Explain How to Read a Chord Chart as a Complete Beginner

Chord charts look simple and are immediately confusing if you have never encountered one. They are a diagram of the instrument viewed from a specific angle, with symbols that represent finger placement. Once you understand what you are looking at, reading them becomes mechanical. This walks through the diagram systematically, works through one common beginner chord step by step, and tells you what to ignore until later.

I have just started learning {INSTRUMENT} and encountered a chord chart. I do not know how to read it at all.

Explain how to read it:
1. What the diagram represents: the physical relationship between the diagram and the instrument, explained in terms of what I am looking at and holding
2. The symbols: what each symbol on the diagram means, going through them in the order I will encounter them when looking at a typical chord chart
3. A worked example: take one common beginner chord for this instrument and walk me through placing my fingers using the chart, step by step
4. The most common beginner mistake: the single most common error when reading a chord chart for the first time, and how to avoid it
5. What I do not need to understand yet: the elements of chord charts that are relevant for more advanced playing but that I can ignore until I have learned the basic chords