Sometimes users take a circuitous path to their intended destination on a website. You might think your ecommerce store is intuitively laid out, but actually following visitors as they navigate your site can reveal hurdles and dead ends you didn’t know existed.
User flows track user actions and map the pathsusers find as they attempt to complete important tasks on your website. These analytical tools help UX designers brainstorm interface structure on the front end. On the back end, quality testers use user flows to improve existing designs.
In this deep dive, you’ll learn how a user flow focuses on visualizing navigation from the user’s point of view, and how these can help UX designers make interfaces more intuitive.
What is a user flow?
A user flow visualizes the steps a user takes to complete a task as they navigate a website or use an app. It generally takes the form of a flow chart or diagram.
User flows help product managers, developers, and user experience (UX) designers understand how easy it is to navigate a website or mobile app when a user attempts to perform an essential action. That way, they can design more efficient products to improve the UX ahead of time before going live with the site.
How user flows work
Each flow chart or user flow diagram displays a pathway from starting points to exit points, where the specific task or final action is completed. Pathways can get complex in user flow charts, as decisions branch off on different tangents. This distinguishes them from the more granular diagramming called “task flows.”
Suppose a customer wants to sign up for a free trial or browse your catalog and purchase a product. User flows help you create easy-to-use, intuitive pathways for each of these potential customers.
User flows focus on the user’s objective as they aim to complete a particular process. They probably won’t act the same way all the time and are likely to move along different paths toward user goals. If your user flows capture an assortment of scenarios full of all the different entry points and branches, you can ensure your site or app feels like an open floor plan rather than a labyrinth.
Benefits of user flows
Once you understand user flows you can optimize a website or app. The benefits are abundant once you put in the time and effort.
Better understanding of user behavior
User flows clarify your understanding of how users actually engage with your website or mobile app. Instead of seeing a process from an insider’s point of view, you learn to see it from the user’s perspective. Knowing how the customer is thinking through the navigation steps and decisions will help you identify how you can improve navigation.
Ability to make interfaces more intuitive
User flows describe the movement through the site pages or app screens. You’ll see where interfaces become chokepoints—generating the kind of confusion and frustration that reduces engagement. You’ll also discover where interfaces create a natural flow through each step toward task completion.
A clear product story to share with stakeholders
User flows are tangible deliverables you can share with clients and stakeholders to communicate the necessity of specific design changes. A compelling and effective design story makes it easier to generate buy-in from multiple interested parties.
User flow vs. user journey vs. task flow
The concepts of user flow and user journey are related, but they aren’t exactly the same. The scope of UX can cover different levels of flows. User journey mapping takes a wide angle view of UX design, while task flows take the most granular view on particular tasks. User flows fall somewhere in the middle.
User journey
The user journey, often called a customer journey map, is all-encompassing. Customer journey maps portray the user’s experience from any channel or touchpoint—all the interactions that different stakeholders may have with the company.
User flow
While the customer journey is the entire movie, the user flow covers a scene in the story. User flows are not at odds with user journeys—they work hand in hand. User flows focus on the decision process a user goes through to accomplish particular objectives on the website or app, while a customer journey map brings all these user flows together—telling the big picture story of a user’s experience. The user journey is the macro view of UX, while user flows are microcosms of different UX scenarios.
Task flow
In the hierarchy of UX flow types, task flows are more granular than user flows—and also simpler and more linear. They contain no branching logic, just a sequence of steps to describe how a particular task is accomplished on the site or app. In other words, task flows create user flows, which then create the entire user journey.
When should you create user flows in the UX design process?
Developers short on time and budget might think they can skip over user flows. That’s not advisable. You wouldn’t direct a movie without a storyboard or make a meal without a recipe. By the same token, you should create a user flow whenever a new feature or major interface change is in the works.
Many tools are available for designing user flows. Look for a tool that includes diagramming capability, customizable shapes and icons, version control, collaboration features like commenting and feedback, and a simple drag-and-drop interface.
User flows are useful at many stages of the design process, including:
- Research and planning. In the early design stages of user research, a basic flow lets you brainstorm and play with various usage scenarios for different user types and behavioral tendencies. It could consist of a basic flowchart.
- Development. This stage will require more precisely detailed user flows. You’ll need more details to assist development of prototypes and wireframes for blueprints of site hierarchy and logical flows.
- Testing. At the user testing stage, user flows capture the interactions of different users with the site or app. They also assist in identifying crucial usability problems and pesky pain points where customer engagement suffers.
- Improvement. A Google Analytics User Flow report will help you identify the common paths users take on your website. You can determine the traffic volume of customers at each step and examine many points of entry, common UX flows, and exit points. Once you have a better understanding of the user’s journey, the UX design process can adapt.
User flow example
Let’s use a hypothetical ecommerce customer and visualize their user flow. First, your site’s journey maps make a list of potential entry points for the kind of customer in question. Think about how varying types of customers might enter from various traffic sources. Points of entry could be from direct traffic, organic search, or clicking through a social media link.
Let’s say a customer’s entry point is the homepage. From there, the customer has options. They can jump to a product search, browse the product catalog, investigate additional information about the company, or use a Contact page.
Say the customer decides to search for a product, skim the results page, filter using faceted search options, and land on a product they might want to purchase. The user flow would depict these actions. Next comes the checkout process. The customer reviews all items in the cart, edits the quantity, shipping info, payment info, and finalizes the transaction.
When diagramming a shopping sequence in a user flow, we see at least seven distinct web pages involved: homepage, search result page, product page, shopping cart, customer sign-in/sign-up page, checkout page, confirm payment page, and payment complete page. For each step from start to end point, the user flow chart would show the options and draw lines to map the path.
User flow FAQ
What is user flow vs. task flow in UX?
Task flow is the simplest, most granular level of UX concepts. Task flow describes a basic, sequential path to accomplish one thing, with no detours, no entry points, and no exit points. User flow is more complex, has more branches, and can include multiple interrelated task flows.
How many steps should a user flow include?
It really depends. Many factors determine it. Complex tasks and different users may require more steps. A new user, for example, may require added steps to complete account registration steps. The goal is to capture as many steps as necessary to describe the actual user flow.
Are there different types of user flows?
Yes, there are many different types of user flows, categorized by level of complexity (simple, complex), type of user (target audience, secondary user), and degree of usability (easy and fluent pathways versus error prone pathways).
