Building from scratch isn't necessary if your tool has an adequate selection of flowchart/diagram templates. I also looked for features that helped arrange things in a clear and logical way, like grids, auto-snapping shapes, and ratio aspect size adjusters.

I made sure there was a variety of standard shapes available to work with. The ability to create clear and logical diagrams. I looked at the difficulty level for beginners, the number of features and tools you need to learn to use the app, and how intuitive the user interface was. As I was testing, I kept this in mind, looking for tools that served a variety of use cases but I also made sure to test all the flowchart tools and diagramming software against the same criteria as a baseline:Įase of use. That's all to say, there's no one best way to create a flowchart: you need to be sure the app you choose suits your specific needs.

It was painful-mostly because I was working with the wrong software as a beginner. I spent a full week working on the assignment, spending hours each day tinkering with text boxes, aligning shapes and connectors, designing my chart so it looked presentable to my team.

It had to include the work that needed to be done for each page (website copy, design, SEO, etc.) and include steps for each team member and the approval process. I remember once I had to use Whimsical to create a massive flowchart, one that detailed the process of revamping a website for a client. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

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