What needs improvement with Visio?

In terms of enterprise architecture, Visio is limited. It is also behind in supporting AI-related projects and might need better integration with other products.

I did not use it to an extent to suggest any improvements. My use is so limited and for such a short time, I could not make any of those suggestions. The user interface was okay. The tools panel at the top, et cetera, seems really complicated. That said, I am a beginner user. It might be more useful for intermediate and advanced users.

Visio should be object-oriented to enable the reusability of objects across different models. Currently, changes made in one model do not automatically reflect in other related models. Having a repository behind the objects would significantly improve its utility, providing a structured environment for managing various architectural components and their relationships.

Visio requires a lot of memory, and it is not good for a small design. It slows down the Word document because it takes time to load.

The solution's initial setup was a bit complex for me.

The platform has limitations in managing aspects like repositories. Unlike dedicated tools such as Spark Enterprise Architecture, Visio may lack the ability to create an entire architecture factory or manage repositories effectively. Additionally, they could support specifications for designing strategic layers.

The solution is pretty expensive. It could be cheaper.

I expect the future version(s) of MS Visio to compete with similar tools, especially in using timeline features. This means that future Visio versions ought to have features that would allow users to manage projects with detailed timelines and if possible, add a more robust alert or notification system to alert the user of upcoming project tasks.

The product only functions well professionally, with adding additional software for configuration.

Indeed, Visio should progress beyond its current stage of solely drawing diagrams and transition into a more advanced phase, possibly integrating with different packages or aligning with Microsoft's offerings. It could potentially evolve into a comprehensive business process management solution, comparable to tools like Addis or Signavio, thereby competing in the realm of process management tools. It might be advantageous to explore functionalities such as process simulations or benchmarking, introducing simulators to discern potential bottlenecks or errors within complex flow diagrams. This addition would prove valuable for business analysts seeking insights into the intricacies of their diagrams, aligning with the evolving trends observed over the past six years.

In terms of features, it could provide more automation to display data flowing through architecture. It should give a real-time data update.

It will be a great improvement if Visio gets upgraded to provide its users more in the area of 3D. With Visio, when I plan for a house and the height of its walls, I should be able to view the walls in a 3D mode, which can be a huge product improvement. SketchUp is a program that is not as easy as Visio to build 3D models. If I want to build a house in 3D mode with Visio, then I should be able to do so with one click that allows me to change the house model from 2D to 3D. I don't have the latest version of Visio, but in the version of Visio I use currently, I don't see any 3D mode provided to users. There are some issues in Visio with the connectors, and it gets tricky when you want to connect objects with each other. The aforementioned aspect of Visio can be considered for improvement.

Visio is a very good product. The export and import functionality from Visio to other tools and the import and export functionality from other tools to Visio are areas with shortcomings. Widening the export and import functionality of Visio will be a great improvement.

I would like to see truly seamless and error-free sharing between Office applications allowing me to embed a Visio graphic without damaging the graphic itself. For example, when embedding a Visio flowchart graphic in a Word document the connectors don't translate properly resulting in a lot of rework time.

There should be more items available from a variety of other products that can be integrated. Architectural diagrams could be enhanced further. The icon support is limited. We'd like third-party icons available to us.

If you get large networks where you're trying to detect everything in the network and you get lots of minute details, the drawings can get too large to send via email. You have to put it in cloud storage for people to access it. That's a byproduct of having a large, very complex graphic.

Instead of pushing the solution to PowerPoint, we'd like to be able to have the same visuals right in Visio instead of moving it to other Microsoft apps. When I create an organization chart in Visio, and I want to show it to management, I shouldn't have to copy and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation or put it into a PDF file. There needs to be better integration with PowerPoint. The setup can be a bit complex.

The control flow feature needs to be improved. I compared Visio to Bizagi and found that control flow is better with Bizagi. The improvements that can be made to the solution depends on the user. We don't want to restrict a user on what he can use and for what.

The improvement I want to see in Visio is being able to edit it more quickly, particularly when pulling it out of another software and then editing it on that non-Visio software. Currently, the process affects the overall performance because it's not as quick as I want it to be. If I were to add a new feature in Visio, and if I went wild, it's the feature of creating new diagrams from Visio, even if I'm on another document. If Visio is running in the background while I have another document open, it would be interesting to be able to draw diagrams on that document.

An area for improvement in Visio is pricing. It's a costly tool for my company because it only uses Visio occasionally.

Sometimes, there is a little bit of a learning curve with it, especially while doing complex network diagrams and getting the lines to snap the way you want them and not overlap or be confusing. It would be great if there was a built-in tutorial. It is not that you can't YouTube, but it would be nice if they gave you some free training. I've been using it forever, but every now and then, I got to do something complicated with it and I wonder how do I do that again. Maybe they do have such information, and I don't know. I have not done research on it because a bunch of people work for me, and some of them are better at it than I am, so I just ask them to do this for me. There are some applications that you can run in an environment, and they will run through, do auto-discovery, and map the network environment. It would be great to see something like that in Visio, but Microsoft probably doesn't want the hassle of having to deal with it because all the ones out there don't work that well anyway. In order to work well, you have to give them a ton of access to your routers and switches, and nobody wants to do that because it is a security issue.

I can't speak to any missing features. It's been fine so far.

It thinks that it knows what you want to do, but it doesn't. It has a way of behaving that can be very frustrating from time to time. Either it moves things about because it thinks its placement should be at a certain place, or it's keeping track of things that you don't necessarily see, so it moves something elsewhere. So when the software requires more keystrokes than one would think to either capture or register a placement, or a drag and drop function that you think should be easily executed, it sometimes doesn't always work that way. Regardless of the skill, the user experience can sometimes be interesting. The predictive behaviors of it at times can be a little bit of a drag.

The solution could improve by having more integration.

Microsoft should include Visio as part of their Office 365 offering.

The solution should have better integration capabilities with MacOS and Linux.

I'd like to see the portability simplified from Visio to PowerPoint and vice versa. With other products coming on the market, Visio is losing a little ground and as a result, I mainly use PowerPoint now and Visio much less. The user interface could be simplified enabling non-technical people to use it. There's something about it that makes it complicated to use.

They could improve the drawing function, other solutions provide easier drawing capabilities. The UML drawings are quite limited, particularly the clause diagrams. You need to put a lot of effort to get everything right, compared to some other products I have tried. In a future release, there should be more features in UML drawings. Generating drawings that belong to UML is quite an effort, everything is very tedious by hand and I prefer the methods which other competitors use which takes the effort away because some elements are done automatically. It requires fewer clicks with your mouse and fewer presses on the keyboard to accomplish the same result.

I'd like them to include more stencils for new technologies in the solution. There are plenty of stencils available on the web but it requires researching, downloading, and testing what works. There are some common ones such as when you're working with technologies like Microsoft but it takes me some time to download clip art and try to make them myself. I would love to see an option to drill down collapsed sections of the diagrams as well as an option to navigate through different pages of diagrams, something that can be more easily summarized, and then go on to the details.

The user interface could be simplified and easier to use.

It's not the easiest software to use. It's not user-friendly out-of-the-box.

Some of the improvements that have been made in Visio have not been beneficial, at least to me, personally. Too many things have been added to it, and it makes it kind of clunky sometimes. There is an overwhelming desire or competition to continue to improve it when the product is and has been pretty good, and some of what is done tends to clutter it. In some cases, the updates make it more difficult to use. It is already pretty feature-heavy and continuing to add stuff is not productive from my perspective.

Would be nice if visio viewer didn't require active-x.

For professional use layout configuration is sometimes a little difficult to use. I think that the applications could be improved, so that Microsoft Visio is linked in the modeling of applications and algorithms.

The auto-routing feature could be better. Around 2018, the auto-routing of lines was pretty close to perfect, but it's started to go downhill from there. Keeping the lines attached to endpoints while you manipulate how they run and how they interact with other shapes or near other shapes is becoming very tedious. I would like them to give us the option of opening up the rules for auto-routing and make checkbox selections of what rules we want to apply and what rules we don't.

The issue I have with this solution is the same issue I have with all the products by Microsoft. They depend on many solutions by third parties for too many things, from my point of view. Maybe there should be more basic, fundamental resources incorporated into their products in general - not just this product. A basic user may have issues trying to install the solution. There are a lot of patches that sometimes change how one version will interact compared to another. It would be great if, in the future, we would be able to use numerics and graphics cards. If there already this functionality, they need to make it more publicly known, as I don't see it right now.

I'd like to be able to extract different data from different relations between the objects I create and I'd like the ability to analyze the different relations between activities, positions and roles. Visio can't give me this functionality. I would also like to be able to introduce more information in each object. For example, to include some codes or name or description of the activity, to be able to introduce more data in the object. To have this information in the objects would be great.

To me, Visio doesn't really stand apart from similar solutions that I have used. When it first came out, it was quite a progressive product. As it's simply for drawing and painting diagrams, lines, flowcharts, the price is too high. I do not understand why this product is not included in the Microsoft Office package. I personally wouldn't buy Visio even if it were 10 times cheaper because I only use it at work for diagram modeling; it's not a unique product anymore. It's both stable and flexible, but many features are complicated. The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated. It's not very easy to make diagrams the way I would like them to look. It should be easier to convert to other vector graphic file formats. Auto error-correction features would also be a big help. If you have a diagram and you scroll your mouse too far, you'll lose your diagram.

The solution should be included in Microsoft Office 365. For some reason, it's not. It should be bundled in with everything else. If they did, clients and customers would benefit a lot. Just because you have technical support for other Microsoft products does not necessarily mean you will have it for Visio.

I just uploaded the latest version and using it now, and I'm struggling with it. It's very different than the other version I have used, and I haven't done any tutorials. The previous version was easier. It was easy to intuitively figure out what it did. I learned it on my own and it didn't require the review of tutorials. But with this updated version, I am definitely struggling with it. I need to go through the training and go through the tutorials. So far it seems more complex, but maybe it's just different. It may handle images well, but I don't know yet. It is something that I would like to see in this solution. It should be easier to transition into a new version without having to spend so much time in just one area. Providing information on what has changed and how to do it would be very helpful. I would like the option of going back to the way of doing things in the previous version. I don't understand the block system. I had the favorites that I have to build again because somehow they got lost with the upgrade. In my favorites, I had shapes, fans, and other things. You pull up all of your basic images or search for them, and you could drag them over into your diagram.

Occasionally, the automation feature that helps you easily add the "next step" goes crazy and it will move a bunch of stuff on me. Usually, that's very easily recoverable, however, that's just a little aggravation we have to deal with. It's like an ongoing glitch of sorts. You need to be careful when you are moving the whole image. If there was a way to make the finished product more interactive somehow, that could be interesting.

I would help if they had something like a Microsoft Viewer. They also need to make this available across other platforms and not just Windows. It would also be nice to have a portal within the product, with some agreement with third parties to get those templates through the Microsoft project portal and not have to go out there and spend time locating the templates. The only downside to Visio is the learning curve. Nobody off the street can pick it up that quick, and they have to learn it. They need to get some training, some tutorials, which applies to just about anything these days.

The costs could be better.

It can be complex. If you don't know a little bit about it, it can get really confusing.

In earlier versions, there was better database modeling. The database modeling has deteriorated significantly in the more current versions. In Version 2000, the database modeling was pretty decent. Since then, it has deteriorated and a lot of the functionality has disappeared from Visio.

a) Its integration with other vendors can be better and support for other formats. For example, when we import a JPEG, we cannot customize it. Similarly, we can't utilize the BPML kind of diagrams. b) It should natively enable importing diagrams or reference architectures from any of the vendors whose solutions are used by the customer or proposed by solution providers such as DXC For example: AWS, GCP, VMWARE etc We can't work in isolation in a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud world. This is a necessity. c) The tool has to support more collaboration capabilities so that I can co-create architectures within the organization or with my vendor partners or customers d) As compared to some of the other vendors like Lucidchart, Visio is quite old-fashioned in terms of visual presentation. It is not up-to-date. Its visual presentation should be improved. e) Rather than static diagrams, the tool should support API level integration like SAP Power Designer or EA tool from SAP so that deployment of solution becomes easier.

There could be better integration between Visio and Word, especially when it comes to importing graphics from the one to the other. Visio's graphics don't seem to play well with other applications. Sometimes I move a business process graphic to a Word document. It doesn't copy the picture correctly, or it leaves some of the connectors off. Or it puts the wrong one in or changes the font for no apparent reason. That's a pain in the neck, and it's one of my biggest complaints about Visio. Moreover, when I connect a caption to a drawing and move the drawing, sometimes the caption gets left behind. And if you shrink the size of a drawing, I'd like Visio to scale the font automatically. Small details like this would significantly improve the product. Aesthetically speaking, the graphics can be a bit crude and simplistic. The graphics are sufficient for most purposes. Visio is a static program that tries to keep things simple for most users. However, I would appreciate it if they made an allowance for at least slightly more complicated graphics. As they are now, they do not inspire. People don't look at the graphics and say, "Wow, that's a great graphic." They look at it and say, "Uh-huh, move on. Next!" It's a lot of sameness. I would also love to see Visio with a more intuitive and reliable data linking feature. I shouldn't have to program or develop any complicated code. Just press a button, connect to the spreadsheet, and update it. For me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You should trust your application so that when you need it to link, it links. It would help to know that Visio is using the latest data, mainly because you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of a customer with wrong or outdated data. I like dynamic programs. I want to take inputs from other places and have the application automatically update my chart and know that it's correct. And not only do I want it updated, but I wish to document updates, so I can see what updates were selected and used. So if the document references a spreadsheet or an Access database, it shows where the data came from, what version it is, and the date. If you're doing a nice bar chart in Visio and you want all the bells and whistles, you can see the source material and revision of the chart so that you don't have to go back and say, "Is this right?" I want to create my objects and my object library more easily. I think you can do some of that, but it's not that simple. I haven't had a lot of experience doing it, but when I did try it, it was awkward. The support is okay, though not super great; I wouldn't expect it to be. Visio is not a program where you need a lot of hand-holding for most tasks. It's quite suitable for those who want to drag and drop, so support isn't too crucial, though there could be room for improvement.

I would like to see the project planning element improved, although it won't happen because Microsoft deliberately made it worse. They did not like the idea that you could actually plan a project with it, so they greatly diminished the capability because it was competing with Microsoft Project. Back in the days before Microsoft got their hands on it, it was quite a capable system for managing small projects. If you were doing something that only had half a dozen people and runs for up to a year or something, Visio was perfectly adequate for doing all of the project planning. Whereas, from what I have seen of it now, you could not project plan making a cup of tea with it. They have completely emasculated the project planning capability.

I'm working with Visio Plan 2. I find some lags on this tool. For example, I cannot manage the attributes. For example, for each figure of the process map, I cannot add any further information about it. I can't add the activity or the role that I'm using to relate to other activities. It is very limited by the information that I can use. Managing data is quite limited. I would love to see five samples for each attempt that I include in my process. I would like to be able to add some extra information. For example, to be able to add some attributes for each item. To be able to extract a report for business project management notations would be ideal. Another solution, ARIS, lets you configure each item that you add to the Visio model process, and you can add some attributes that we cannot currently add. For example, calls to activity, main indicators, or a lot of descriptions, etc. After that, to be able to export a report that shows the relation between the functions and the roles that you have related would be great. If it were possible to see different functions for each role and export it, that would be ideal.

The simulation is an area that requires improvement. In the next release, I would like to see the simulation improved. It's a Microsoft based, so it's still good, but it needs simulation.

They have to improve shapes. It has good shapes, but it certainly can have more shapes. There are no U shapes. It also requires more customizations. There are a lot of icons, but they can be modernized more. These icons have to be more customizable so that we are able to change the color and things like that. It should also have more integration so that we can use it with other tools on the web. We don't use Microsoft Teams. We use Discord, which is more for gamers. It would be helpful if Visio is integrated with Discord. I can then show my work to my team. We use Visio, and it is a must-have solution for us, but being a startup, we don't have the money to use the whole Microsoft system. Some day we will use Office. For companies like us, there should be connectors for other software. We should be able to use a connector with the software that we are using or with the new generation solutions. Connectors will make it very easy to transfer data.

I think that it feels a bit outside with respect to the icons that are available. It should be easier to integrate with other platforms like Confluence, or other content management platforms for exporting and collaborating on drawings. It would be helpful if Visio could open drawings from other kinds of tools.

My colleagues are not satisfied with this solution for many reasons. They don't see end-to-end processes or the layers of one process. When you use a BPA solution you can open an end-to-end process in one window, go down, or go up between layers to different places. You should be able to see descriptions of the steps of the process. Integration with third-party vendors is another aspect that needs improvement.

It would be nice if we could develop a custom database. We have looked into this functionality, but all of the other solutions that have a database are very locked down, and you have to use them their way. You can't define your own systems, tools, and inputs etc. For example, if we have systems that are used in multiple processes, and we want to know what processes use those systems we should be able to query the database for processes that include a specific system. A uses case could be system X being phased out so we need to know what processes will be impacted, so that we can ensure that those processes are all taken into account in any decisions to replace that system. Additionally, Visio should have the ability to capture metrics such as demand, work time, cycle time, .. for each step in the process. Then those metrics should be able to be linked to a spreadsheet to enable data analysis that remains aligned with the process map so that changes remain aligned between Visio and Excel. Other systems attempt to provide this functionality, but the spreadsheet functionality is not as robust as Excel.

I would like to see better integration with external data sources. Sharing work with colleagues is sometimes an issue with this product. I would like to see integration with Microsoft Teams.

I'm not sure of the features that are missing. It's a pretty complete solution. In some instances, I do feel that AutoCAD is a better solution to use. I find AutoCAD makes better lines and has a few better capacities. The maintenance of the solution could be better. It might be better on a PC. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if Visio is the best for 3D designs. One does have to make a bubble. It's typically better to do such designs in AutoCAD. I find that, in order to get money, advertisers, etc., AutoCAD is a better solution. The user interface could be more robust. It can export to AutoCAD, however it doesn't do so very effectively. You really struggle with exports as they end up exporting in different forms. It doesn't translate exactly. What is white in Visio ends up being black in AutoCAD. Ultimately, you have to go and fix everything. It's not that easy. You end up losing quality.

The reason we're moving from Visio to another program is the fact that you can link the library on ARIS or Signavio. These you have to save them on the save drive which as a collaboration. It's not working for us. There needs to be better configuration at this point. We need something a bit more flexible in that sense. The scalability is limited. If you look at ARIS, for example, or Signavio, the flowchart combines all the details and with the click of a button I can create a process manager. That would be something that Visio could add. It would cut my workload in half. Currently, once I'm done with drawing the flowchart, I need to take it and put it in that document and then explain what the flowchart is.

I am fairly happy with the program. That would be about 90 percent happy. There is not really much that is wrong with it. The only problem I tend to have is that sometimes when I am moving objects around within the interface I lose the formatting or it changes type or linking. You have just got to get used to the connectors not staying in the right spots or how they behave as you work with it and know how to repair it. When you are moving stuff around the joins sometimes just do not go where you want them to. That is the join arrow or shapes or connectors might intuit what you are trying to do in another way than you might intend. It is an issue with learning the user interface and working within the behaviors of the program. When you move stuff around and it might move off the visible page, you just have to know to resize to make it fit in the view again. That part of the interface could be more intuitive or left to the control of the user.

The inventory feature could be improved. On projects, there are sometimes inventory tasks that are lacking. Imagery could also be improved. I'd also like to see increased visibility.

The big downside to Visio is that it's very difficult to push the design through to Power Automate, to become a workflow that you can use. The process modeling capability would benefit from a quick modeler tool, such as one where you use a table that is populated using the BPMN 2.0 format. In the future, I would like to see a connection with the workflow so that you can create your model and then execute it.

The design and the look and feel, need to be improved. Also, the pricing can be improved for organizations. In the next release, I would like to see simulations capabilities and artificial intelligence included.

I've had a variety of issues, usually related to the system architecture. It's almost like a general purpose tool but it's important to understand the interfaces and the components and how they're related to each other. It would be helpful if you could layer things easily for the diagrams so you can decompose a given object and see it both at the macro and at the breakout level and still have those kinds of connections would remain.

Something that needs to improve is the interface interaction with other tools.

For older version of Visio Professional, not all BPMN 2.0 Elements are available. The Auto-Align has improved significantly from the previous release; however, you may still find the auto align features lacking if your process diagram has a fair degree of complexity. My suggestion is to keep your process model straight forward and use the intermediate Link Event or End Signal Event to break up, simplify or connect the the rest of the process map.

Transferring data was one of the issues that I expected Visio to have resolved. I use the older version. I'm not sure if the later versions have already addressed some of the issues. To improve Visio, make it easier to transfer into other Microsoft products. For example, if I copy a Visio diagram into Word. If I open it in the Word version, it doesn't work so well.

There are not a lot of things that need to be improved in Visio from the user's perspective, but maybe some functions are missing. For example, migrating flow charts from iGraphics should be easier. When checking on some forums, some users mention data converters — so that may be a possibility. But it is not an official Microsoft solution for migrating the igx or the iGraphics flow charts to a Visio flow chart. It's a drawback, and it's a very big drawback. If we are not going to use Visio, the lack of integration would be for this reason. It's a show stopper for us right now. The function that isn't integrated in Visio is having a share point. If I'm going share with somebody who's more knowledgeable about a particular aspect of a workflow, they have to know how to use the share point. This is a drawback. iGraphics doesn't need that. It's much easier. More centralized integration would be desirable, but I believe that's not the direction Microsoft is taking with the product. If everybody moved to a cloud-based environment, a more centralized solution that catered to users to cut extra processes and functions, Visio would be perfect. In short, integration and easier migration would be beneficial.

I would like to be able to present diagrams in multiple ways, such as a Swimlane diagram. Also, in other products such as TIBCO Nimbus, there are links that take you to a completely different diagram. While I can use Visio for architectural diagrams and simple process mapping, there is room for improvement. The business process mapping capability would be really improved if we could link two completely different processes together. For example, in a company with multiple departments, I would like to have links between processes in the different departments. I would also like to be able to embed objects into diagrams that can be opened by clicking on an icon. These are things like Excel or Word documents, or a PowerPoint presentation. Eventually, the images or icons that we use in Visio will become obsolete, and we would like to have a way of suggesting new design options.

The one particular thing which I would like to see improved is in comparison to other products in the market, and is still lacking in Visio, is publishing on a web application. For example, there is a freeware application business process modeling tool, Bizagi. This tool has a very good interface. It also provides visibility allowing users to publish on SharePoint directly. Then the entire product gets converted into an HTML format which provides a one-click on all the attributes of every task, a detailed description, direct visibility, which I find is still lacking in Visio. An additional feature I would like to see included in the next release is the implementation of web publishing. For example, for any task or any flowchart diagram that I create, example "talk to the customer." Now using "talk to the customer," return adding attribute like "this is a step-by-step document file that you should follow" or "these are the setup questions that you should follow while talking to a customer." These documents can be attached to that specific task, and when I submit this on the web, users will get all the description, along with the attachment.

Sharing, and add timing features.

I would like to see traceability. It doesn't have it. You cannot find one object amongst several sheets of Visio diagrams.