Item: Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Rating: 10
Author: Trevor London

Overall Satisfaction with Lucidchart

Usability

Simply because I feel that anybody could easily use it and do what they need to do with it in a matter of minutes. It is intuitive in it's UI and the drag-and-drop concept. Adding additional shapes is also extremely easy as it provides a comprehensive view of what is available before you add it into your toolbar.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Lucidchart has been a critical component in my professional experience in both my current role, as well as my previous professional capacities. The ease of use and wide array of functionalities provides a clean, quick way to complete ERDs, DFDs, and all types of general mind maps. Because it is so simple and has such a clean UI, it removes any type of cumbersome markup code development and allows you to focus all of your mental energy on the broader view of the architectural problems you are trying to design/solve for.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Easy drag-and-drop visuals and shapes
ERD shapes with options to easily include keys, datatypes, etc.
DFD shapes and nice shape / line options to visualize myriad types of data journeys

Cons

I have used the templates before and those are nice! I would like to see more
The ONLY complaint I can come up with is that there has been several times that my screen will lock up and i have to fully refresh it, even when it is a fairly fresh load.

Return on Investment

Though I can't necessarily provide hard numbers, I can confidently say that Lucidchart has saved countless hours for myself and my teams as we don't need to try to develop some type of complex diagram using markup or any kind of code.
I have previously been able to build a complete ERD using Lucidchart in a past position, which the company never had before. It ended up being used by countless teams in the company and ultimately in a large-scale data stack migration effort.

Integrations

For me personally, I have found the most use of this in linking diagrams to Atlassian (Confluence and Jira specifically) documents, tickets, etc. I have been able to easily integrate charts into tickets, for example, in which I could easily communicate either the desired end-result for other engineers or the accomplished result to analysts and stakeholders that are not familiar with the backend.

Support Rating

Have never had to contact them before.

Key Insights

Do you think Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite's feature set?

Yes

Did Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite again?

Yes

Alternatives Considered

draw.io, Microsoft Visio and Xmind

There has never been another tool that has came close for me. None of these tools had the options, ease of use, and performance that Lucidchart has continuously had for me. I have found the other tools to be clunky, unresponsive, and lacking the variety and options that Lucidchart has always had for me.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visual Studio Code, dbt, DataGrip

Likelihood to Recommend

Lucidchart has been very, very helpful and applicable in my line of work as i am constantly trying to solve complex data modeling and database design issues. I therefore use the ERD options frequently to aid in my overall comprehension of the problems at hand. Furthermore, I find a a lot of use out of the more general options with both the DFD and UML shapes and options, which lend aid to brainstorming on analytics needs, product journeys, etc.

I have previously attempted to do some work with a data dictionary and/or data catalog in Lucidchart, just for the heck of it. I was sad to find it wasn't a very plausible option from what i could tell, but would love to see some kind of solution there maybe.

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Diagram This - Lucidchart Is the Best!