Best way to organize large workflow diagrams without making them confusing?

Question

Hi everyone,I’ve been using Lucidchart recently for documenting internal workflows for a small team project, and I’m running into a problem once the diagrams start getting bigger. At first everything looks clean, but after adding more decision points, labels, and connections, the whole thing becomes difficult to follow.I tried separating sections with colors and containers, which helped a little, but the diagram still feels messy when multiple people review or edit it. I’m wondering how other users here handle large workflow maps or process diagrams in Lucidchart.Do you usually split them into multiple pages, use layers, or keep everything in one main chart? Also curious if there’s a recommended layout style that keeps diagrams readable for non-technical teammates.Would appreciate any tips or examples of what works best in real projects. #workflow #lucidchart #processmapping #flowcharts #teamcollaboration #diagramdesign #workflowdesign #visualplanning #productivity #businessprocesstop games

alison cheney · Accepted Answer

Hi ​@cooleyom,Thank you for posting in the Lucid Community and for sharing the specific problem you’ve been running into! When diagrams grow to a certain scale, the challenge isn’t just where information is, but how quickly a viewer can get up to speed on what is going on.First, I wanted to call out this post written by a user in the Community, with a very similar question to you! My colleague, ​@Zuzia S, pointed out some great tips including internal links between tabs, utilizing frames and containers, applying assisted layout, and using layers! She also mentionedour course onVisualising Complex Diagramsin our Lucid Training Labs. Please check out her post with these great tips!Another tip I would like to add is implementing a diagram key (found in the Standard Shape Library) to define what different colors, line styles, or icons mean. This provides a clear manual for the viewer. Please check out this Lucid article on Flowcharts: A guide from start to finish. This article includes a variety of helpful tips, including utilizing a Diagram key!Finally, if a single document is becoming too heavy with too many pages, you might want to break the workflow into separate Lucid chart documents. You can link a shape in your master workflow directly to a separate Lucid document. In regard to your question about a recommended layout style, vertical documents are best for hierarchical structures or step-by-step processes that lead to a single outcome and horizontal documents are best for timelines or workflows involving multiple departments.Please let me know if you have any additional questions!

Cycling Scott · Answer

Alison provided a long list of excellent suggestions above. I’ll second her recommendation for the Visualising Complex Diagrams course: It’s short, easy to watch, and contains helpful suggestions.

Like Alison, I’m also a fan of including a legend or diagram key that summarizes the meaning of shape types, colors that result from conditional formatting; icons that reflect data values in shapes, and more. Don’t make the reader guess what those things mean!

If you’re specifically interested in flowcharts and process maps, which are my particular area of expertise, I have a recommendation outside of the Lucid library: One of my courses at LinkedIn Learning, Fundamentals of Business Process Mapping, covers this exact subject. The course includes a discussion and examples of diagramming techniques, including managing page sizes, use layers, and hyperlinking to other diagram parts and external resrouces. (NOTE: For historical reasons, the diagram examples in the course were done with Visio but the same capabilities, and even more, exist in Lucidchart.)

Diagramming aside, the course is primarily about the larger issues involved in documenting business processes: Where does process knowledge reside in an organization? How do you formulate and ask good questions to elicit knowledge from stakeholders? Which knowledge capture techniques are the best?

The ourse concludes with a chapter about best practices for process mapping.

I apologize that my reply ended up sounding like an advertisment for my course! However, if you need to map business processes and you have access to LinkedIn Learning through your employer, a university, or even your town library (many towns provide access for free!), I think you’ll find it to be an hour well spent.

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