Ethical decision-making impacts healthcare delivery at every level: from systems-level decisions, to helping patients and families make the right decision for their own care.

draw.io’s diagrams can assist in providing a visual structure for making ethical decisions; keep reading to find out more, and for a free “Ethical Decision Making” template designed to support Clinical Ethics.

What is ethical decision-making?

Ethical (or values-based) decision-making is not just about making the best decision for the most people. Each person is unique, and trying to force a “one-size-fits-all” solution may not respect what is important to an individual, or what their values are. These values can be informed by culture, religion, or personal feelings. Instead, a structured approach that involves relevant parties will result in a better outcome.

One of the biggest challenges of ethical decision-making is ensuring all involved parties feel their voice has been heard. A process that doesn’t include perspectives from relevant stakeholders will not be an ethical one.

Structure is very helpful in guiding these decisions. A repeatable, documented process makes life easier for the medical professionals involved, and also ensures that the process achieves a shared understanding amongst participants of the key question (what is the problem that is trying to be solved), and what is important (the values) to everyone involved.

The “values-based decisions” framework

Several models exist for helping teams resolve challenging ethical questions, but the “Values-Based Decisions” process by Bashir Jiwani, PhD., is utilized in a number of healthcare organizations and has proven to be effective.*

This step-by-step process seeks to first align all parties around the key question or questions needing to be resolved, then seeks to surface and weigh the values that are important to the key people involved, and only then does it turn to brainstorming options.

Once those options are analyzed against the key question, and the previously-shared values, a course of action will be planned. The strength of this process is the focus is put on collaboration, and shared values.

Using draw.io to make ethical decisions

As we’ve shown in the past, draw.io is a very helpful tool for visual brainstorming. By using draw.io inside of a tool like Confluence, we can leverage collaboration to help teams make ethical medical decisions.

We’ve developed a draw.io template that takes Dr. Jiwani’s process and puts it into our helpful diagramming product. The template serves to guide you and your teams through the decision-making process together.

Here’s how your team can make use of it:

1. Click on the Download Template button below. This will save to the XML file to the Downloads folder on your device.

2. In a new Confluence page, start typing “/draw” and select draw.io Board.

3. Drag and drop the downloaded XML file into the board editor.

4. Click Publish in the top right to save the diagram.

You can download the template here:

1. Open Confluence.
2. Open draw.io (blank whiteboard).
3. Drag & drop your XML file into your blank drawing area.
4. Use it as a custom template if you like.

Once you have made any further changes to the Confluence page the diagram template is embedded in, click on Update to save the page.

The template is now ready for you and your teammates to collaborate in Confluence, where you’ll benefit from:

Real-time collaboration

Invite your collaborators to a team meeting, in-person or online, to work on the diagram together. You will be able to discuss the answers for each step, and, depending on how you prefer to work, have one designated teammate record everyone’s ideas in the diagram, or assign a person to a specific section that they are responsible for filling in.

Additionally, collaborators can quickly add questions or raise comments during the collaborative process, either to be addressed in the meeting itself, or asynchronously.

Export your diagram to PDF

Once you’ve completed the process, you can export the diagram as an offline PDF to maintain a static version for your records. Remember that Confluence page permissions apply to draw.io diagrams too, preventing unintended users from accessing any completed diagram on a page.

Wrap-up

We thank Dr. Jiwani for graciously allowing us to share his process with our users. Is this template helpful for your team? Be sure to let us know, so we can pass the information on to him!

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.

Effective collaboration – it’s not rocket science!

Collaboration is the beating heart of science. For many teachers and professors in the sciences, one key component requiring collaboration is designing experiments. The initial experimental setup, presenting your research question to others, and later publishing your results and findings as a journal paper, all require close and ongoing collaboration with your peers, wherever in the world they might be based.

Another key component is visualizing your experimental design as a flowchart. Once you’ve created your flowchart this isn’t set in stone; it will need future revisions based on peer feedback. Your diagram is essentially a living visualization, requiring alterations over the course of the experiment.

In this blogpost, we’ll be looking into the process of designing an experiment in detail, and how draw.io and Confluence can assist you at every step of the way. We’ll even be looking further ahead to when you’re ready to publish your experiment results as part of a manuscript involving co-authors.

Designing your next experiment

1. Your scientific question

Every experiment begins with a question you want to answer. You might be testing an existing theory to see if it still holds true, or experimenting with a new hypothesis to support or disprove something.

When you think you can answer the question you have posed, that’s when your experimental setup comes into play.

2. Setting up your first experimental design

When setting up your next experimental design, you will want to visualize this using a flowchart. At a glance, this flowchart represents everything you and your peers need to know about the experiment: the group(s) that are being investigated versus the control group, the materials and organisms used, how many experiment repetitions you will need, and so on. If you have multiple diagrams as part of your research like biological models, data sets, and schematic diagrams, you can keep all of these in one place by adding new pages in a single diagram.

You can use the knowledge management tool Confluence to create and store your draw.io diagrams. See our related blogpost for more information on what Confluence is, why it’s useful, and how to get started with draw.io in Confluence for free, for up to 10 users.

Create your first diagram in Confluence by creating a new page. Start typing /draw and from the dropdown menu, select draw.io Diagram.

This will take you to the diagram editor where you will start building your flowchart.

To save the latest version of your diagram, press CTRL+S (Windows) or CMD+S (Mac). This will also publish the latest diagram version to the Confluence page you have created it in.

Once you are happy that your flowchart contains all the necessary steps in your experiment, it’s time to gather feedback.

3. Getting feedback on your experimental setup

The feedback stage provides the opportunity for your peers and collaborators to identify any issues with the design setup, along with further ways to improve it.

To gather feedback on your experimental design, you can share the Confluence page containing your diagram with your peers. Using features such as the sketch tool and sticky notes, they can add their feedback to your diagram without editing it directly.

Manage who within your Confluence space can view or edit certain pages, using the Restrictions dropdown. You can even set pages to private, so only you have access to these. Simply click the padlock icon in the top right and update the permissions accordingly.

Revise your diagram accordingly, based on peer feedback. It may take a few iterations to get right, but it’s worth taking the time to plan out your experiment as carefully as possible, so that you don’t lose precious time and resources running an experiment that isn’t well-prepared, and one that will require a lot of changes further down the line.

4. Adding your diagram to a presentation

Once your experimental design is finalized, you are ready to present your research proposal to your group. This is your chance to provide the context and extra details of what you are researching and why.

You won’t need to rebuild your diagram again in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Instead, take advantage of the versatility of draw.io and export your experimental design diagram as a PNG file, to embed directly into your presentation slides.

To do this, in your diagram go to File > Export as > PNG.

Alternatively, select the Advanced… settings to customize the format, diagram dimensions, and DPI of the image, before exporting.

Locate where you have exported the image to, and copy and paste the diagram into the relevant presentation slide.

5. Running your experiment

At this point, you will have taken on board and implemented all feedback, and your peers can no longer find any flaws with your experimental design. Furthermore, you will have already simulated the results you expect to achieve, to determine if the results you actually produce are statistically significant.

It’s now time to run your experiment. Once you get real results, you can determine your next steps. If you need to repeat the experiment, you will first want to update your experimental design flowchart in draw.io to add in different parameters or any other changes.

6. Getting your results ready for publication

When writing up your experiment and getting your results ready for publication, you’ll want to quickly and easily collaborate with your co-authors at any time.

Confluence is the perfect knowledge management tool to collaborate with others. It is your single source of truth, so there’s no need to worry about multiple co-authors accessing different document versions saved in different places.

You always have access to the latest version of your manuscript with Confluence, regardless of where in the world and in which time zones your co-authors are based in.

When co-authors edit and publish a new version, that same page is the only one updated. Features like “@-mentioning” and revision history allow you to quickly notify co-authors of key sections you want to draw their attention to, and to see what’s changed on the page over time.

Confluence is not just for text-based information. Easily embed your experimental design from another Confluence page, along with any other draw.io diagrams you’ve created for the manuscript.

Choose where within the text you want to insert your diagram, start typing /draw and select Embed Diagram:

Your embedded diagram will then be added to the relevant section:

Keep growing your academic skill set

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be showcasing more ways draw.io in Confluence and Jira can help with academic life – so keep an eye on our blog!

Some of the topics already covered, and ones that we will be covering in detail, include:

• Confluence, Jira, and draw.io: the ultimate student toolkit
• The student’s guide to group project greatness, with draw.io
• Visualizing an A+: diagrams for note-taking and exam prep with draw.io and Confluence
• Don’t short circuit: use draw.io for your electrical diagrams
• 3 diagrams every computer science student should know
• 2 diagrams every business major should know
• Eat the elephant: breaking down ideas for your final dissertation/ thesis

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.

We these 3 unique diagrams from our customers

This blog is part of our I draw.io series, where our loyal band of users gets to tell us why they love draw.io. Follow us on social media to learn more about draw.io and pick up some tips and tricks.

We’re always impressed by the diagrams our customers create with draw.io, from complex UML designs to elegant infographics. While we have our templates and common use cases, the power of draw.io is in its ability to visualize just about any process, information, or idea you can imagine. Over the years, our customers have shared some unexpected and creative diagrams with us. Read on for a just few of these unique use cases.

(Want to skip right to trying the app? Get started now with draw.io on the Atlassian Marketplace).

Diagrams that shine

Car Salon Belgium shares: “As a detailer, this is where I can draw out my washing processes in a professional diagram.” Using draw.io for planning processes is nothing unique, but this process is one of a kind, at least in our experience!

Showing your customers a professional-looking diagram of the services you offer is a great way to communicate information and build trust. We love that our users enjoy the freedom and flexibility to create any kind of diagram they want, including ‘wash, dry and wax’.

LaTeX + MathJax = a beautiful equation

Draw.io customer Robert Szmurło writes, “From my point the most important feature is possibility of writing LaTeX equations which are then rendered with MathJax.”

LaTex is a markup language that allows you to write mathematical formulas and diagrams with all the proper formatting, while MathJax displays those formulas in web-browsers. draw.io works with both tools so you can typeset math equations inside your diagram.

It’s a handy feature for use in pharmaceutical or biochemical applications, or for educational purposes – which brings us to our next example…

Acing the group assignment

In a comment on one of our YouTube videos, user H.D. says: “You just saved my Group Assignment. Thank you so much!” We’ve never heard of draw.io saving a group assignment, but we’re happy to help!

With draw.io, multiple users can work on the same diagram at once, and it’s easy to export diagrams and add them to your assignment or classroom presentation. We also know students are on a budget. Luckily, in a free Confluence instance, like the ones offered by many schools, draw.io is also free.

Do you have a unique use case for draw.io? We would love to hear about it! Reach out to us on our social channels.

And, you can always visit the Atlassian Marketplace to find out more about draw.io.

This blog is part of our I draw.io series, where developers worldwide tell us why they love draw.io. Follow us on social media to learn how others use draw.io.

Diagrams, charts and other visuals are key to any presentation, and draw.io is a powerful tool for creating diagrams. One of our users, Vinh Nguyen, described it as, “Very useful and time saving app. I usually use it for designing games, for presentations, and brainstorming sometimes. It helps visualize things effectively.” But often the diagrams we create for our internal purposes are too complex to be useful in a PowerPoint or Keynote – too much information, an unintuitive design, and a choice of colors that would make the marketing team sigh.

The good news is that you don’t have to create audience-friendly diagrams from scratch. With a few simple tweaks, your diagram will be ready for the spotlight.

(Want to skip right to trying the app? Get started with draw.io on the Atlassian Marketplace.) 

Choosing the right format

Exporting your draw.io diagram and inserting it into your favourite presentation program is as simple as File > Export as.

You can save your diagram as either a raster image (.png, .jpeg) or vector (.svg). Raster images are built from pixels and are great for accurate colour and detail and will work with any presentation software. Vector images on the other hand, are based on mathematical equations, which means they can be resized without losing quality. Some programs like Keynote are unable to import .svg files.

There is one more reason to use a .svg file if you are building your presentation in PowerPoint. With just a few clicks you can edit your diagram within PowerPoint itself:

• Insert your .svg image.
• Select Convert to Shape from the right-click menu.
• Right click again, hover over Group and select Ungroup.

Done! Now the elements of your diagram will be transformed into separate shapes that you can move, resize and recolor as you would any other shape in PowerPoint. This is a great option if you need to make further changes to your diagram as your presentation comes together.

Use layers to break down complex diagrams

When it comes to presentation slides, less is more. Your audience needs to quickly understand the information in front of them, and you don’t want them interpreting a complex diagram when they should be listening to you speak. In general, its best to keep it simple and remove any information that does not support your story.

Luckily, draw.io makes it easy to choose which parts of a diagram to export. Simply select the elements you want in your slide, then click File > Export as and choose .png, then check off Selected only. If you organize your diagrams by layers, this will be a cinch.

You can use multiple slides to build up complex diagrams in front of the audience, layer by layer. For example, if you are presenting a fishbone diagram, you may want to start with just the main problem and causes, and in subsequent slides include the details of each cause. This makes it easier for the speaker to tell a story and guide the audience through the information in a structured way.

Give your diagram a makeover

The right colours and font will make it easier for your audience to quickly understand the information in front of them. It’s simple to select multiple elements in draw.io and change their design as a group, especially if you work with layers. Use a single color to represent the same type of information, and choose colors with good contrast and clear, well-sized fonts.

You can also customize your colours and font to match your company’s look and feel, and even use custom shapes based on your logo and branding. But remember, less is more, so be sure to limit the number of shapes, colors and fonts.

Finally, if you need to make new diagrams for your presentation, there are several templates in draw.io that are a perfect fit, including lifecycle and timeline diagrams, not to mention symbols for any industry or use case. Whether you’re using an existing diagram or creating something, consider draw.io your one-stop-shop for presentation visuals.

Have you used draw.io diagrams in a presentation? We would love to hear about it! Reach out to us on our social channels.

This blog is part of our I draw.io series, where developers worldwide tell us why they love draw.io. Follow us on social media to learn how others use draw.io.

Cloud computing is now well-established and even winning over those businesses who once felt they would never move from data center or on-prem. Once business owners recognized the flexibility, cost savings, and provisioning advantages, the move to the cloud gathered momentum. As a result, cloud architects are in high demand, so we decided to learn more.

(Want to try the app right now? Get started with draw.io on the Atlassian Marketplace.) 

draw.io and cloud diagrams

One of our users, Arpit commented: “draw.io is one of the best products I have ever used to design my product’s architecture. You can create many types of diagrams with the help of draw.io…such as network diagrams, AWS, Google Cloud architecture, Azure, and more. You only need to search for the use case name without downloading any icon packs from the internet. It is very easy to use, and you can export your diagram in many different file formats such as jpg, png, pdf, or XML.” Arpit added, “as an architect, I need to create many architecture diagrams daily; draw.io makes my life much easier, allowing me to design different types of architecture, whether it is cloud or any other diagram.”

Clarity

We are delighted, Arpit, that you find draw.io so valuable with your cloud architecture projects. But why is diagramming so important in cloud design? Well, visualization lets you see your cloud infrastructure at a glance to check if elements are orphaned or unidentified. For example, are you paying for servers you no longer need? The whole basis for the move to the cloud was the flexibility and the immediate control of assets purchased, helping to reduce costs. So why not use a diagramming tool to clarify your cloud architecture? Or, more simply, diagrams enable better communication among the various technical and non-technical stakeholders in any business.

Layers

With the cloud, there is no one size fits all. But as your cloud infrastructure may be a fast-moving dynamic environment, it’s essential your diagramming tool can also reflect changes quickly, and that is where draw.io scores very highly. draw.io offers layers, a powerful yet easy-to-use feature that allows you to build a master diagram comprised of sub-modules, each in its own layer.

Use layers to filter your diagram to examine specific elements such as databases, instances, gateway zones, VPCs, security groups, and virtual machines to confirm that what is being designed or built currently matches what is needed.

So, for example, in times of peak demand in your business, you can quickly purchase more cloud power by adding cloud modules. Using layers draw.io lets you visualize these additional modules quickly, switching them on and off in seconds, enabling better communication between everyone in the company regarding the status and billing of your cloud environment.

General purpose

It is worth mentioning that draw.io is a general-purpose diagramming tool that allows you to design a cloud infrastructure quickly. Then you are free to move to more expensive and dedicated cloud development tools, for example, Cloudcraft for AWS. The good news is that draw.io can be integrated with such tools. So using draw.io, you can quickly diagram a cloud requirement and then pass this on to a more dedicated tool for analysis and real-time billing information.

Bigger picture

Cloud architecture is an art and science. Creating a solid architecture also requires a broad understanding of the cloud, IT, and commerce. You need to evaluate the exact business needs and then consider:

• Required features
• Business value
• Security and Governance
• Future needs

What does this mean? For example, suppose the business is selling globally. You may suggest leasing cloud assets in different continents to improve latency which might incur additional costs. Cloud architecture is about using business intelligence and commercial know-how to build a cloud system. To do this, you need a diagramming app that allows:

• Rapid prototyping within Confluence, offering security and revision history
• The ability to easily add layers and sketch notes across drawings
• Intuitive usability so that everyone can add ideas or suggestions

draw.io is that app. It is native to Confluence. Layers and notes are easy to use. And draw.io offers users the choice between a diagramming editor or a simplified whiteboard editor.

Flexibility

And as Arpit stated above, draw.io offers many use case shapes for different platforms, including:

• Azure
• AWS
• Google Cloud
• IBM Cloud
• Oracle

So there is no need to search for external libraries. It’s all built-in and ready to diagram. And if you do need to use some custom shapes, draw.io allows you to create your own custom library. So as you can see regarding cloud architecture, draw.io has you covered. It is powerful, flexible, and easy to use, giving all stakeholders input when visualizing ideas.

Have you used draw.io for your cloud diagrams? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please get in contact at team@drawio-app.com.

Learn here how draw.io can help you with your cloud design https://drawio-app.com/

More about draw.io

Every single feature in draw.io is carefully considered and thought out. It’s more than just software. It’s a tool designed to help real people work together in real-life scenarios. Our job is to make your job easier; that’s draw.io!

If you are keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Check out our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up some tips and tricks.
Or book a free no-obligation demo to learn more about how draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!

Happy diagramming!

This blog is part of our I draw.io series, where our users get to tell us why they love draw.io. Follow us on Social media to learn how others use draw.io and hopefully pick up some tips and tricks.

Process Diagrams or Flowcharts are a crucial part of many of our user’s project work in Confluence. One of our users, Vishnu Anilkumar certainly thinks so. Vishnu wrote in a review, “Flowcharts, maps, quick mock-ups, draw.io can do it all. I love it. Thank you, draw.io team, for providing such a tool.”

We are happy to help! In fact, to help teams create better Process Diagrams, we’ve assembled some of our top tips into this blog.

(Want to skip across right now to try the app? Get started with draw.io on the Atlassian Marketplace).

Flowcharts and Process diagrams in Confluence

As our friend Vishnu knows, one of the staple elements of any development process or project is the Flowchart. It clearly defines the start and end points of any project. From HR processes to crisis management diagrams, teams need to build all kinds of different flowcharts. It is truly a fundamental piece of visual communication.

Recognizing how important Flowcharts are, draw.io has positioned the flowchart shape library in the most sought-after use cases. To help further, we gathered together the top tips for any process diagram.

Design with flow in mind:
A clear and concise decision pathway allows others, especially those unfamiliar with the issue, to easily follow the process.

Keep things consistent:
Colors, use case shapes, connector lines, and spacing. Develop a style and stick to it. Mix-and-match diagrams are never a good look.

Think logically:
Every procedure or task usually has a defined sequence or chain of clearly labelled decisions and events. A good diagram will replicate this.

Has your team used draw.io to design a unique flowchart or other diagrams? We would love to hear about it! Reach out to us on our social channels.

Find out more about draw.io here.

draw.io’s continuing evolution

Every single feature in draw.io is carefully considered and thought out. It’s more than just software. It’s a tool designed to help real people work together in real-life scenarios. Our job is to make your job easier; that’s draw.io.

Do you like to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on Social media and learn how others use draw.io and hopefully pick up some tips and tricks.

Communication

Vital in any endeavor is how we exchange our thoughts and ideas. Unfortunately, however, the manner in which we do this sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.

The planning, technical, and demo meetings are where the project evolves. And it’s in these meetings that ideas are thrown around, problems are aired, and solutions are found.

Markups or notes

We can sketch our initial thoughts out in planning meetings, which is great, especially using the draw.io whiteboard inside Confluence. But as the project progresses and more complex and detailed diagrams arrive, we may need to quickly alter or scribble notes on these diagrams without losing our train of thought.

So how do we quickly add emphasis or make notes on detailed diagrams?
Scribbling is a key part of understanding a problem and finding a solution.

Why is this? Because it’s instant feedback, it is the quickest means of expressing thoughts and ideas down on an existing diagram.
A quick line scribbled across a portion of a drawing with a question mark says it all.

Introducing the Freehand or Brush tool

The brush tool available on both the Diagram editor and Board editor is one of those rarely used tools but, once discovered, changes how you think about communicating visually.

Sometimes, it’s nice to play around with concepts sketching out your ideas freehand on a blank diagram. But it is also a valuable tool for quickly jotting down thoughts and ideas on existing diagrams.

How to access the tool

• In the Diagram editor, it’s in a drop-down menu, simply click on the large + symbol on the app toolbar and select Freehand.
• In the Board editor, with its slimmed-down interface, the tool has its own icon in the menu sidebar.

Focus

The difference between dedicated shapes and freehand sketching can help differentiate between an existing system or data and the new ideas or suggestions.

It’s a mental wake-up call, look at this, especially in a complex and detailed system diagram under development. The old saying Art, is a line around your thoughts, applies equally today. A scribble can help express your thoughts quickly, posing What if queries.

A suggested workflow

The thought of a team crayoning all over your masterpiece may not seem that appealing. That diagram you lovingly spent hours on being mangled before your eyes can be a somewhat traumatic experience.

There are alternatives. You could create a duplicate and let people scrawl over the copy, but that means different versions of a drawing, and tracking comments and changes can be somewhat interesting. However, there is a more elegant solution.

Layers

Simply enable layers and create a new layer that will sit above the original drawing. Any lines drawn are only saved to this new layer, and the original drawing stays unchanged.

To those unfamiliar with layers in visualization, think of your master drawing as the base sheet of paper. Each layer is a sheet of transparent plastic placed over the drawing, allowing people to scrawl over it using marker pens. Photo and video editing software have been using layers for decades.

Of course, layers can be used for many different things, such as notes, highlights, images, or anything really. In this case, they offer a fast and straightforward way to add comments.
And you can add as many layers as you need. For example, one layer could hold one team’s comments, another layer, images, or photos. Again, you control the visibility and who sees what.

Prototyping and planning

The brush tool is not just notes and scribbles. Should you possess the necessary artistic skills, you can pretty much sketch anything from complex shapes to freehand drawings.

We let one of our draw.io’s finest developers loose with the drawing tool. They claim it’s a KaT methodology diagram (Knowledge activated Tools). But, despite their assurances, I’m still not sure that it’s legit.

draw.io’s continuing evolution

Every single feature in draw.io is carefully considered and thought out. It’s more than just software features. It’s how real people use the tool in real work scenarios. Our job is to make your job easier; that’s draw.io.

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free no-obligation demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!
Happy diagramming!

draw.io has just celebrated over 50,000 installs in Confluence. That’s almost three times as many as our nearest competitor.

So to each and every one of you – a huge thank you.

No other Marketplace app has more installs than draw.io, no other app has more reviews, and we are one of the few who hold the sought-after four-star ratings on the entire Atlassian marketplace.

Back in the day

draw.io has taken a long journey since 2001. Our founders and head engineers, Gaudenz and David, sought a solution that differed from the diagramming tools available at that time. The existing tools were either relatively crude or incredibly complex and expensive. Instead, they wanted to bring an easy way of diagramming to everybody…and they succeeded. Today, draw.io is a global product serving millions of users around the globe.

draw.io leads others follow

2016

First to offer full Diagram versioning in Confluence, full Integrated revision history.

Integrated revision history (not available in Gliffy)

First, with multipage diagrams, all dynamically linked, complex diagrams can be spread over multiple pages facilitating big picture overviews to granular, fine detail inspection.

Multipage diagrams

Introduced the Scratchpad, rapid custom shapes storage promoting faster workflows.

Scratchpad

2017

Introduced the concept of Connectors to diagramming. Connectors are a tremendously powerful addition to diagramming. Allowing shapes and their associated connecting lines to track/remain attached when editing.

Connectors

First, with Page anchors and multiple means of linking content within Confluence. The ability to insert drawings and images into Confluence and assign links to these images.

Page Anchors

Another first, Interactive diagrams, the ability to control the appearance of a diagram during presentations in real-time by using selectable layers.

Interactive diagrams

Security, draw.io introduced GDPR compliance in 2018 and operates a continual revision and improvement policy.

GDPR

2019

First, with diagram merge edits inside Confluence Server, if two or more people are working on the same diagram remotely, draw.io saves all changes, and combined with revision history, we have your back. No more accidental deletes.

Merge edits

2020

Customer Focus our continual pursuit of client satisfaction by demonstrating new and unusual Use Cases to provide our customers with fresh ideas and inspiration.
One example is our recent blog and whitepaper on “Taking diagrams into the company.”

Diagrams in HR & onboarding

Tables relaunch, our continual policy of revision and improvement. We completely revised our table tool.

draw.io tables

2021

Data Governance, your data, you decide. draw.io offers complete flexibility and control over exactly where your data is stored.

Data Governance.

Whiteboarding macro (embedded in the base product.)

The Board editor

2022 and beyond

The Board editor, its life story has only just begun.
Coming soon real-time collaborative editing.

And in the pipeline, much much more.

The timeline above is just a summary of draw.io’s achievements in just six short years. We have not only caught up with our competition but have overtaken them in both power, functionality, and number of users.

It’s our level of customization offering bespoke libraries and the ability to edit and create your own. No other application out there can match us.

Your concerns for security, privacy, and Data Governance are also ours. We understand the importance you place on data privacy by going beyond Atlassian’s requirements and what our competitors can deliver.

But ultimately, it’s our worldwide community of users who drive us on. We thrive on our feedback via Github. Perhaps you have a feature request or query, then visit our Github repository and say your piece. We love our communities feedback and actively act on suggestions and new feature requests.
draw.io Github feedback here

draw.io is genuinely is a developer’s tool. We enable you to do more, code more, helping to make the world a better place.

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!
Happy diagramming!

Back in the day, some of the best advice I ever learned was given by a deputy school principal at my middle school.
An authoritative figure, he addressed our class and explained that the exams we were about to take would determine our future.

He offered three golden rules in taking any exam.

1. 1. 1. Read the Question
      2. Read the Question
      3. Read the Question

Then he went on to explain that many students, in the heat of the moment and under pressure, misinterpreted the question and gave wrong answers.
The person marking the exam could see the students thinking and knew the student was intelligent and knowledgeable, but a wrong answer is a wrong answer.

In this blog post, we look at how diagrams can play a vital part in ensuring customer satisfaction and how diagramming can ensure we don’t misinterpret our clients.

Misunderstandings

It boils down to simply understanding what the customer wants. Not what we think they want, but really what they want, and how can we avoid contractor-client misunderstandings.

“Customers don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” Professor Theodore Levitt, the legendary marketing scholar and former Harvard Business Review, editor.

Jobs to be done framework

One method to avoid these errors is the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) theory. It states that purchasing decisions are mainly about completing a task. Users don’t buy products or services. Instead, they pay for them to do a job.

It might be a customer request or product evolution, but it all hinges on knowing what the market wants.

“If you develop a product that gets what the customer is trying to get done, you don’t have to advertise; people will just pull it into their lives.” Clayton M Christensen

Visualization

The key to the Jobs To Be Done approach is visualization, not just one diagram but many, each building on the ideas spawned by the previous diagram.

Customer requests

An inquiry may be a customer request, an existing client needs a modification, or perhaps an entirely new solution. Both sides are energetic and keen to move forward during these initial stages, but misunderstanding can arise. For example, how many times after an initial meeting has the customer thought, “strange they never asked about….” Or has the development team thought, “we forgot to ask…”

Market forces

Here we can use Force Diagrams to clearly define the Product Push (why are we doing this) and Product Pull (the attraction for our customers). But again, some forces rally against change. Diagramming these conflicting forces helps clarify the decision to proceed or not to.

Fleshing out the requirement

Here Flowcharts are an essential tool. Following a decision-making process ensures all bases are covered. The same essential questions are asked regardless of the project.
A Flow Chart imposes discipline. It guides the team through acquiring the essential data, a process of questions, and information requests.
They help ensure nothing is missed, critical points are discussed, and minimize the risk of specific issues returning to bite later.

Value Proposition and User Personas

Or perhaps it’s a new product or product evolution. It’s pretty standard for businesses to develop User Personas or business descriptions of their existing or potential new customers.
Employing the User Persona, the next step is to create a Value Proposition Canvas that can graphically help define precisely what the target market seeks.

Diagramming again is the essential tool in building User Personas and Value Propositions based on these Personas.

1. Open Confluence.
2. Open draw.io (blank diagram).
3. Drag & drop your XML file into your blank drawing area.
4. Use it as a custom template if you like.

Client-customer relations will never be the same again

This blog post touches on improving Contractor Client communication using the JTBD approach.

But the real gamechanger in JTBD methodology is in using draw.io’s new Board editor, enabling both developer and client to interact and work side by side on projects even if separated by continents. Every idea and modification time-stamped and stored in Confluence.

Customer sales can be in California, Marketing in Texas with the Contractors / Developers in London and Bangalore all sharing the same diagram, each with the ability to modify diagrams posing and reacting to “what if” scenarios.

Download our Whitepaper and see how draw.io can help you better understand your customer’s requirements

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!
Happy diagramming!

draw.io is the top-rated Confluence diagramming option on the Atlassian Marketplace since 2013. If you want to diagram, you want draw.io.

But let’s take things out of the abstract and into the real world. What kinds of things, exactly, are people using draw.io in Atlassian Confluence for? How are these use cases benefitting them and their companies?

We get frequent feedback from our users about the many ways in which they use and benefit from draw.io. You can read them right here. But instead of asking you to read through every, individual 5-star review, we’ve decided to write about a fictional company using those actual testimonials to illustrate the many ways in which draw.io in Atlassian Confluence can benefit the variety of teams in your, very real, organization.

International Thingamajig Corp., Inc.

International Thingamajig Corp. sells thingamajigs and thingamajig accessories to users in over 50 countries, with offices in The US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Mumbai, and the UAE. They’ve spent several years working with another diagramming tool. One year ago, however, Their CTO, Theo decided to make the switch to draw.io after considerable personal research and an in-depth, personalized online demo with a member of the draw.io sales team.

Theo was skeptical at first.

“My most important considerations are to provide a tool that allows digital collaboration within the company with no annoying hurdles to overcome. My three watchwords are service, quality, and efficiency. I wasn’t convinced that the tool we were using was our best choice, but I also needed to weigh that against the possible hassle of migrating to a new tool.”

The results?

“It’s a very fast, smooth, and transparent migration path. Of course, there were many other reasons for this decision, but we’re happy that we made the move. It’s not just much more friendly pricing for large teams but also excellent support, rich features, stability, and good performance with large diagrams, all of which we’ll benefit from in the years to come.”

“But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before the decision could be made to stick with draw.io, ITC’s many teams had to chime in, because, ultimately they’re the ones using it every day.”

The IT folks

Ingo uses draw.io for things like mapping out technical infrastructure, relationships between objects, and database design (entity relationship diagrams are his friend). He’s the IT manager. That’s what he does. When asked about draw.io?

“It simply works!” he says. “It’s a great tool.”

But beyond its intrinsic functionality, he says, “It makes Use Case, UML, or BPMN diagrams no effort at all with a perfect integration into confluence and Jira.”

“It’s a must-have for Confluence cloud. Simple, easy to use, and embeddable/shareable pretty much anywhere.”

But what about Eddie, the software engineer?

“Draw.io is the best tool for creating all sorts of design/architecture/UML diagrams including complex flow charts,” says Eddie.

“what I have achieved with this software is extraordinary. It’s a fantastic tool for making visual notes.”

“Great and powerful fully web-based vector graphics. It just works. From my point, one of the most important features is the possibility of writing LaTeX equations which are then rendered with MathJax.”

It’s not just for tech folks

Paula’s a project manager. She needs a tool that’s easy to use, fully integrated into her project management documentation tool, and that offers the option to collaborate with both customers and her project team.

The marketing manager at ITC is Miriam. She uses draw.io for everything from sales funnels to mind maps, content management workflows, and BMC. Like Paula, she’s not a tech expert, and she doesn’t want to be one. What are her thoughts?

Useful, versatile, and intuitive

Let’s end our visit to International Thingamajig with a few words from Valentin:

And more…

The use cases for draw.io are only limited by your diagrammatic imaginations, and the teams that can benefit from using it go well beyond just those mentioned here. From orgcharts for the HR team to our new whiteboard feature for team coaches and scrum masters to mindmaps for the research folks and infographics for facility management. To list testimonials for all would take several more blogs, and you’ve got things to do.

Visit our YouTube Channel, or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in your company!