Aliens Use Notecards

My childhood understanding of baseball is getting in the way of my understanding of the game as a whole. So…I had to do something drastic! I scrapped my previously learned knowledge for a while, and approached the problem as if I was a complete novice. We'll call it the, ‘what-if-I-were-an-alien-from-another
-planet-coming-to-the-earth-for-the-first-time’ approach.

So I sat down with the Official rules from MLB.com, some 3x5 note cards, and my new set of colored pens (Mmm...colors), and did the first thing that came to mind… I translated each rule, line-by-line, from incomprehensible verbal gibber-jabber to something that made more sense to me – a small diagram of each rule, broken into chunks; a verbal and visual sketch. I used circles to isolate main ideas, mostly nouns, and arrows to indicate actions or causality. Now, at a glance, I can understand each rule, as well as rearrange and group the rules for further analysis.

For example:

Rule 7.01:

A runner acquires the right to an unoccupied base when he touches it before he is out. He is then entitled to it until he is put out, or forced to vacate it for another runner legally entitled to that base. If a runner legally acquires title to a base, and the pitcher assumes his pitching position, the runner may not return to a previously occupied base.

Huh?

Right... So with as little 'thought' as possible, I broke up the sentences into chunks:

A runner ... acquires the right to ... an unoccupied base ... when he ... touches it ... before he is ... out. He ... is then entitled to ... it ... etc.

and then created a diagram using simple notations for clarity:

The first sentence of the rule is reflected in the first line of the diagram. This is the dominant, and most important part of the rule.

The second sentence is the second line of the diagram, where I used a split-arrow to reflect the two instances in which the runner looses the right to a base; one of the two instances must occur, but both may not occur.

The third sentence, while necessary in a complete list of rules, is intuitive and including it when explaining the game to a novice would do more to confuse (by having too much information) than it would to add clarity, so it was not included.

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For rules that have multiple stipulations, I diagrammed the main sentence of the rule to the left of the note card, and then each lettered stipulation to the right. Multiple letters are included on a card.

For example:

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I considered color-coding the elements of the diagrams to further enhance the clarity of the information, but ultimately decided that doing so would be too complex and time-consuming for a sketch. I plan to incorporate color and additional visual cues into a later step in the design process.

1/20/2005