Workflow diagrams best practices

Recommendation

Design workflow diagrams for readability.

Impact

• Improve user experience.
• Avoid unnecessary complexity and confusion.

Recommended action

• Align elements both horizontally and vertically whenever possible.
• Use the same size for the same type of elements.
• Avoid cross-overs.
• Add labels for the sequence flows when there is more than one execution path.

Validation criteria

Workflow BPMN diagrams

• Example of a diagram design with unevenly sized elements, unaligned, cropped labels:

  

• Example of a readable diagram design: