Sunday, January 30, 2011

The best thing about flowcharts..


I've made a lot of flowcharts over the past couple weeks at work - I love this. I'm crazy about organizing processes and data. One of my very favorite things about the flowcharts is taking the labels off and looking at the design that happens because of the process. A good process will create a good design. Let's look at a couple from last week. I must admit, I think these are pretty darn cool looking even if the process isn't perfect.

The one below is nice, but definitely looks like silos of action feeding into a single point and then being distributed. Doesn't look like an efficient process. I smell bottleneck.


Check out the one below. In the bottom half, there's a lot more stuff going on over on the right side. The design doesn't communicate an even balanced process.

So, obviously, these are not final process charts, but it's cool what assessments can be made about a potential process with the labels off. wheeeeeeeeee!