There are many things an effective technical illustrator must know. In this post, I want to share one tip: put yourself in the audience’s shoes when you are doing callouts. No matter how much time and talent I have spent making an illustration look pretty, if an average audience cannot get the message I want to tell in the illustration, it is worthless. So, I ask myself all of the time, “if I were the audience, would I get that message?” If the answer is “yes”, “voila`!” 

Don’t just work hard, but work smart.