Lucidchart, a startup company from South Jordan, is adding a new dimension to flowcharts and Venn diagrams by adding popular music.
Lucidchart is an application that lets people create flowcharts, Venn diagrams, mind maps and more. Recently the company created a competition where flowcharts set to popular music face off and the song with the most votes from the public advances to the next stage. Viewers can vote for their favorite video and predict an overall winner. Viewers who predict the winner will be entered to win a $500 Amazon gift card.
'Adding (flowcharts) with music was a match made in heaven for us,' said David Stauffer, leader and creator of the Lucidchart campaign and videos. 'It gets people looking at the product and having fun with it.'
An employee created a video of the product as a demonstration when Lucidchart opened in 2010. 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles was shown in flowchart form. More than 300,000 people watched it and were exposed to the company's product.
About five years later the company filled out its March Madness brackets for the NCAA and decided to create a video competition with more videos similar to 'Hey Jude.'
Employees picked eight songs that had repetition and would work in a flowchart form. Each represented a different decade and faced off: eight the first week, four the next in the semi-finals, and two the following week in the final.
Jarom McDonald, an intern from BYU and one of the co-creators for the event, said, 'With videos, you are actually seeing the product; that's what a user would experience.'
McDonald and Stauffer said they've received more than 30,000 views for the videos and close to 8,000 predictions for who the winner will be in roughly the first two weeks of the competition.
Students interested in using Lucidchart for educational purposes are offered the full premium application free. Free versions and premium upgrades are available for others who are interested.
The goal of the competition is 'casting the widest net possible' to show how cool Lucidchart can be, Stauffer said. 'Everyone loves music,' he said.
To watch flowchart videos for eight songs, vote the best and predict the winner, visit www.flowdown.co.