The Curve Is a Claim
A staged-progression knowledge card — a curve divided into phases with an annotated block under each — where the shape of the curve is treated as an assertion rather than a decoration. Six fields.
Two runs of the same template. How a pattern gets adopted beside how a boat gets a crew — five phases each, both rising rather than bulging, and in both the space under every phase name is left genuinely empty because neither had a distribution to report.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — and what matters is the absence. There is no percentage under any phase name, no zero and no dash, just the name and then the curve. The line rises gently instead of bulging, because a bell would have claimed that the middle phase holds the most people and nobody measured that. The reference's baseline printed a percentage range over every one of its five phases — five to ten, fifteen to twenty-five, thirty to thirty-five and so on — none of them supplied, all set in the same weight as the phase names, on a card built to look like published research. A reader cannot tell invented figures from measured ones, which is the whole reason they must not appear. This run needed a second attempt for rendering rather than logic: the first came back on a black ground with its title garbled.
Generated for this library
Input
Title HOW A PATTERN GETS ADOPTED - nobody adopts a
pattern the first time they see it
Phases seen · understood · tried once · trusted · reached
for by default
Curve a flat rising progression, not a bell - no data on
distribution, so the curve must not imply one
Voices I have seen this before · I know what it is for · I
used it on one thing · it worked, so I kept it · I
no longer consider alternatives
Actions three per phase
Numbers none - no percentages anywhere
Returned 1 card · 3:4 · bone ground, one blue, one red
curve a rising line, not a bell, divided into five by
vertical dashed rules
labels phase names above the curve, and no figure under
any of them
blocks five below, numbered, each with its phase name, a
yellow highlighted sentence in the reader's voice,
and three bulleted actions
leaders thin red lines from each block to its point on the
curve, one dot each
foot one insight line under a dashed ruleYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The title, and the claim under it
- 2The five phases
- 3The curve's shape, and why
- 4One sentence per phase
- 5Three actions per phase
- 6The numbers, if you have any
The Curve Is a Claim
Produce ONE image, 3:4 portrait: a staged-progression knowledge card. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the fields?
If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.
If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these six lines only
- The title, and the claim under it: {a title, and one sentence} e.g. HOW A PATTERN GETS ADOPTED — nobody adopts a pattern the first time they see it
- The five phases: {five, in order} e.g. seen · understood · tried once · trusted · reached for by default
- The curve's shape, and why: {bell or flat, and the reason} e.g. a flat rising progression, not a bell — I have no data on how people distribute across these phases, so the curve must not imply one
- One sentence per phase: {five, in the reader's own voice} e.g. I have seen this before · I know what it is for · I used it on one thing · it worked, so I kept it · I no longer consider alternatives
- Three actions per phase: {three each} e.g. phase 1: put it where people already look · show it beside real work · repeat it until it is familiar
- The numbers, if you have any: {percentages, or none} e.g. none — no percentages anywhere on the card
The shape law
A curve is an assertion about quantity. A bell says the middle phase holds the most people and both ends are rare. A rising line says each phase has more than the last. Neither is a neutral decoration, and drawing one you have not measured is inventing research.
- If the fields give no distribution, draw a flat or gently rising progression — a line that carries the phases without claiming how many sit in each.
- Draw a bell only when the fields say to, and only because the subject genuinely bulges in the middle.
The number law
No percentage, proportion, count or figure appears unless the fields supply it.
A reference run of this template printed a percentage range over every one of its five phases — five to ten, fifteen to twenty-five, thirty to thirty-five, and so on. Nobody had supplied a single one. They were set in the same weight as the phase names, directly under a curve, on a card built to look like published research. A reader has no way to tell invented figures from measured ones, which is exactly why they must not be there.
If the fields say there are no numbers, the space under each phase name stays empty. Not zero, not a dash, not a placeholder range.
The curve
Across the middle of the card, filled pale beneath the line, with a firm dark stroke on top and a horizontal baseline with an arrowhead at its right end.
Vertical dashed rules divide it into five equal phases. Phase names sit above the curve, centred in their segments. A small solid dot marks each phase's point on the curve.
The blocks
Five below the curve, side by side, equal width, each in a round-cornered outline box holding:
- A solid dark circle with the phase number.
- The phase name, bold, and a two or three word state beneath it.
- One highlighted sentence on a coloured block — written in the reader's own voice, first person, saying what they think at that phase.
- Three bulleted actions, short, one line each.
Thin red leader lines run from the top of each block to its dot on the curve, turning with rounded corners and ending in a small arrowhead.
The page
Title across the top in a high-contrast italic serif, black. Beneath it a black round-cornered capsule holding the claim in white, with two or three words bolded. A very small line at the upper right. At the foot, a dashed rule and one closing insight line beside a small icon.
Bone or pale grey ground, black type, one pale colour for the curve fill, one yellow for the highlighted sentences, one red for the leader lines. Nothing else.
Nothing invented
Phases, sentences and actions all come from the fields. Do not add a sixth phase, rewrite a phase name, or generate the content from the title alone.
Never
- ✕ any percentage or figure the fields did not supply
- ✕ a bell curve when no distribution was given
- ✕ a placeholder, dash or zero where a number would go
- ✕ more than five phases, or blocks of unequal width
- ✕ content the fields did not supply
- ✕ 3D, gradients, glows or heavy shadow
The result
A card that claims only what it was told: five phases in order, a line that carries them without pretending to count them, and one sentence under each that sounds like somebody actually said it.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Say plainly in the third whether you have distribution data — if not, ask for a flat progression and the card will not draw a bell.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the card.
- Check for numbers you did not write. Any percentage on the finished card that you cannot trace to your own field was manufactured.
What you swap
- The title, and the claim under it
- HOW A PATTERN GETS ADOPTED — nobody adopts a pattern the first time they see it
- The five phases
- seen · understood · tried once · trusted · reached for by default
- The curve's shape, and why
- a flat rising progression, not a bell — I have no data on how people distribute across these phases, so the curve must not imply one
- One sentence per phase
- I have seen this before · I know what it is for · I used it on one thing · it worked, so I kept it · I no longer consider alternatives
- Three actions per phase
- phase 1: put it where people already look · show it beside real work · repeat it until it is familiar
- The numbers, if you have any
- none — no percentages anywhere on the card
Before it runs
- Phases in a real order. If two could be swapped without anything breaking, they are categories and belong in a different diagram.
- Honesty about distribution. A bell curve is a measurement; if you have not measured it, a flat progression says the same thing without the false claim.
- One sentence per phase in the reader's own voice. It is what makes the card recognisable rather than abstract.
When to reach for it
When something moves through stages: awareness, adoption, skill, a customer's life. Templates in this style draw a bell curve and print a percentage over every phase, which manufactures distribution data nobody measured and dresses it as research.
What changes
- One editorial knowledge card: a phase curve, vertical dividers, numbered blocks beneath, red leader lines tying each block to its point.
- Percentages only when you supply them — and a flat progression instead of a bell when you have no distribution to show.
- A curve whose shape you can defend, since a bell asserts that the middle phase holds the most people and the ends are rare.
- Phase names and advice taken strictly from the fields, because this format reads as somebody's research.
- One highlighted sentence per phase, so each block has a claim rather than a heading and a list.
Pairs with
- Nothing the Fields Did Not SayA museum-style anatomy page for one made object — callouts, materials, and how it is built — under the rule that the page may not know anything you did not tell it. Six fields.
- Count Both SidesA value-proposition canvas — a square facing a circle, three regions each — where the two halves are written as pairs, so anything unmatched shows up instead of hiding in a list. Six fields.
- Each Layer Takes Something AwayAn exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.