Flowcharts as thinking and communication tools

Abstract This paper presents an example of using flowcharts as ‘thinking tools’ to understand complex processes and as ‘communication tools’ to convey them to citizens. The UK police complaints process is the context for our project, in which we co-design advice with Liberty, a non-profit advice organization. We describe the different approaches to using flowcharts during the ‘Discovery’ and ‘Transforming’ stages of our project. We summarize the communication benefits and challenges of using flowcharts at different stages of design research, showing how design practice and research integrate within a multi-stakeholder project.