The Legibility gap
Legibility is one of the 6 gaps of ACM Framework. It compares the “Does” perspective with “Sees” and answers the question “Is what it does seen?”. It is calculated as the distance between the two profiles across 12 archetypes, and the target is as close to zero as possible. The thresholds come from the published instrument.
How it is calculated
From the instrument · ACM 1.12 · 18.10.2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22926708 · proposed translation
- The pair: Does ↔ Sees.
- The distance: the sum of the absolute differences across the 12 archetypes, divided by two (0–100).
- The target: as close to zero as possible: below 15 is small, above 25 is large.
- Weight in the index: 20%; the index is reported only at tier 3.
- It appears from tier 2 (“With perception”).
Which diagnosis it feeds into
From the instrument · ACM 1.12 · 18.10.2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22926708 · proposed translation
It feeds into the coherence diagnosis, together with Integrity and Mirror.
- Chaotic: The distances are large everywhere. The work does not start with communication; it starts with deciding who the brand is.
- Misunderstood: The brand does things well, but it is not seen. This really is a communication problem, and it is fixed relatively quickly.
- Aligned: The brand says what it does, is seen doing it, and is seen as it believes itself to be. From here the work is on differentiation, not coherence.
How to read it
Platform material · not part of the published instrument
A small gap means that “Does” and “Sees” describe the same brand. A large one shows where they do not match, and the archetype-by-archetype comparison shows exactly where. See also the archetypes.
The method and the author
Platform material · not part of the published instrument
All the reference pages describe the same method: how ACM Framework measures a brand’s coherence. The terms are explained in the glossary. The instrument is openly published, with DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22926708, by Dumitru Talmazan.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Legibility gap compare?
The “Does” perspective with “Sees”: Is what it does seen?
When is the Legibility gap large?
Above 25, according to the thresholds in the published instrument.