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Tips on Drawing Flowcharts
Flowcharts are fairly simple things. Before I wrote this, I almost thought “Hey, who’d ever need a tutorial on how to draw a flowchart? It’s too simple and it’ll probably need one line to explain.” Well… not really. There’s more to flowcharts than simple shapes and arrows connecting them if you want to get the idea across. Some tips below to help you create better flowcharts that get the message across:
Identify why you are drawing the Flowchart(s)You may be drawing it to explain a process to someone, to understand a process, to find loopholes in a flow and so on. It is important to identify the objective on why you want a flowchart for this.
Are there many ‘actors’ involved?If there are different responsible parties (or things) involved in each step, you might want to convey that information clearly with a Swimlane flowchart. They help clarify who / what is responsible for each step quite easily.
If you have many actors (say more than 6), it might be better to generalize them if possible. Ex. rather than having two columns for Sally or Rob at HR department, just group them into the HR department. Again, it all depends on who the audience is.
On Swimlanes, Creately has some neat tricks that automatically glues shapes to swimlanes so you don’t miss them when resizing etc.
Decide on the start and end points of the flowchartAs trivial as it may sound, a flow with random endings is more confusing than it helps. So choose the objectives and keep it simple.
Break it down into multiple flowsVery long flowcharts can cause the reader to overlook the details that you are actually trying to convey. It is best to break down a flowchart into sub-flows. Use the connector and inbuilt link feature to create automatically linked documents with sub-flows in Creately.
Get your team on-boardDocumenting processes or planning steps requires careful review and thinking. You can use Creately’s inbuilt collaboration features to help kick this process off easily.
Use colors meaningfullyYou can color code your flowchart objects to convey things like Risk involved, Who’s responsible, Process state (Draft/Final), basically anything you want. But always remember to include a legend on the corner so everyone knows how to read the chart.
Beautiful new Creately Diagram Viewer
Today we are launching our new Creately Diagram Viewer. It’s a simple embeddable widget that allows you to include a zoom-able, sharable and always updated Creately diagram in any web page. To top it off, we’ve created a Google Gadget to allow the Creately Diagram Viewer to be used easily with iGoogle and for our Google Apps customers within your Google Sites.
Diagram Viewer WidgetThe Creately Diagram Viewer is a HTML5 web widget that lets you easily embed an interactive Creately diagram viewer into any webpage. You can add the widget to your webpage by simply pasting the embed code from the properties panel inside Creately into your webpage source. You can add the widget to as many pages as you like and also add multiple widgets to the same webpage. Once added just save your webpage and your Creately diagram is available immediately.
Great Features
The Creately Diagram Viewer comes with some great features that will make creating and sharing diagrams with Creately a breeze. Try the live example below to see what we mean.
Mouseover to see the Viewer in action
createlyPlayerStart( { container: "container-gd040r212", title : " catalog_1" , docid :"gd040r212", width :600, height :400, bgcolor :"#EEE" } );
You can change the dimensions of your widget so it fits perfectly into any webpage. The widget provides Zoom and Pan features that mean even the largest diagrams are still clear and easy to navigate. There’s now no need to scale your exported diagram image just to fit it to the webpage and in the process lose the detail in your diagrams. Simply set up the size of your widget and embed it into any webpage.
Always Update to DateThe widget always fetches the latest version of your diagram to display making sure that visitors always see the latest version. When working as a team on the same diagram or diagrams in a project all the changes made using Creately will be reflected immediately in your documentation ensuring that the Creately diagram and the published webpage stay in sync. This save time and reduces costs because you no longer need to upload or update the diagram images and reduces errors due to old knowledge being published.
createlyPlayerStart( { container: "container-gcqjqs762", title : "Creately Support - Swim Lane" , docid :"gcqjqs762", width :600, height :400, bgcolor :"#EEE" } );
We are big fans of Twitter and Facebook and we know a lot of our users are too. The Creately Diagram Viewer provides the tools for effortless sharing with built in Facebook and Twitter buttons. We all enjoy receiving praise and love for our work. When you embed your Creately diagrams in your site you can receive the qudos for your work you deserve.
Community Diagram PagesTo get a real world feel for the Creately Diagram Viewer please visit the Public Diagram Pages which are all now powered by the Creately Diagram Viewer. Note - Click on the diagram to go to the individual diagram page and see the Creately Diagram Viewer - try out the zoom, pan and sharing features as you browse the diagrams. On each diagram page don’t miss the right panel for the embed code. Finally remember if like any of the diagrams, show your love by sharing it via Twitter or Facebook with 1-click!
Google Gadget For Apps and iGoogleCreately is loved by thousands of Google Apps users. With Creately we’ve been working hard to bring better diagram and collaboration to Google Apps. So this week Google Sites finally gets what it was missing - built-in diagrams that work just like the wiki does.
The brand new Creately Diagram Gadget for Google Sites and iGoogle makes it easy to embed the Creately Diagram Viewer into the Google Platform. This way, anyone who edits your Google Apps Site can also easily access and update the Creately diagram from right within the site.
For those who are impatient to get going just use this URL for the Creately Diagram Gadget: http://creately.com/player/gadget/createlyplayer.xml
Just like the Creately Diagram Viewer, the Gadget’s diagram is always up to date and brings with it the benefits of collaborative working.
No More SquintingThe Creately Diagram Gadget allows you to embed multiple diagrams from Creately in to a single Sites page along with explanatory text. You can create really big diagrams, and still embed them on Site pages without having to scale them down. Just alter the display dimensions of the Creately Diagram Gadget and click to embed. Your Google Site page now remains neat and intact with all your Creately diagrams appearing within the Creately Diagram Viewer allowing your full control of your Sites appearance.
The Creately Diagram Gadget for iGoogle provides all the same features as the Google Sites gadget plus it allows you to embed your Creately diagram anywhere that accepts a Google Gadget.
You can learn how to embed this gadget on Google Site by visiting our Creately Diagram Gadget instructions page. Or check out the Creately Diagram Gadget on the Google Gadget listing page - and don’t forget to leave us a review. Thanks!
Creately for Asia’s Best App
We’re extremely delighted to be nominated for Asia’s Top 50 Apps poll! And, now we need your votes to be selected as Asia’s Best App! We’ve got 2 more weeks left, so vote for Creately NOW!
There’s no registration required, simply select Creately and punch in your email address (optional), and you’re done! Its a pretty long list of apps, so if you have any trouble do a Ctrl-F to search for Creately in the list. We need all your love and support!
With your help, we hope to make it through to the Asia’s largest Innovation Conference, Accelarate 2010. Vote for Creately here; and tell your friends and colleagues to vote for Creately too!
Voting closes on 31st August! Give us your votes now!
Top 10 Flowchart Ideas for your Small Business
Flowcharting is all about drawing simple and easy-to-understand diagrams illustrating the logical sequence in a process. Flowcharts help you communicate and document how processes work; and mapping out the logical steps in a process also helps you figure out ways to improve the process.
Here are ten best examples of Flowcharts that would come in handy. All of them created with Creately’s online diagramming software! With the easy to use Flowchart symbols, Swim Lane Templates and Work Flow templates flowcharting is a breeze on Creately. Anyone can create logical diagrams to document processes. It’s amazingly easy! Check the examples below to see some of the processes which are so easy to map out with flowcharts.
1) Understanding CreatelyFor those of you who haven’t heard of Creately, this is the time to learn about Creately through this simple Flowchart.
2) Creately’s Goal Funnel FlowIf you want to see how your website Goal Funnel really works, check out this flowchart. This is an example of Creately’s Goal Funnel.
3) Recruitment ProcessWith Creately’s 1- click styling features and smart connectors I managed to put together this simple flow chart to explain the recruitment process in under 3 minutes.
4) University Admission ProcessDrag-n-Drop Creately’s Data Flow symbols to draw a simple Data Flow Diagram. This DFD shows the flow of data involved in a Student’s University Admission.
5) Purchase Order ProcessCreately is loaded with Business Process Symbols too! Easy to use shapes and interactive interface helps you create Business Process Models at a blazing speed!
6) Flowchart on Social MediaYet another exciting flowchart depicting the process involved in Social Media interaction.
7) Video Uploading ProcessThinking of uploading a video could be a pain, but the whole process looks extremely easy through this simple flowchart.
8 ) Creately’s Customer Support ProcessBeautiful interface makes creating Swim Lane diagrams an ease on Creately. Don’t miss out on this Swim Lane diagram, it would help you understand Creately’s Customer Support process.
9) Credit Card Transaction ProcessEver wondered how a Credit Card Transaction is processed? Check this simple Swim Lane diagram to understand the distinct transaction steps and parties involved.
10) After Sales Service ProcessAnother Swim Lane diagram. With the 1-Click connect feature, I’ve managed to put up a Swim Lane diagram illustrating the After Sales Service process.
These are just some of the types of flowcharts you can create with Creately.com, watch out for Mind Maps next time. And let us know what more you’d like to see.
Creately, Just Smarter and Easier.
It’s been less than a month since our release, and we’re back with yet another exciting upgrade to Creately! The team has been hard at work putting together some great ideas to make Creately even easier to use, so we hope you like whats in store.
New Look Side PanelWe’ve got a new look on the side panel. Our UI was beginning to look a lil dated - so we’ve started work on a refresh. This week we’ve got a brand new look for our super duper Side Panel (where all the mojo’s at). Like what you see? Let us know.
Notes PanelMore interestingly, we’ve added a new Notes panel to make it easier to collaborate and communicate clearly in your teams. Those inline comments are great, but wouldn’t it be better if you could explain your diagrams and mockups by adding some notes to help the reader along.
Check out the new Notes button on the Side Panel - its not a heavy-weight text editor but you do get a Rich Text Editor to help you get your ideas into Creately.
Good News for Mac Users!You Mac fanboys out there have something to really cheer about. We’ve fixed the horizontal scroll issues with Apple’s Magic Trackpad. Now you can use 2 fingers to scroll both vertically and horizontally in the Creately application. Try it out now!
Improved Smart KObjectsWe saw the trouble you had in creating tables, tabs and accordion panes in your Web Mockups! Haven’t you always wished you could easily build a table in Creately or just change the number of tabs displayed in the Tab objects? Now you can.
The team’s been hard at work all winter (yes, we come from a land down-under), putting the final touches to a brand new Smart KObject framework to bring a new level of ease of use and flexibility to your Creately diagrams. This week we announce 3 new Smart KObjects - and many more will follow in the coming weeks.
Professional Dynamic TablesWe heard you say how difficult it was to add Tables in your Mockups, so we’ve added dynamic Tables to our KObject library. Now you can simply enter Text and the Table will resize itself. Simply drag-n-drop a Table from the left panel, and start to edit the Table properties to add Table Data. To create a new column, simply type a ‘,’ (comma) and for a new row, enter in a new row of data. This way, you get easy to use dynamic Tables for all your mockups and diagrams.
Multiple Tab Pages in secondsYou can now create multiple Tab Pages on a Tab Control quickly. We know how aggravating it is to insert a number of individual Tabs to create Tab pages. But, with the smart KObject improvements you can create as many Tabs as you might inside the Tab Control by simply editing the Tab Bar text. To add tabs, simply type ‘,’ (comma) and the Tab title, so “Tab1, Tab2, Tab3″ will create 3 Tabs in this order. Adding a ‘*’ to any Tab title marks it as the selected Tab.
Collapsible Accordion PaneLastly for this week we looked at our Accordion Pane and decided it too could do with a makeover! Now you can configure your Accordion pane with just a few simple keystrokes. For example, the following Text will create 4 panes with the second one open and the rest collapsed:
These are just the initial few smart KObjects we’ve created. Expect a whole lot more smart KObjects in the weeks to come… Diagramming has never been easier!
Login to Creately now to check out the great new features, and let us know what you feel. We’d love to hear it from you!
With Love
Creately Team
How to decide on using a 3rd party component
When you are building a software solution to solve a particular problem, you would be very focused on solving the problem and solving it well. However, from time to time you need supporting components in your solution that are not directly related to the problem you are solving. These are components that are required to complete your solution.
Maybe its a payment system for your online greeting card service, or a spell checker component for your realtime note editor, you would rather look for something that’s already built and working well rather than building it yourself from scratch. This way you can focus on your “core competency”.
This is generally how everyone thinks. So did we. Here at Creately, we chose to use a third party solution to complete a product that we were working on. In the rush and excitement of getting the product out we signed up with the 3rd party service not considering some important factors that we should have. Even though the intention was to avoid reinventing the wheel and save time and effort, the out come was us spending double the time and effort to get the solution to work. Lesson learnt the hard way.
So I thought I would put together a simple flowchart to help us evaluate such situations in the future when such a need arises again. This flow chart explains the basic thinking, and the factors involved in making the decision can be found below.
Picking the most suitable solution- How well is my requirement met? Does the solution meet all the feature and functionality requirements I have? Does the solution meet the integration requirements I have?
- Is the component build for me? Even if the solution meets all my functionality and feature requirements, one thing I have to watch out for is, if it does more than what I need. Will it complicate my product? or my users experience? or my integration process?
- Is the integration and setup process straight forward? Time and effort required to setup and integrate?
- What is the financial commitment?
- Considering all factors above, compare the time, effort and cost involved in building the ideal solution against using the selected solution.
- Can I use the existing features in the solution to make it do what I want it to do?
- Can the solution be customized to fit my requirements?
- What is the time and effort involved in customizing the solution for my need?
- What is the financial cost involved in customizing the solution for my need?
- Considering all factors above in A and B, compare the time, effort and cost involved in building the ideal solution against using the selected solution.
Is your online Sales Funnel leaking?
We normally use funnel diagrams to understand the flow of a user through our website, to the application, and then onto the purchase pages (or not). Some great tools are out there and just last week @Indu blogged about using Funnels & Goals in Google Analytics to better understand your funnel and conversion rates.
This week, we went and applied the same to our traffic funnel in three steps.
- Identify how our potential customers find out about Creately. The ‘trigger’ to visit the site.
- What their motivations are. Why are they here?
- Identify the pages they land on, and craft a message that resonates with the visitor’s intent and motivations. This will achieve lower bounce rates and far better conversions in a funnel.
Ok, again: Being relevant is key. but how do we know what’s relevant unless we know what you want?
Map it out!It’s easier to map this out in a diagram, and here’s ours - How People Discover Creately. Some of the bounce rates are guesstimates though.
We first identified the source for them to come to Creately, then we break them down by their motivations and where they would go on the site to what landing pages.
The next phase is to make sure the landing pages speak to them well and address their questions. That’s another post for another day
Before I go back to more diagramming and numbers, do you find this approach useful? How do you look at your traffic funnel?
Image By: vrogy / CC3.0Google Analytics for Small Businesses [Series 2]
Finally time for the next post in this series. I know its been two months since the first one, and sorry for taking this long! Better late than never, and here we go! If you’ve missed the first one on Visitors Map Overlay, stop right here, and go read it.
We’ve mentioned the importance of Map Overlay in the first post, and this time its all about Goals in Google Analytics! Lets see what Goals are, why they’re important and how we set them.
What are Goals in Google Analytics?Goals describe the completion of a desired task that you’d like your visitors to do!
By setting up Goals in Google Analytics, you can measure how often the desired tasks are completed, and this is called the conversion rate.
Before implementing Goals, identify what your website’s objectives are, and what visitor actions they correspond to. A goal can be anything from completing a contact form for generating leads to completing a purchase for driving revenue.
For example, in Creately, one of the Goals is a visitor signing up for our online diagramming service.
There are multiple ways to define goals, and here’s a great article written by Ian Spencer that gives more tips on Goals in Google Analytics.
And now, the Goal Funnel?Accomplishing a Goal involves a sequence of steps. The sequence that leads up to the completion of a Goal make up the Goal Funnel. For each Goal, you will need to setup a Goal Funnel and like the Goal itself, each of these steps must correspond to a measurable action on a specific page.
For example, Creately visitors go through a sequence of steps before finally performing the desired Sign Up action. Assume that you land on the Creately UML Landing page (the first step towards the Goal), where you might choose to Try Creately Now without signing up, and then from the Creately application you could opt to Sign Up ‘cos you’re convinced.
This would direct you to the Plans & Pricing page, where you’d be expected to choose a preferred plan, then click on Sign Up to make the purchase. Once you complete the purchase, you’d be sent to the Thank you page (this marks the Goal). Now, this means the desired task is performed and the Goal is accomplished.
However, on the other hand if the website visitor only goes up to the plans page, and opts to leave without signing up. Then the Goal is not met and it’s considered to be abandoned! Thus, Goals and Conversion rates are important to measure the performance of a website.
We refer to the whole sequential process as a funnel - many people start at the top and fewer end up coming out to the bottom by accomplishing the Goal.
Check out the flowchart below to see the steps that correspond to a measurable action on different pages -
How to Set up GoalsSetting a goal is very simple. If you have administrative access, you can sign in to your Google Analytics. Then go to Analytics Settings and select a profile, click on edit, choose an unused goal ’slot’, and click on edit again.
You’ll need to then follow the steps and decide what your goal is and how you’ll be declaring a goal, then click to finish and you’ll start measuring the performance for your website.
Check out this video for more details on Setting Up Goals in Google Analytics
Better Diagram Manager and More
This week’s release at a glance!
1) Better Diagram ManagerMulti-Select and new Keyboard Shortcuts
We’ve made it possible for you to multi-select all the diagrams in your Creately Projects. You can now select multiple diagrams to either open or delete them, saving you loads of time while working in Creately. To make it easier, we’ve introduced a couple of useful keyboard shortcuts - To select all the diagrams in a project, simply click Ctrl + A or hit click F2 to rename a diagram/document from the Document Manager window.
Check out the new Sort and Filter options!
Do you spend a whole lot of your time locating the diagrams in your Creately Projects? Click on the drop down menu on the Sort and Filter options to locate your diagrams in your Projects. With the improved filter options you can locate your diagrams in just minutes.
And don’t miss out on the new Detailed List view!
The Document manager now also comes with a new Detailed List view along with the standard Tile view of your Creately diagrams. The Detailed view displays thumbnails along with all the relevant details of all your project diagrams.
2) The Diagram EditorRe-sizable canvas to suit all your diagramming needs!
Click on the Page Properties tab, and check out the new Landscape page sizes which are now available!
Larger canvas for bigger diagrams!
We’ve been getting many requests to increase the maximum canvas size beyond 2500px. In this release we’ve worked hard to improve this and now you can create diagrams of up to 8000px per side. Great for those complex flowcharts and class diagrams. 3) Pretty shapes and connectors!
All your abstract shapes come with a default fill! We’ve decided to lose the plain boring white fills in our abstract shapes, and now they’re all with pretty gradient fills. We’ve not stopped with there, we’ve also tuned the Flowchart object connection points for beautiful looking flowcharts; and created thinner outlines on all the User Interface objects to give it a more uniform look.
We’ve introduced a faster JPEG encoder to make exporting JPEG significantly faster, along with better error management and recovery on Network and Session issues all to keep our valuable users happy!
Effective Sitemaps for your Web Projects
At Creately we are all about increasing project efficiencies with Visual aids. We help other companies be more effective using visual tools, and now we are kicking off a series to share some insights.
Over the next few weeks we will be looking at how we use Sitemaps, User Flows, Use Cases, User Stories, Wireframes and more in delivering an effective website / software product to a client. It’s a lot to cover, and do let us know if you have more ideas at blogs@creately.com
SitemapsWhen kicking off a project its always important to settle on a content structure for the site. While some argue the sitemap is a dated artifact now as content linking happens in many ways, we believe it is really useful when used right.
It’s a great tool to help visualize how the site is broken up, what the main pages are going to be, and where in the content hierarchy they belong. We definitely think its an important tool to use in a project to bring more clarity and consensus.
When to use1. Creating a new site:
Use it to identify broad content areas, sub sections and a conceptual structure for the site.
2. Updating an existing site / redesign -
Go through the site and generate a map. We recommend against typical ’sitemap generators’ as they pick out all links to create the structure. Not all links are made equal!
By documenting what’s in the site now, you can start curating the content
Guiding principles1. The site map is a organization and a planning tool. It is usually not the final outcome of the site. Use it not only to identify main areas of the site, but also page types, templates that go with them, secure/ non-secure pages etc.
2. Quickly agree on the first version of the site map and keep revisiting through out the project. Use it as a top-level view to identify what has been completed on the project, what high level decisions were made etc.
Best Practices for Sitemaps
1. Brainstorm first. The best way to do a sitemap is actually NOT to start with a sitemap. Try working on a mindmap with your client and the team. It will be a natural structure for you to capture all the ideas, then start grouping them together.
2. Identify the main content areas and their page breakdowns.
Content headlines, subsection headings should be recorded by this time. A good idea would be to record them right in the document itself.
The earlier you get this done, the clearer your clients and teams understanding of the project.
3. Mark out pages that include special functionality.
Got some pages that need to be loaded securely? some with forms? some featuring video content? mark them out in the sitemap itself.
4. Identify design variations.
Some pages in the site / app may have different theme’s or design elements. Color them differently to identify groups of these pages easily.
5. Keep it ‘Alive’
Review and revisit the site map as your understanding of the project changes. New pages, changed structure, new names; doing the simple updates to keep the document up-to date will ensure that you’ll have less confusion in your team and happier clients.
6. A High level view
Use the site map as a high level view to the project. You can link the user flows, wireframes and other documents you create on to the pages to keep track of progress and to provide a unified view to your client and team.
So how do you use Sitemaps in your projects?
How we Converted our Online App into a Plugin
Here at Cinergix, we are committed to delivering Creately to all of you who have the burning need to put that great idea into a nice picture. Over time we have heard and felt the love from everyone who’s been using Creately. Our desire to reach out to you gave birth to the idea of a Creately Plugin - an architecture that would allow us to integrate Creately to different platforms so you can continue to use Creately right within the platforms you work in every single day. And Creately for FogBugz is just the first in many more to come.
The ApproachTaking the current version of Creately that was built as a SAAS service and turning it into a portable component that works on any platform was quite a lot of fun and somewhat challenging. When we designed the Creately Plugin we had to make sure it could be easily reused and quickly integrated into any platform out there. This way Creately can be made available on your favorite wikis, blogs, case management and productivity tools in the near future with minimal rework.
Creately SWF & WrapperBasically, there are two parts to converting an online application like Creately to support a plugin infrastrusture. The first is the the actual application, Creately, that can be compiled in 2 different modes. The Online SWF Mode for SAAS delivery and the Plugin SWF Mode for integrating into plugin platforms.
The second component, the Plugin Wrapper, is responsible for integrating the application into the platform that hosts the plugin. This Plugin Wrapper needs to be built specifically for the platform that it is hosted on, using the platform’s API’s. Platforms like FogBugz have detailed documentation on how a plugin can be built for it. In the case of FogBugz, we also had the folks at FogCreek helping us get the best diagramming plugin out to you guys. Thanks, we couldn’t have done it without you guys.
Deconstructing the ApplicationSo we started with the most important component, the Creately SWF, the flex code that runs in the Flash Player in your browser. We worked in a layer of separation to enable us to compile the Creately SWF to run in different modes. Based on the mode, the Creately front end functionality and the backend interaction would work completely differently. The mode is specified in a configuration file that is used when compiling Creately.
The Online Mode SWF uses Remote Objects to connect and interact with the Creately backend services (Jupiter Service). The Plugin Mode SWF would expect a set of http endpoints to be available for it to communicate, to send and receive the required data. The Plugin Wrapper would expose these endpoints required by the Plugin Mode SWF and are configured in the configuration file.
This way by simply switching the configuration file and compiling, the Creately swf can be used to either generate Creately to run as a SaaS service or as a FogBugz plugin or a plugin for a completely new platform. This method not only enables us to easily build Creately plugins for more platforms but also lets us deliver all the cool new features we build into Creately to all distributions of Creately. Its great to be able to do this without ever splitting our code base.
More Ideas!You think thats cool? Well then you are going to like what I have to say next. This very approach will enable us to build a desktop version of Creately for you in the future. How about that?
Tell us what you think and how much you like the idea of Creately on your desktop. Also, if there’s another platform out there you’d love to see Creately on drop leave us a note here.
Header Image by Jake Mates / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0We’re excited about Flash 10.1
Last week the Flash Player team at Adobe released version 10.1. While its a small dot version number change, it is a monumental release in terms of its content and significance to what is happening in the browser market today.
Faster CreatelyWe’re very excited about the new version. With Flash 10.1, Creately now runs blazingly fast on the Mac (and on PC’s), is overall delivers a more stable and reliable experience. Adobe has thankfully fixed a number of issues that have plagued our loyal customers since the last version, including issues with image uploading on the Mac.
To achieve this performance improvements, Flash 10.1 supports hardware acceleration of 2D and 3D graphics, manages memory more efficiently especially in tabbed browsing situations and includes a number of core improvements to the run-time to reduce execution time.
Another very exciting new feature for us at Creately is Flash Player’s new Multi-Touch support API’s. The team can’t wait to have a go at this in the near future! The Future of Flash
This release of the Flash Player comes at a time when there has been much hostility against Flash. In light of the the Apple vs. Adobe debate, we feel this release put Adobe in a good place to start answering its critics. We hope they will continue aggressively improving its product capabilities rather than investing in meaningless ad campaigns in an attempt to reclaim Flash’s position as a powerful cross-browser platform.
Of course, the elephant in the room when discussing Flash is HTML5. For us as application developers, the competition between the technologies is great news. And no, they won’t kill each other off, it’s complimentary.
Historically, Flash has enabled us to push the envelope on what’s been possible in the browser well before the browser delivered. Now thankfully, with the focus on HTML5 and the browser wars of the 21st century back in full force, we are loving the amount of standards adoptions, evolution, and aggressive development that is helping the browser itself become a very powerful run-time to build on.
For Creately this means there are more things we’ll be able to do, to deliver awesome user experiences to our customers. It does not matter whether it’s delivered in Flash or HTML - the user only care that the experience is seamless, secure and productive.
We believe many companies including Adobe, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft (yes) get this. Only a few geeks care whats under the hood. End users only care that their job gets done. I’m surprised our friends at Cupertino who build ‘magical’ devices don’t get it.
And now, Diagrams for your Fogbugz platform
Today, we’re happy to announce the release of Creately for FogBugz, a brand new plugin for everyone’s favourite software project management and bug-tracking system, FogBugz from FogCreek Software.
Creately for FogBugz lets everyone on your project team communicate clearly by easily creating and including diagrams in FogBugz. With full integration into the FogBugz interface, you can easily add Use Cases, Wireframes, Flowcharts, UML or any other diagrams to FogBugz cases and wiki pages.
Squash’Em BugsBugs fixing will go a lot smoother when you can clearly explain the issues to developers. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so get everyone on the same page by adding annotated wireframes, or updated Use Cases to every FogBugz case. Anyone working on the case can edit and and modify diagrams as the case or feature is worked on.
Up-to-date DocumentationThe ability to quickly add diagrams directly within Wiki pages will make documenting your software projects a lot less of a chore. No more attaching external Visio files, and no more expensive desktop-based software. With Creately for FogBugz, the whole team can update project documentation right within the browser, saving time and more importantly helping keep your specifications up-to-date.
Get it now!Creately for FogBugz plugin is available for installation on your own Fogbugz server starting from $85/user with bulk discounts available for larger teams. Currently we only support Fogbugz on the Windows platform, but a Linux and hosted version for FogBugz OnDemand will be announced shortly.
Give yourself the advantage of Creately for Fogbugz by purchasing your license right now or if your not quite ready you can also download the free 14-day trial.
Local Diagram Backup and New Bulk Pricing
Today, we’re excited to announce Creately’s improved Import/Export capability made possible with our new Creately Document Markup Language (.cdml) and brand new Team Plans with great discounts for larger Teams. Lets jump straight into it.
Save your Diagrams LocallyFirst off, the new Import/Export capability. Team and Pro users can now backup all your Creately diagrams locally on your desktop by simply exporting a Creately Document Markup Language format file (*.cdml). These exported files can easily be imported back into Creately maintaining all embedded images and links at full-resolution.
We’ve significantly upgraded our upload and download infrastructure, so now you’ll be able to download CDML, PDF, PNG and JPEGs as well as import your own graphics into Creately at a blistering speed. This is great for all those mockups and presentations that need custom graphics. We know you’ll love this.
We’re most excited about the possibilities the new CDML format will present for our users and developers, so over the next few weeks , Hiraash will be putting up some ideas and examples of what you can do with our new diagram document format. Go ahead, export an image and open the CDML file with any text editor for a sneak peek.
Bulk User Plans!After we announced our Team plans and Creately for Google Apps, we’ve been inunadated with requests from larger Teams looking to adopt Creately in their pursuit for more efficient project collaboration. We’ve heard you and we’re happy to announce fantastic bulk discounts for larger Teams.
With the new prices, you’ll pay $8/month each for the first 5 users. If you have a larger team of say 12 users, you’ll simply pay $8 for the first 5 users, then $6 for the next 5 and finally $5 for the last 2 users. So a 12 user team will be charged $80 / month ($40 + $30 + $10). That’s a 17% savings, straight off the bat.
Check out our plans page for more details. If you need more than a 100 users on Creately - call us we’re here to help.
These new discounts will make adopting Creately across your Google Apps domain excellent value for money. As always, we’ve got great discounts for Educators, Colleges and do-gooders - just reach out to us.
What to ExpectOver the coming weeks - expect some exciting new announcements that will Creately the best visual collaboration and diagramming application for software, design and support teams, including a new plugin for FogBugz and improvements in our software diagramming capability. Until then happy diagramming.
@Creately Team
Top 5 Tools for Distributed Project Teams
Here at Cinergix we’ve been working together from different office locations around the world to create, market and support the best online diagramming software - Creately. We spend hours sitting in front of our computers each day working across vast distances and timezones and it can sometimes be a challenge getting everyone on the team working together effectively.
So over the last year, we’ve experimented with a large number of online services to help us work better and support our customers in the best possible way. In each solution we looked for just the right amount of functionality to help us work better without drowning in too much process and too many systems.
Here we’ve distilled the top 5 tools (mostly online tools) that we’ve come to rely on to keep the Creately engine chugging along nicely. They cover everything from project management tools to customer support systems, but each one offers the ease of use and simplicity that we find so important in keeping our team focused on the job at hand.
Thanks to @Hiraash for his suggestions and I hope you’ll find these tools useful for your project teams. If you’ve got any other suggestions that you think will be useful for other web startups and project teams, we’d love to hear from you.
Wrike is a web-based project management tool, and the great thing about it is that it comes with a fantastic Gantt chart view that knocks the pants off any other web based PM tool. @Chandika is a big fan cos he loves the fact that the Gantt chart view gives everyone a good idea of the inter dependencies across the projects we work on here at Creately. Unlike most other recent web-base PM tools that have a strong social collaboration angle, Wrike offers a solid PM tool in the same vein as MS Project, but its pricing is a tad on the high side.
TeamViewer is an easy to use screen-sharing application that’s Free and works really well. I’ve tried sharing my screen with Skype and other web-services but none have performed as well as TeamViewer. Everyone I’ve recommended it to loves it. And it doesn’t just stop there. Teamviewer lets remotely control another computer - even through firewalls. This is an essential tool we use everyday at Creately. Thanks to @Aslam for bringing this to the team.
For the uninitiated, Creately is a web-based diagramming software that comes with built in tools for easy, secure collaboration. With an extensive library of shapes, Creately supports many diagram types. Naturally we use Creately in-house - mostly for concept diagrams, flowcharts and mockups. Its great for getting those ideas nailed down quickly in a diagram - and really helps bring clarity to the team.
PS - We released a beta version of a Creately Plugin for the Fogbugz platform this week, which makes it easy to add any type of diagram to your Fogbugz cases and Wiki to clearly explain requirements to your team. You can check it out here.
Zendesk provides a customer support portal solution includes email support with a built-in knowledge base. We chose it for it elegant interface and the ease with which we can track support support issues and deliver the type of customer service our customers talk about. It also worked great for providing 24/7 round the clock support that is being handled across 2 locations. There are a host of other customer support systems out there that actually deliver more functionality at a lower price, but we’re sold on their “Love your Helpdesk” theme.
Pivotal Tracker is a story-based project planning tool that the Dev Team here at Creately swears by. It is based on the Agile software development methodology and support sprints, velocity, etc but can also be used for other types of projects. If you’re a fan of Agile development - then you’ll love PT, as we affectionately call it.
Best part about PT - Its completely Free (as in beer).
What do you use in your teams? Have you tried any of these tools, and have you found them effective in your business?
Image by mr.smashy / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0