Thought of the week

Processes and States

Wizards can help users understand where they have reached in short lived dialogues.  Similarly, process diagrams can help indicate to users the stage they have reached in longer processes and/or the current state of an application object.

For instance, the following example shows both the stages for raising a requisition and the current stage that a particular requisition has reached.  Diagrams such as this can be further enhanced with explanations of each stage.  Further, each stage could be made actionable to enable the user to progress an object through the process.  In the example below the user has begun preparing a requisition.  It is currently at the stage of being taxed and priced.