads as separation; nearness reads as relationship. When you align connected items across the columns of a logic model (placing an activity directly beside the output it produces, and that output next to the outcome it feeds) the reader's eye flows left to right without effort. The arrows can quiet down, because placement is already doing the talking.

Why It Works

Proximity is one of the Gestalt principles, patterns first described by psychologists studying how the human visual system organizes what it sees. Grouping by nearness happens automatically, before conscious thought. Tracing an arrow, by contrast, is effortful work: your eye has to follow the line, hold its starting point in working memory, and confirm where it lands. Every crossed arrow adds to that load. Placement asks nothing of the reader; arrows ask for attention they could be spending on your content.

A study published in the American Journal of Evaluation put this to the test. Researchers redesigned a real program's logic model using a small set of visualization principles (proximity among them) by moving connected items close to one another across columns so the model read in a simple left-to-right flow, with less emphasis on the arrows. Nearly 300 people were randomly assigned to view either the original or the redesigned model. Those who saw the redesign answered comprehension questions more accurately, spent less time reviewing the model, found it more credible, and rated it better looking. The whole redesign took under 30 minutes in PowerPoint.

Caption: Nothing was added to the right-hand panel; no lines, borders, or arrows. Spacing alone creates the groups. That automatic grouping is the Gestalt principle of proximity.

Caption: In the study, proximity was applied alongside other changes — color coding and reduced visual clutter — so the gains reflect the combined redesign rather than proximity alone. But the alignment shown here is the move that lets the arrows recede.

Try It on Your Next Model

Before you add another arrow, try moving things instead. Line up each activity with its output, and each output with its outcome. If two items are related, close the distance between them; if they're not, let the space say so. Then look at your arrows; most of them can shrink, fade, or disappear, because the layout now carries the relationships. Your reader shouldn't have to trace your logic. If you've placed things well, they'll simply see it.

Reference

Jones, N. D., Azzam, T., Wanzer, D. L., Skousen, D., Knight, C., & Sabarre, N. (2020). Enhancing the effectiveness of logic models. American Journal of Evaluation, 41(3), 452–470.