JJG Visual Vocabulary Library

Best Practice Flow DiagrammingAI can not compose complex conditional logic funnels accurately or consistently (yet).

The exploration of conditional logic has been underway for over 2,000 years by such great minds as Aristotle, Socrates, Leibniz and Boole. Did you know that the symbols you use everyday for your flow diagrams actually have very specific meaning?

The guiding concepts and principles outlined in this document are informed by Jesse James Garrett’s Visual Vocabulary. This document intentionally departs from the ISO 5807 specification commonly embedded in many popular SaaS flow-diagramming tools (e.g. FigJam, LucidCharts, etc.). The author of this Figma/FigJam plugin contends that flow diagramming remains one of the most misunderstood and misapplied practices in UX and offers a critical perspective on how these SaaS platforms (and now AI) perpetuate that misunderstanding.

The International Organization for Standardization ISO 5807:1985 specification provides conventions for documenting data, programs, and systems. We need to use a symbology that allows us to properly arrest and visualize complex conditional logic from the user experience point of view.

This is true boxes and arrows best practices.

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