posted02/09/10
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 flowchart
As 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 flows
Very 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-board
Documenting 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 meaningfully
You 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.
@chandika
posted17/08/10
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 Creately
For 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 Flow
If 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 Process
With 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 Process
Drag-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 Process
Creately 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 Media
Yet another exciting flowchart depicting the process involved in Social Media interaction.
7) Video Uploading Process
Thinking of uploading a video could be a pain, but the whole process looks extremely easy through this simple flowchart.
8 ) Creately’s Customer Support Process
Beautiful 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 Process
Ever 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 Process
Another 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.
posted18/02/10
For any business, especially a web startup, having a sensible and comprehensive Social Media strategy is key to online success. To help you work out a comprehensive strategy, we’ve put together a simple framework with Creately that captures the basic aspects of the Social Media landscape that you’ll need to consider.
Social Media today goes well beyond social networking and blogging. It consists of many categories, but here we have chosen to highlight 10 key aspects which should be your business’ focus as you start on your Social Media journey. I’ve included two tools for each category to help you put your social media strategy into action.
@Induja
posted13/02/10
Hi, it’s been awhile since we added new Templates to Creately - well at least not in this New Year. So we thought we’d hand out some treats just in time for the Lunar New Year (it is the year of the Tiger after all).
Project Management Templates
First off - a couple of new business Templates to help you with your Project Management diagrams. Every Project Manager needs a good Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Project Team Organizational chart - so @Induja put mouse to pad and created these templates to make your Project Management tasks a wee bit easier.
Work Breakdown Structure Template
Project Team Organizational Chart
Matrix Structure Template
We also know many of you today work in cross-functional teams with fairly complex reporting structures - so we’ve added a Matrix Structure Chart to help you and your managers visually capture the who’s who in your project teams.
Web Design Templates
Don’t worry we never forget our Developer and Designer fans either. This week - 3 new web design templates to help to deliver on your project milestone faster.
First off, a new webpage Wireframe Template that uses a wide range of UI elements to demonstrate the extensive shapes and UI elements we support in Creately (including a Video Player, Google Maps Widget and Breadcrumbs). Besides this, we’ve added 2 new templates to quickly create web Sitemaps and web page flows.
Webpage Wireframe Template
Website Page Flow Template
Web Sitemap Template
Check out how easy it is to work on website wireframes and mockups with Creately. As always, you’ll find these new templates right there in the “Create New Diagram” window in Creately - so login to check them out.
We hope you’ll benefit from these templates. If you’ve got suggestions for new Templates - just drop us a note or send us a tweet - We’re always listening.
@Charan
posted08/02/10
As Twitter becomes more popular and pervasive, it has become an essential tool for start-ups to engage with their customers. Here at Creately, we actively engage our users, supporters and even the occasional detractor on Twitter.
Recently, we wanted to understand what our customers say to us on Twitter so @Indu went through our Twitter archives and put together this simple connections map of our @Creately Twitter account to capture some of our more active users and what they’re been talking to us about.
Who’s Talking to Creately & What are they Saying.
As @Indu worked on the diagram, she decided to pull together some recent Tweets about Creately to share with the team and you - our customers.
- b3nw: saved by a javascript app creately - http://creately.com after MS Visio just refused to link things, whew. Best $5 i’ve spent in along time.
- UrbanHaiku: learning how to use creately.com to make a flowchart for my blog. I like it.
- JasonStoddard: Highly recommend @creately & checking out their mindmapping/diagram solution. Hosted. Elegant. Stupid-simple. #FF
- megormi: I made some interesting graphic organizers today using creately.com thanks to the suggestion by@socratech
- nocash: Been looking for something like this for a while: Create and Collaborate on Online Diagrams - Creately -http://creately.com/
- Rohlund: I highly recommend checking out creately.com if Microsoft Visio is not your friend. #ittools
Thank you for all your tweets. We try to respond to each and everyone of them - so if you’ve enjoyed using Creately - tell us - we’re always listening on Twitter.
If you’re not following Creately on Twitter - now’s the time.
