A small set of conventions for text, colour, arrows, shapes and line styles, each with one fixed meaning.
The visual design of explanations is very important to this blog.
Understanding how best to visualise abstract concepts in computation and science for as many non-technically trained readers as possible has always been an interesting challenge.
The process of discovering this visual translation of concepts is a design question, and the design is still evolving.
This post gives an outline of the visual design grammar used throughout this blog, at present. However, it’s likely that there is still a lot to change and learn!
In this sense, this font choice also intended to draw the reader into the discussion more as an active participant in the narrative, instead of a bystander to a technical exposition.
Excalidraw. n.d.
“Excalidraw Whiteboard.” Excalidraw.
https://excalidraw.com/.
Google Fonts. n.d.
“Comic Relief.” Google Fonts.
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Comic+Relief.
Hardwick, Robert J. 2025.
“Why no mathematical symbols?” umbralcalculations, November.
https://umbralcalc.github.io/posts/why_no_mathematical_symbols.html.
Hardwick, Robert J. 2026a.
“What do dashes and dots mean?” umbralcalculations, November.
https://umbralcalc.github.io/posts/what_do_dashes_and_dots_mean.html.
Hardwick, Robert J. 2026b.
“What do the arrows mean?” umbralcalculations, November.
https://umbralcalc.github.io/posts/what_do_the_arrows_mean.html.
Hardwick, Robert J. 2026c.
“What do the colours mean?” umbralcalculations, November.
https://umbralcalc.github.io/posts/what_do_the_colours_mean.html.
Hardwick, Robert J. 2026d.
“What do the shapes mean?” umbralcalculations, November.
https://umbralcalc.github.io/posts/what_do_the_shapes_mean.html.
Larkin, Jill H., and Herbert A. Simon. 1987.
“Why a Diagram Is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words.” Cognitive Science 11 (1): 65–100.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6708.1987.tb00863.x.
Tufte, Edward R. 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd ed. Graphics Press.