Leveraging UX Analysis to Enhance User Flow: Part 3
The user experience team for any digital product must continuously tweak the user flows to be as seamless as possible. Part1 and Part 2 of this series introduced us to using UX analysis in user flow enhancement and the role of success metrics in the process, respectively. But why does all this matter?
Well, the late great Steve Jobs of Apple fame said, “If a user is having a problem, it’s our problem.” The rest of this article advances the conversation, discussing use case priority and checking out the user flow from the user’s perspective.
Primary Use Cases Should Be First
It’s recommended to always begin with common use cases. There are always more regular users than outliers or power users. You can apply this principle by considering the most valuable user segment for the overall performance. Examples are user retention and overall revenue.
Alternatively, you can define which user segment would yield the most positive impact for the product’s overall performance while consuming the least resources or effort. That’s a chance to see Pareto’s principle or the 80/20 rule in action.
Look out for point that changes in the user flow funnel, while noting which change will have the highest cumulative impact on the app’s overall performance. The earlier part of the funnel often results in the highest impact.
Simulate the User’s Experience
After dealing with the primary use cases, you need to experience the user flow yourself. Putting the shoe on the proverbial other foot is good for objectivity. If it involves a new user segment, create a new account, preferably on a new device. This ideal thing is to go through the user flow after:
Web apps: clearing the browser cache
Mobile apps: reinstalling the app
A critical part of this step is to record each step with a screenshot. Some things might appear to be insignificant to the flow, but that may not be the case. Things like when an app prompts a user to enable notifications should all be recorded.
Finally, use some type of artboard to lay out the screenshots. You can print them out and tape the entire sequence to a wall. This method allows all team members to have a good view of what’s going on. Ready to make helpful input.
The layout for each segment may be different depending on how different the goals and use cases are. Just focus on laying out the flow from two perspectives:
The new user
The returning user
Conclusion
Analyzing a product’s user flow and overall UX enables designers to discover frustrating pain points by assuming the position of the user. This helps to open opportunities that will improve the product’s performance. You can learn more by checking out user flows on UILand.
