CODEWITHSUNDEEP
umlflowchart
oivvio
oivvio

Reputation: 3156

Are there standards for flowcharting websites?

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I had some trouble figuring out how to funnel users through different stages on a website I'm building and I figured that drawing a flowchart might help me see things clearer. So I started drawing a chart in Dia and an hour later I'd figured out what models and views I need to add and how to interconnect them. Given a little time, I can really see this kind of charting becoming a useful asset in my web development skill set.

One thing that bothered me though was the lack of symbols for common stuff related to web development. A symbol for forms would be nice. Maybe a way to indicate AJAX requests. I'm sure you can think of lots of other stuff. What are people using to visualise such things? Is there a standard set of symbols that I should use? I stumbled across UML years ago but never really got comfortable with it. Could that be used for charting web sites or is it not well suited to this task?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 456

Answers (3)

sfinnie
sfinnie

Reputation: 9952

Another option: Jesse James Garrett's visual vocabulary for interaction architecture and design.

I don't use it personally, prefer using UML Activity/State diagrams. However a few UX designers I know are strong advocates. ymmv.

Upvotes: 1

Will03uk
Will03uk

Reputation: 3444

I don't beleive there are official standards but the shapes never seem to differ likewise. For an operation use a box. Start and end use an oval. For a decision use a diamond. The graphical ones aren't standard, but can still be used.

Upvotes: 0

The Archetypal Paul
The Archetypal Paul

Reputation: 41769

I use sequence diagrams to document the flow from page to page (including Ajax requests). Within a page, activity diagrams are often useful

For an excellent, short, and readable introduction to the use of UML, see UML Distilled

Upvotes: 4

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