One of the most difficult things when creating workflows is visually show the user where the workflow is at any point and the overall workflow. We need a control(s) that can help us be more tranparent to the user and to always allow the user to be able to check where their requests are. One of the controls should be able to do the following:
- Set a add a number of states and allow the user to choose the state the workflow currently is
- Visually allow different themes or custom picture as the background
- Allow formatting of each item so that the current state stands out from the rest
- Allow it to be set horizontally or vertically
Example 1
| waiting for approval | fulfillment | Delivery | Completed |
Example 2
This can currently be done with a table or a picture but using a table is not visually pleasing and using pictures require multiple pictures and is very time consuming. An example from ServiceNow shows something similar to what I'm looking for.
Another thing we need is to be able to visually show where in the workflow the process is. This way a user can quickly view a diagram of the workflow and see it. ServiceDesk used to have a option to view the process and an arrow pointing to where the workflow was at but this needs to be available for custom workflows or a video/article on how to do this. This also would not be ideal for complex workflows as users would not understand what may be going on when viewing the workflow.
Another option is to let us create our own stripped down workflow diagrams similar to the business model. We can create the workflow and then display it on a form with a link. There needs to be a way to easily display this to the person assigned the task and the submitter. We can currently do this right now by creating multiple workflow diagrams at the various stages and save them as images and display it on a form. However this is time consuming and requires another webform project to be created in order for the user to view the form outside the workflow via email.
Again, something similiar to what ServiceNow does in their Workflow toolset. These additions would make it easier to satisfy user needs and help us developers with transparency when building our workflows.
