Re: Flowcharts -- information mapping and best practices?

[Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

I probably would have broken it down into separate flowcharts. However, I'm wondering why you have two green lines going from the leftmost pink rectangle to the leftmost blue document.

Mike
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Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare, consultant) wrote:
> Hi, all:
> 
> I've recently been very busy editing tables to make them more usable and
> understandable, and over the years, I've learned a lot of tricks to
> making them look good, flow well, and present information in a handy
> way. 
> 
> So, imagine my horror at being given a flowchart and asked to do the
> same. As it turns out, what I've learned about tables does not translate
> to flowcharts, with which I have almost no experience. 
> 
> I think I did okay, but it's made me want to find out more about how to
> make them better. Does anyone have any best practices, sites that
> explain info mapping in flowcharts, etc., that they can share?
> 
> Also, if anyone feels like critiquing my chart (probably off-list!),
> here are the before and after charts, with the company data blurred out:
> Before: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/3598555271_378d643010_o.jpg
> After: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3306/3598555291_e0baa5ce78_o.jpg
> 
> The information in the 2 charts is identical, and the "after" chart met
> all the requirements and made the requester happy, but I'm interested if
> anyone can suggest ways to reorganize, use color, group, or otherwise
> improve a chart like this. 
> 
> One thing I *did* learn was that using rounded corners on my connector
> lines really made the flow easier to follow. I can't figure out quite
> why, but it seems like when there are several lines crossing or
> overlapping, the curves let the eyes determine naturally which direction
> to follow. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? 
> 
> I also learned that, once I had the chart laid out properly, I could
> move things around and find layouts that created fewer crossed lines.
> Overlapping lines that all had the same path or similar destination
> seemed to help simplify. These are the kinds of ideas I'm interested in,
> although bigger (or smaller) concepts are welcome too. 
> 
> Sincerely,
> Madelyn Boudreaux
> 
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