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“Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination” – Joseph B. Wirthlin
An overwhelming proportion of content on the World Wide Web remains primarily visual in format and nature. Website content, online videos, Internet landing pages, online advertisements, news pages, social media platforms, Internet-based galleries, digital shopping portals, and more. They all find relevance through the concept of visual content. Various elements of the visual medium are deployed to fragment continuity in a bid to aid greater comprehension on the part of readers, consumers, reviewers, etc. For instance, the gaps between paragraphs are designed to reduce visual clutter. They help readers decode the meaning of the text. Similarly, icons are deployed inside websites as part of efforts to create visually appealing content. In these contexts, flowchart diagrams help designers to visually understand processes and create appropriate stances that promote comprehension. Designers can also use interactive decision trees to create self-service guides for customers.
Online shoppers and digital consumers
Lists that describe product features excite the curiosity of digital shoppers and promote the cause of online transactions. Designers can deploy flowcharts with a view to visually understand processes that result in the creation of such lists. Each stage in such an illustration can reinforce the logic of creating lists by describing font colors, font sizes, the placement of text-based content, the particular stance of such content, etc.
The diagram emerges as a roadmap that allows designers to visually understand processes and choreograph (or curate) the placement of lists that promote visual content inside an app or website. In addition, such a flowchart serves as a template that enhances the skillsets of designers working on similar projects. Therefore, we may state such an illustration serves as a handmaiden. It connects the design studio to the legions of online shoppers and digital consumers of Internet-based content.
Websites
The project to visually understand processes extends to a key part of the website, namely, the Contact Us page. Web designers and content creators can invest in designing a flowchart that encompasses the necessary components required for an effective Contact Us webpage. Email addresses, telephone numbers, facsimile connections, social media handles, etc. must figure prominently on said page. In line with this, the flowchart diagram can encourage designers and creators to position appropriate icons in a bid to enhance the visual appeal of the information matrix. In time, the flowchart may point to the addition of a robot-assisted window that allows users to connect to the enterprise directly from the Contact Us page. This is a clear instance of innovation driven by the designer’s mission to visually understand processes.
Analytical tools
The visual expression of an analytical tool may vault beyond the familiar outlines of a flowchart diagram. For instance, an inverted triangle may serve as the vehicle that establishes a flow of cogent information when designers seek to visually understand processes. The top section of the said triangle may denote high-level information, such as co-relations between various factors, and the trends and patterns that emerge therein.
The section below may contain medium-level information in terms of groups of factors. The last level that terminates in a single point of the said triangle may depict various numerical values. The aforesaid visualization of information supports attempts to explore data from multiple points of view. This approach promotes attempts to visually understand processes while supporting various levels of intervention from designers and content creators. We note the inverted triangle serves as a metaphor for the modern flowchart diagram. It thereby confirms its validity as an analytical device.
Business planners
Business planners that seek to visually understand processes (such as supply chain operations) may deploy flowcharts to examine the nuances of such commercial processes. A verbal presentation may accompany the construction of such a flowchart on the whiteboard. Hence, the first stage may depict the procurement of raw materials from specialized suppliers. On the other hand, the subsequent sets of the content may denote supplier interactions, the receipt of materials by an enterprise, retailers, end-customers, etc. The act of sketching this illustration lends heft to the mission to visually understand processes. The act of sketching also elevates the level of understanding for audience members. In essence, the flowchart serves as a vehicle to describe a complex business operation and its many moving parts. The illustration also assists viewers to appreciate the many points of its impact on a modern commercial enterprise.
Shipping software
Shipping software can attain superbly complex proportions when deployed in the service of modern commerce. Flowchart diagrams can help designers visually understand processes related to the development of these software packages. The successive stages of a flowchart can assist designers to visualize multiple components and processes that animate shipping software packages in real-world conditions. Designers with prior experience in such projects may bring to bear their learning & experience onto new design projects. They may utilize the expanse of a flowchart diagram to sketch new, more resource-efficient shipping software packages. In effect, these illustrations empower designers to raise the proverbial game to the next level in tune with the demands of modern commercial software.
Use of color
The use of colors plays a distinct role in the mission to visually understand processes. The positioning of primary colors can help direct the flow of human attention inside a flowchart. For instance, yellow colors can indicate the start of a process. Red, when applied to terminal stages, denotes completion within a flowchart. In addition, designers can deploy multiple shades of the same color to denote movement inside a process or depict the actions of a maturing sub-process. This visual understanding augments the sense readers and reviewers gain from perusing the text-based content inside a flowchart. Sharp shades of red or the color purple (and contrasting colors) can flag exceptions inside a process, thereby demonstrating the use of colors to visually understand processes. Further, gradients of light blue can be used to connect multiple processes inside a flowchart diagram.
Illustrate different parts of a process
Flowcharts represent ideal paradigms to develop & embed a narrative that explains the different parts of a process. Such a technique hinges on connecting the various parts of a grand narrative with the aim of explaining the ultimate objective of a process. This expression of a flowchart may emerge in the form of a dispersed diagram with different stages connected via multiple routes. Readers and reviewers must exert caution when examining this visual narrative in the interests of defeating fatigue and arriving at a cogent understanding of the depiction. Additionally, the aim to visually understand processes must feature an interactive element. Readers can offer feedback to the designers of said visual narrative. This ensures that future editions of the illustration will gain heft in terms of the conveyed meaning. It, thereby, contributes to the art and science of constructing visual narratives.
Do flowcharts help to visually understand a process?
In light of the above analyses, we can state that you can repurpose flowcharts to promote a visual understanding of many processes. The designers and content creators can view a process from many perspectives. Numbers, policy stances, commercial imperatives, potential, and feedback from the field can illuminate the selection of said perspectives. This approach should allow personnel to fashion the depiction of a process from unorthodox viewpoints. An intelligent perusal of these flowchart diagrams can help forge novel processes that may add to the extant body of knowledge in any field of human enterprise. Therefore, these diagrams can help raise process awareness among various categories of actors that animate the modern enterprise.
