Flowchart

Try #1, Ebay Flowchart

For my flow chart I first decided to draw the steps to buy a product on Ebay. With this particular chart I found that when I was drawing out the steps, I was making them too simple.  But logging on to a website such as Ebay is supposed to be simple and user friendly, right?  Anyways, after I decided to ditch that chart in the bag, I moved on and decided to do a flow chart on how to search for a book on Amazon.  It seemed to be a little more easier to do, and somewhat less complex with the steps, not that Ebay was really hard, just ambiguos. 

Tre\y #2, Amazon Flowchart

When drawing my new map I was sure to use the right symbols and tried to carefully choose my steps in which to order the process.  I found that the easy way to figure out the steps was to log on to the Amazon website and actually do it myself.  When I did this I wrote down the steps then proceeded to draw my flow chart.  I tried not to leave out any important steps, but I also tried not to state the overly obvious.  Though the flow chart is very long, there are many steps in ordering a book off of a webpage, especially Amazon when they give you more than one selection in many areas (the book you are searching, whether you want it new or used, if you are a member of the site, where you want things shipped and how you want them shipped, etc, etc.). 

When drawing my flow chart, I was unsure whether or not I wanted to use colors.  There are some charts that do use colors and others that do not.  In my flow chart I ended up deciding that I did not want to use colors.  I thought that it would confuse the reader more, especially because there are already enough steps for them to follow.

For my third flow chart, I decided to show how to search on Google Scholar.  This process was easier than that of the Amazon.  It could possibly have been easier to show because the way the website was set up.  The Google website seemed to have less steps and not as many options that needed many decisions.  I feel as though the Google site had many steps that were able to repeat, whereas on Amazon you find the book in typically one search and you proceed to checkout, etc, but on Google scholar you have to continuously search the products that the search retreives.  There are more repetitive steps in the process.