Even if you are an experienced UX/UI design specialist, from time to time, someone else's expertise can bring fresh breath to the best practices that you have honed over the years. We talked with leading experts in this field and decided to transform what they said about user flow into valuable recommendations
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"User flows serve as a visual representation of the steps users take on a website or app to complete a target action. In a business context, each user flow chain represents +1 conversion.
Again, user flows provide undeniable value for developers. They allow teams to depict the final solution's structure hands-down and define the number of wireframes, pages, and other elements that require much time to work on.
In general, this is something global that you can present already in the early project stages to stakeholders, real users, other team members, and anyone else, and receive either their approval or criticism."
What insights can we get from this?
Building a user flow is one of the easiest ways to define a project’s scope
Use user flows to provide the client with project estimates before starting full-time work on it
Creating a framework flow can become the starting point for more resource-intensive stages, such as wireframing and Internal Assessment
With a user flow at hand, you can agree on your vision for the project with other parties involved in its development before you start working on a full-fledged design
CEO of a full-cycle software development company
“I often encountered in my work that the quality assurance department did not have the slightest idea of which scenarios needed to be tested first.
Actually, this is how we came to the implementation of a mandatory step - building a user flow - so that none of our team members would be confused about what to do next. This is critically important when the project is limited in time resources, and it is not possible to try several approaches at once.”
What insights can we get from this?
User flow is an excellent tool not only for designers but also for team members involved in later stages of development, in particular for QA specialists
User flows can become part of your signature approach to A/B testing
If your client is limited in resources, user flows will help you ensure compliance with the requirements with a minimum number of edits
Lead Designer with 15+ years of experience
“I know very well that rich functionality may not work in our favor - I’m good at mathematics. The more options available to a user at a particular moment, the higher the chances that this user will not reach the end and complete the target action, and we, in turn, will not receive a conversion.
As for user flows, with their help, we can consider possible behavioral patterns through this very betting, simplify them so as not to mislead users, and therefore leave them no chance of not reaching their destination - that is, the point that will bring us the desired conversion.
Thus, user flows are perhaps the simplest tool in my practice that helps to achieve better understanding between the user and the system.”
What insights can we get from this?
User flows can become one of the main tools of the project planning stage
Building a user flow will help you better understand user needs and behavioral patterns
You can use user flow to identify critical system processes
If you combine user flow with site page cards, you will receive exact scenarios for how users move around the site through the application, which can already be passed on to the development team
Head of Design with 12+ years of experience
“You know, over the years, I notice that technology is playing a cruel joke on us - it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to explain complex things in simple words. This has been confirmed more than once in dozens of projects when enormous work was done, but it was rejected for some reason at some stage. Actually, this was the main incentive why I was in constant search of primitive solutions for working in the initial gardens of the project.
This is how I came to user flow - instead of building full-fledged templates in Figma, now my team starts with simpler things and moves through the project gradually, based on the feedback received. Thanks to this, we launch the latest projects as quickly as possible, and my team is less and less faced with demotivation and other harmful factors caused by constant edits. The client is satisfied, and so are we.”
What insights can we get from this?
User flow is a simple tool for effective communication between the team and the client
Building a user flow allows specialists from different niches to “communicate in the same language” within the project
User flows help to identify areas in need of optimization at an early stage
User flows can always be modified (complicated) with different attachments to detail the structure and hierarchy of the project gradually
Although projects with simple functionality can be performed in one color, you can use color to basically prioritize the components of the user interface you are creating. The main thing is to indicate somewhere aside from what level of priority belongs to each of the colors you used
In the initial stages of product design, your task is to create a primitive diagram whose elements are the sequential steps that the user takes to complete the target action. However, as you detail the requirements from the client and receive feedback from representatives of the target audience and other team members, you can supplement the diagram's elements with functional and non-functional attributes. Therefore, you will gradually turn it into interconnected wireframes. This approach is called creating wireflows, that is, a combination of wireframes and user flows.
There is an unspoken rule that says that any user should be able to perform a targeted action (that is, an action that brings a conversion) in three or fewer steps. At the same time, you may find that the diagrams you create are extended and have many branches. Thus, focusing on this rule, you will need to optimize your user flow
An excellent solution to get additional insights into the creation of user flows is to analyze your favorite websites. For example, using a website crawler, you can receive a website map and create a user flow based on it. In addition, you can check the structure of a separate process or part of a website and build a user flow according to the data obtained
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To ensure your user flow is effective, you need to have critical data about it. You can view similar statistics in Google Analytics, but it is better to study the data in more depth and study KPIs that are directly related to your business goals. These include lead generation and bounce rates, content uploads, and support requests. Once you study this information, you can formulate methods for optimizing your user flows
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When you analyze your website, you should put yourself in the shoes of your potential visitors or even involve them in researching and optimizing your digital solution's user flow. Thus, based on the feedback you receive, you will be able to build a more intuitive and responsive app or website. Plus, feedback from your audience can help you understand how they interact with your solution so you can reduce bounce rates and increase conversions
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After you receive feedback from potential users, your team members, and the client, you can revise some parts of your user flow to simplify them. In general, other people's opinions sometimes provide valuable information that seems to be on the surface but, for some reason, is overlooked
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UX/UI designer with 10+ years of experience