Understanding Is Relational

You can only understand something relative to something you already understand.

New information lands when it connects to existing knowledge. Without that connection, it floats, unanchored, quickly forgotten.

Wurman’s example: telling someone an acre equals 6,272,640 square inches conveys nothing. Saying an acre is about the size of an American football field (without the end zones) creates understanding, because most people can visualize a football field.

Design implication: Start from what your audience knows. Build bridges to new concepts. The familiar is the foundation for the unfamiliar.

Teaching implication: Analogies and examples aren’t decoration. They’re the mechanism by which understanding transfers.

AI implication: When explaining technical concepts, ground them in the user’s domain. The same concept might need different anchors for different audiences.

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