Documentation Idea: Anchors for Lines

[bgrab]

Problem: The visual nature of Alteryx is one of its key selling points. The idea is to make work flows understandable. But when you're building something complicated, the lines cease being a helpful visualization and become a confusing mess instead. Lines cross each other. Lines cross out annotations. I know that there's wireless connections, but using too many of those makes the data flow hard to trace. So I spend time moving tools and boxes around, trying to get lines to cooperate, instead of chasing that thrill of solving. 

Solution: Users should be able to click the line and place an anchor which affects the line just like a tool would, but without doing anything to the data. It would just be a little point, not a full tool.  That way I could make the lines dodge my annotations without placing needless select tools or moving everything around. It could be located in the Documentation tab. 

Thanks for reading,

BG

[DavidMorrissey]

+1 for bgrab's idea. I was thinking the exact same thing myself--glad to see someone else has already proposed it! The automatic routing of connection lines works pretty well most of the time, but inevitably there are times when it makes baffling choices that make the workflow messy and confusing. Given the highly visual nature of Alteryx, designers should have a simple way to control the connection routes. bgrab's suggestion would work perfectly.