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Best Online Examples of Workflow Patterns?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the smoothly-flowing-interfaces dept.

g8orade writes "In his bestselling book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman lists workflow management software in the top 5 Flatteners. During my work for a shipping startup, I have analyzed our software's many UI weaknesses, particularly related to workflow management, and am currently searching for the best online examples of various UI application patterns / widgets that address managing transaction flows. What are the best examples you know of that are commonly viewable on the web?" "Our software UI is Oracle (9i) Forms compiled to run with Java, through the web. We're using RT for our internal ticket tracking and it has many of the features listed. Also, we're evaluating several commercial document management systems as bolt-ons or companions to our in-house application. Here are some patterns we'd like to improve:
  • Queue with count beside it. Example: 'Unshipped orders (5)'
  • Screen for UI building of a search and ability to save the search as a queue
  • List of queues showing all transaction counts and their various states
  • Transaction list / table screen (should have an many possible features as a standard spreadsheet: pick your columns, column order, sort order, clickable column headings, export to various formats, print view, etc.)
  • Detail view screen (one transaction, may include too many fields to display at once, requiring tabs, scrolling up and down, left to right, etc., should have a good printable view)
  • Contact database built-in or connection to one from another system
  • Auto messaging of various statuses to contacts and lists of contacts, above
  • Full web accessibility and security model to allow our suppliers and clients access to their own queues for 'pull queries', in addition to what we email them.
  • Ability to create a list of values for a field, then incorporate that into the query for a queue.
  • Journal of a transaction
  • Screen showing progression of a transaction
  • Screen showing Parent / child parts of a transaction"

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Why patterns? by waffleman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously, could someone explain to me why patterns are what is needed here? From my experience, user interface design takes a deep understanding of customer requirements. Applying patterns would seem (imo) like an entrapping short cut that ultimately would be a waste of time. Any thoughts?

  2. YAWL by asphinx · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have a look at the YAWL project of the Business Process Modelling Group at the Queensland University of Technology. YAWL stands for Yet Another Workflow Language and is based on petri nets. The BPM group claims it can model any workflow pattern. Link: http://www.yawl.fit.qut.edu.au/.