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UX Atlas
ToolCraft conventionFoundational

Excalidraw

Deliberately rough-looking diagramming, which keeps early sketches from reading as decided.

Definition

An open-source sketching tool with a hand-drawn aesthetic. The visual roughness is functional: diagrams look provisional, which invites change rather than approval.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

Good for

  • Quick architecture sketches
  • Early flow diagrams
  • Embedding diagrams in documentation

Watch out for

Not suited to detailed or long-lived diagrams.

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

Nearby in the Atlas

Adjacent territory, found through shared tags rather than a stated link.