How do you create effective breadcrumbs for joint paths?

Question

Consider this real scenario:

1. There is a list of products
2. Products can be categorized
3. There is a list of customers
4. An operator can create an order for a customer
5. The operator can add multiple products for an order
6. There is a list of flows
7. Each flow can have multiple stages
8. Each product of an order can enter one or more flows
9. For each stage a product enters, some parameters can be set, like the date of entrance, a note, etc.

Based on this complex model, there is a UI list where the operator can see stages of an order's product and add/remove/edit them.

What breadcrumb suits this list? These come to my mind:

Flows / Importing products flow / Stages
Orders / Order-2024YK1009 / Products / PVC / Stages
Products / PVC

In other words, from the current list, it seems that the user should be able to navigate to flows and manage them, navigate to other orders or other products within the same order, or manage the list of products in general.

How do you merge these paths? I have already seen the Multiple breadcrumbs. But the solutions there are not my answers. I can't combine breadcrumb segments in dropdowns, and I tags won't mean that much either.

Answer 1

If I understood correctly the process you mentioned you are talking about the Procurement Process your app is mapping in the back-end. Where the person in charge of creating the orders adds products and the client, and more details to that order "Order-2024YK1009".

Up to here there is not a big issue you had the answer in the question you mentioned that didn't help you regarding multiple breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs help you to map the logic on your application.

The solution I'm proposing is that you only have Orders/Order-2024YK1009 in the breadcrumbs and everything else you can add links in the order details.

With that you can add tags in your order details that could lead the user to the stage where the product is at that moment or even check if the product is on hold somewhere in the process.

In the question Multiple breadcrumbs there is a good guidance about what is the main purpose of them:

Where am I? Breadcrumbs inform visitors of their location in relation to the entire site hierarchy.

Where can I go? Breadcrumbs improve the findability of site sections and pages. The structure of the site is more easily understood when it is laid out in a breadcrumb.

Should I go there? Breadcrumbs communicate content value and encourage browsing. (Source: https://usersnap.com/blog/breadcrumbs/)