How to Make a Flowchart

1. Once you're in the Lucidchart editor, you can choose to start with a customizable flowchart template from our template library, or you can start with a blank canvas and make a flowchart from scratch.

2. If using a template, you can click on any shape to edit, move, or delete as needed.

3. If building a flowchart from scratch, drag and drop shapes from the shape library on the left-hand side of your canvas. From there, you can edit how you like, adding images, animations, and links.

4. To connect shapes, click one of the purple dots on any shape, and then drag a line to your desired location.

When you're done making your flowchart, you can share it with anyone and customize the settings by clicking the Share button in the upper-right corner. You can also publish it in any format when you go to File > Publish. You can publish it as a URL, PDF, or image.

How to format your flowchart

Once the basic steps are on the page, a few design choices can make the difference between a flowchart that's easy to follow and one that feels cluttered. 

For example, which of these flowcharts looks more appealing? The flowchart on the left could be difficult to follow because it's monochromatic and the shapes and lines aren't all aligned. The flowchart on the right uses proper alignment and different colors, font sizes, and shapes to guide you through to the end.

Follow these tips when formatting your flowchart.

1. Make start and finish points obvious

Make it clear where the flowchart starts and where it ends. Often, the terminator shape is used to designate the start and end of a flowchart; however, you can use placement (top left for start, bottom right for end), color (green for start, red for end), or size to clearly show where to start and where the process ends.

2. Customize shapes

You can customize each shape individually or as a group in Lucidchart. To edit a single shape, click it and adjust it to the desired size. Change the color by selecting a shade from the Fill color icon in the top toolbar.

3. Use color strategically

When it comes to color, more is not necessarily better. Try to use no more than three colors in a single flowchart.

You also want to make sure you choose colors that match so your flowchart is cohesive and easy to follow. One easy way to do this is to use themes. In Lucid, you can apply a premade theme to your flowchart or create your own using the AI chatbox under Create theme with AI within the Themes window. 

4. Edit lines for clarity

Select any line you'd like to customize and move to the top toolbar to customize the thickness, line style, and even arrow style for your lines.

Lines and arrows guide people through the steps of your flowchart. Make sure each shape is connected to other shapes, and remember the first rule of flowcharts: Lines and arrows should move from top to bottom or left to right.

5. Consider swimlanes to delineate key information

If your process involves multiple people or teams, adding swimlanes can make responsibilities instantly clear. A flowchart with swimlanes slots each step into a horizontal or vertical "swimlane" to delineate who does what. For example, you can create a swimlane for each department (e.g., sales, marketing, development, etc.). Each step that falls within a department's lane is its responsibility.

You can select a single item on your canvas and edit it, but if you click to hold and then select a section or area, you'll find that you've highlighted all the objects within that area, and whatever movements or customizations you choose will apply to all the items in that highlighted section.

Mistakes might happen when you're making your flowchart, but you won't have to do much reformatting or start all over if things start to get messy. If you ever need to undo your last action in Lucidchart, a simple Ctrl+Z shortcut will work. You can also view the entire revision history by selecting the cloud icon in the top toolbar. This feature will allow you to restore your current diagram to any previous revision you select.

Integrate your flowchart with your favorite apps

Integrate Lucidchart with your most-used apps, from Google to Atlassian, AWS, and more. It's easy to publish and embed your final flowchart or diagram to any of these applications for seamless collaboration and alignment.

You can create impressive flowcharts to present to your teams or audience quickly and easily with Lucidchart. Don't wait—make a flowchart and share your processes and information in a visual manner, and leave a lasting impression today!

History

Flowcharts to document business processes came into use in the 1920s and ‘30s. In 1921, industrial engineers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth introduced the “Flow Process Chart” to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  In the early 1930s, industrial engineer Allan H. Morgensen used Gilbreth’s tools to present conferences on making work more efficient to business people at his company.  In the 1940s, two Morgensen students, Art Spinanger and Ben S. Graham, spread the methods more widely. Spinanger introduced the work simplification methods to Procter and Gamble. Graham, a director at Standard Register Industrial, adapted flow process charts to information processing. In 1947, ASME adopted a symbol system for Flow Process Charts, derived from the Gilbreths’ original work.

Also in the late ‘40s, Herman Goldstine and John Van Neumann used flowcharts to develop computer programs, and diagramming soon became increasingly popular for computer programs and algorithms of all kinds. Flowcharts are still used for programming today, although pseudocode, a combination of words and coding language meant for human reading, is often used to depict deeper levels of detail and get closer to a final product.

In Japan, Kaoru Ishikawa (1915-1989), a key figure in quality initiatives in manufacturing, named flowcharts as one of the key tools of quality control, along with complementary tools such as the Histogram, Check Sheet and Cause-and-Effect Diagram, now often called the Ishikawa Diagram.

Flowchart symbols

Here are some of the common flowchart symbols. For a more comprehensive list, see our full flowchart symbols page.

Terminal/Terminator
Process
Decision
Document
Data, or Input/Output
Stored Data
Flow Arrow
Comment or Annotation
Predefined process
On-page connector/reference
Off-page connector/reference

Flowcharts for computer programming/algorithms

As a visual representation of data flow, flowcharts are useful in writing a program or algorithm and explaining it to others or collaborating with them on it. You can use an algorithm flowchart to spell out the logic behind a program before ever starting to code the automated process. It can help to organize big-picture thinking and provide a guide when it comes time to code. More specifically, flowcharts can:

• Demonstrate the way code is organized.
• Visualize the execution of code within a program.
• Show the structure of a website or application.
• Understand how users navigate a website or program.

Often, programmers may write pseudocode, a combination of natural language and computer language able to be read by people. This may allow greater detail than the flowchart and serve either as a replacement for the flowchart or as a next step to actual code.

Related diagrams used in computer software include:

• Unified Modeling Language (UML): This is a general-purpose language used in software engineering for modeling.
• Nassi-Shneiderman Diagrams: Used for structured computer programming. Named after Isaac Nassi and Ben Shneiderman, who developed it in 1972 at SUNY-Stony Brook. Also called Structograms.
• DRAKON charts: DRAKON is an algorithmic visual programming language used to produce flowcharts.