User Flows

A user flow is a map or a diagram that imitates the journey of the user within the app or website. This is the path that is being followed in order to complete a certain action and achieve the goal of the user. For this purpose, we point out the start and endpoint of the flow throughout the app/website.

Usually, this is the last piece of the documentation phase before jumping into the information architecture part. The user-centred design process has to lay down the foundations before actually starting to create the wireframes. Without this, we wouldn't be able to guarantee that product's going to be usable, useful and effective.

The aim is to walk through the steps of the chosen action from the user personas' point of view. We need to have great empathy for this task to be able to familiarize ourselves with the problems of other people - in this case, imaginary ones who represent our target audience. With this, we want to make sure that the persona would be satisfied with the flow, without getting lost, finding the flow too long or difficult to complete, etc

For PaddleWeather I created 3 user flows by focusing on Sabrina's needs.

I defined the objectives of hers then gathered information to better understand how she might approach the tasks she needs to complete. Then I came up with the entry points and success criteria for each task. I spent time examining the flow and figuring out the most optimal flow for the action whilst keeping in mind the key objective.