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Link: https://vaishnavh.github.io/blog/technical-communication/
The challenge in such a rescue mission is that you've to verbalize an intricate, loopy, branchy 2-dimensional thing (the map). But you also somehow need to convey gestures like pointing a finger, orienting an object etc., with just words.
These challenges justify the many well-known rules of technical communication. One broad rule is to reveal the pieces of the map in a "contiguous" order and also in a "hierarchical" order. This helps the impatient audience make progress with each step, and with a bird's eye view.
The other challenge is that the marooned audience has limited memory and cognition & they're filled with doubt on a terrifying island: where are we now? why are we here? where are we headed? are were there yet? why are you, my savior, making me climb this nasty wall of equations?
Meta-information also verbalizes the many gestures of spatial guidance like "put this incoming piece of the map over there" or "don't look at that, it's just a distraction!" The essay also discusses how these rules break in story-telling.
Another is that you always provide meta-information (information about information) *before* the information. *Before* saying something you explain why it's needed, where it's headed, so that the audience is psychologically ready to assimilate and compress that information.
I wrote this bec I have always implicitly referred to this analogy when I design talks or give feedback. It helps adapt on the fly rather than memorize rules and practice them. I find it particularly useful in day-to-day collaborations and the beginning stages of an exploration.