How to Design User Flows: A Step-by-Step Guide
Good user flows aim to help stakeholders understand the user journey better. Creating a comprehensive user flow diagram requires thorough user research, a deep understanding of product value, and loopfuls of creative thinking. This article introduces the key ideas for creating effective user flows for any digital product. Let’s do this together.
How to Create a User Flow Diagram
The process of creating user flow diagrams is more iterative than linear. It involves continuous learning and improvement, beginning with research and advancing through hypothesis, visualization, testing, and refinement.
1 – Understand your customer journey and user goals
It’s best to first define who the design is for before creating a user flow diagram. Deep research is required to:
Create buyer personas
Build a customer journey map
2 – Align business and user objectives
You need a clear purpose for every user flow. This purpose should align with two separate sets of goals:
Identify your business goal: This could be a transactional goal such as subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase. Let it be anything you want the user to accomplish.
Identify the user’s goal: Based on user personas and journey maps, determine what the user aims to achieve. What problem are they trying to solve?
Prioritize the user’s goal: Solving the user’s problem first creates the conditions to lead them toward accomplishing the business objective.
3 – Identify all user entry points
While there’s one defined end point, a user flow can have multiple starting points. You need to identify all the ways users can arrive at a digital property. Some suggestions:
Use web analytics to identify main traffic sources
Contextualize entry points to understand user intent and familiarity with brand
4 – Determine user needs
Here, you connect the entry points with end points by noting every screen, action, and decision from one to the other. This helps you:
Think like a user
Address pain points early
It’s advisable to first use a text outline of steps before using a visual tool. This ensures you comprehensively capture the logical flow sequence without distracting the visual design.
5 -Visualize the user flow diagram
Use the logical outline to develop a visual diagram.
Choose an appropriate tool based on team needs.
Use a standard visual language for effective cross-functional communication.
Map the flow to be readable.
6 – Obtain feedback to refine and adjust the user flow diagram
The user flow diagram can always be improved through:
Internal feedback
User testing
Continuous iteration to reflect product, user behavior, and business goal changes.
User flows provide a framework for enhancing user experience, streamlining product development, and aligning stakeholders around a shared vision. You can check out practical user flows on UILand’s extensive library of trendy product screens.
