In short, all your choices and connections are organized for just when you need it. Other choices are not in the way. Rather than an overloaded mess of details, you have the connections and proximity in pure form. Uncluttered.

The Historical Parallel…

Let’s first agree that Linguistics and Design are quite separate specialties, right down to the type of person who undertakes them. In a nutshell, let’s say little picture / big picture people. Additionally, I would be surprised if the study of Linguists included how to improve the study of Linguistics itself. Grammar grids are their tool. From their perspective, grids get the job done. No change needed. No shade.

A brief history of the first subway map – the London Tube map.

Once upon a time, a cartographer’s job was to catalog terrain and accurately reproduce it. The groundbreaking London Tube subway map – just colored lines and abstract angles, utterly lacking in scale – was bizarre and radical at the time. It was NOT the work of a cartographer, but an electrical draftsman. It even looks a bit electrical.

The very first subway maps, made by the Cartographers:

Before the famous London Tube subway map, Cartographers provided subway maps as:

• isolated stations
• on a huge, crowded map
• each with highly detailed surroundings
• that require you to memorize the interchanges at each station (or use a secondary look-up table)
• then piece together the best route through mental juggling.

The first Tube map subtracted many things a cartographer thought were necessities (like distance and scale). There was a scuffle along the lines of “you can’t improve on a map – it’s perfection” and “who are YOU to make a map!” It is an interesting historical sidenote for you to pursue if you like.

The Grammar Grids Made By Linguists

Linguists are cartographers of language. They “need” grammar grids. That’s how they study it and communicate with their peers. Furthermore, studying the details and intricacies of language is quite exciting to them, so what better way to is there than lay out the dissection.

As cartographers, Linguists provide grammar learning materials as:

• isolated parts of speech
• in a large array of crowded tables
• then discuss the surrounding speech with great detail
• and require you to memorize the interchanges at each part of speech
• From that, you are expected to quickly form a correct sentence through mental juggling.

As did the cartographers in London, a Linguist might also think, “Ha! You can’t improve that – it’s perfection!” And, of course, “who do you think YOU are!” VisiGrammar, too, takes away the linguistic “necessities” (like terminology and standard organization).

Result of “Doing It Wrong”

Understand the map system, and you can travel independently around the German language, just as you would the subway. Through restructuring and editing, both the London Tube Map and VisiGrammar are more useful than what came before. To this day, NO ONE prefers to navigate the subway with a cartographic atlas. 

Common Thinking of the Old Ways

“These are the tools of the trade, and this is how to use them.”

Categories and labels are how to understand something complex.

It’s factual, without an intrinsic connection being expressed.

Each element is surrounded by (and therefore isolated by) overwhelming detail.

Users must memorize the interchanges of a complex system.

Users need “the right path” quickly, but have no way to confirm it.

No Shade on Academic Linguistics Folks

I get it… they love language. That’s nice, too. They use those grids. It’s not for torture of students lol.