“Design is everywhere. From the dress you’re wearing to the smartphone you’re holding, its design.”— Samadara Ginige
The realm of the virtual, as opposed to the real world, finds its primary premise in binary code. The virtual also interacts with the real through the electronic (constructs and artifacts) such as e-books, email, web browsers, digital highways, online shopping sessions, digital transactions, chat sessions, online videos, digital promotions, etc. An interesting observation emerges when we consider the fact application design remains central to these commonplace renderings of the virtual world. We could state such design operationalizes human interactions with the manifold expressions and elements of the virtual, digital universe. However, outlining application design remains a daunting proposition because “designing complex applications is a challenging undertaking. Building applications that have both the depth to support complicated tasks, and the intuitiveness to make it clear how to get that work done, is a tremendous challenge.” In light of this, designers of applications must champion clear visions through graduated spaces such as blueprints and flowcharts. This line of action allows them to participate actively in outlining application design and break new ground in promoting intelligent interactions.
Complex networks of imagery could take shape inside flowcharts when designers set about outlining application design. In this context, a primary technique could deploy a range of tints and colors to signify various stages that denote ‘design’, ‘build’, ‘test’, ‘revise’, and ‘execute’ stages of such an initiative. Arrows and connectors serve as indicators of motion inside the flowchart, while stages and sub-stages laden with color and text help develop the contours of application design. For instance, developers of mobile applications could use this technique to build digital shopping platforms for clients. The flowchart can enable the task of outlining application design through detailed imagery that helps construct digital store fronts, product displays, categories of product, special offers, digital payment mechanisms, shopping carts, review spaces, sections to record customer comments, etc. The resulting illustration presents a complete image of application design, thereby validating the choice of deploying flowcharts in said project.
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) represent cornerstones in contemporary voyages of outlining application design. These concepts bolster the look, feel, and usability of the modern mobile application, in addition to reinforcing functional aspects, such as in-app navigation. An expansive flowchart, when devised appropriately, can assist in delineating the various aspects and avatars of contemporary ideas that underlie UX and UI. Pursuant to this, a range of user stories, usability testing techniques, user research methods, and personas can deify the bucket labeled UX, while visual layouts, visual design, and branding confirm the UI aspects of outlining application design. Designers and architects of such diagrams can team with flowcharts to elaborate (and implement) the appropriate best practices in such enterprise. In addition, flowcharts can serve as tools that help diversify existing models of UX and UI in tune with the unique demands of undertaken projects.
Listening to users and clients is central to outlining application design. Therefore, designers must work to develop and execute information architecture, invest focused effort on style iterations, and complete validation processes prior to signing off on application design. Flowcharts can assist designers in these activities by providing controlled spaces that bookend such efforts. For instance, a flowchart remains key to construct information architecture richly informed by legal and regulatory guidelines that apply to a certain trade or industry. A different layer of said illustration could convey outlines of the expectations of key stakeholders, thereby completing certain aspects of the application design of a project. Such layers of information enable reviewers to validate projects, make balanced use of resources, promote transparency in design operations, and create opportunities for spotlighting an outstanding user experience.
Ongoing partnerships between product management personnel and engineering teams can yield significant dividends for efforts focused on outlining application design. Pursuant to this, product managers could deploy flowcharts to transmit views (inputs and recommendations) on application design to relevant engineering teams. Such illustrations could depict multiple flows of information emanating from visuals of a product. These flows could crystallize the outcomes of market research; depict inputs gathered from target audiences, source inspiration from the original vision for a product under development, offer intelligence culled from user experiences, etc. Therefore, the flowchart acts as a medium that promotes collaboration between different teams, and elevates the concept of outlining application design from multiple perspectives. In addition, the flowchart commits to posterity a blueprint that powered the design of a certain application, thereby assisting future efforts at re-evaluating a product or refining its mechanics.
Sample sizes and statistics (also known as quantitative methods) bear potential to inject meaning and context into projects outlining application design. Per this set of techniques, designers can undertake usability testing focused on collecting metrics, such as time spent on tasks located inside an application. A sufficiently large sample size, once achieved, delivers a trove of data and information that allows designers and creators to track the usability aspect of an application. Similarly, A/B testing systems empower designers to gain a grasp on the behavioral aspects of using an application. Each of these techniques can find elaboration inside flowchart-based illustrations, thereby generating momentum in application design. Further, designers can chart bespoke testing techniques inside said illustrations, by introducing intelligent extensions and variations inside tried and tested quantitative methods. In doing so, they may uncover new horizons in application design and testing systems.
Elements such as layout, colors, graphics, icons, and text must feature prominently in the process of building modern application design. Each of these, when developed and processed inside flowcharts, emerges as a pillar of design that outputs a landmark product. For instance, designers and creators could position an array of the above elements inside flowcharts as part of preliminary actions. The subsequent stages and sub-stages could explore the impact of each choice on the final product, offer alternatives to designers, reveal the scope of evolution of said elements, and assess a series of semi-complete mockups of the intended product. Such actions spur progress towards the ultimate goal of delivering a competent, functional product to clients. In addition, flowcharts offer space to reviewers to etch critiques and deliver inputs that can refine the contours of said project. In doing so, the flowchart acts as a mediator between designers and the final product, while acting as a test bed for new forms of design iteration.
A reading of these lines encourages readers to utilize the agency of flowcharts in designing digital applications. We must appreciate the fact that the layers integral to such illustrations represent scalable (and significant) capacity to plan and execute original design projects. The ability to prototype and replicate segments of modern design bolsters the business case to deploy flowcharts in multiple contexts. Further, flowcharts can empower designers to explore new creations, seek new levels of validation, and improve traditional design processes through intelligent interventions. These illustrations can also emerge as locations of new breakthroughs in design languages, and these may power application architecture at new levels. In addition, designers and clients could collaborate informally through flowcharts, thereby enriching the texture and tenor of a project undergoing development. Such collaboration could also power incremental levels of sophistication inside application design, thereby reaffirming faith in the considerable powers of collective wisdom.
