April 11th, 2024, posted in learning
by Adelina
Starting a new project in design might be exciting but also challenging for your team, especially when the construction of the whole user experience is at stake. Even if it seems like a lot of work, it should be obvious that an efficient user flow is the key to designing an app that rocks and makes your customers happy.
However, the process of obtaining a smooth user flow takes effort from your team. These include planning, brainstorming sessions, or testing, in order to get a deep understanding of the problem. Here is what a perfect user flow should contain and how it can help the entire process of designing an app.
Anyway, what is a user flow?
This term refers to a visual representation of the path a user takes while using an app or a website. The whole process can show you exactly the steps the user is taking in order to achieve a goal or complete a given task, the actions and decision points.
Why are user flows important? Because they can help everyone understand how users will interact with the product. They are also helpful for identifying pain points or areas of improvement, and can contour a more user-friendly and intuitive design for the interfaces. All in all, a proper user flow can determine the user to have a great experience while using the app.
How does a user flow look?
Most of the time user flows contain visual diagrams or wireframes, in order to illustrate the sequence of screens and interactions. These visual representations can be more or less detailed, in order to help the user’s journey. It’s important to look for the most logical way to create a user flow and to also to be aware of flaws and issues that may affect the overall user experience.
Tips and tricks for a user flow that rocks
So, it is essential to create a user flow for your app, in order to give the user a good and successful experience. Here are some tips for designing the best user flow:
1. Get into their heads
How can you expect your team to create something that aligns with the users wants and needs without fully understanding them? The answer is: you can’t. So in order to do a good job, proper user research is needed, interviews and surveys. This way you can ensure the design fulfills their requirements and expectations and create a strong connection with your users.
2. Pin down objectives
Diving head first into decision-making is not a good idea without setting the goals first. Identifying the most important objectives from the start and setting the main tasks the users should accomplish while engaging with the app should be prioritized.This ensures that all your design team efforts are aligned with the purpose of the app and that users have a purposeful experience.
3. Take notes
To help with keeping track of the details a user flow diagram should definitely be created. This could help with noting down the steps the users take in order to accomplish the task. It should also show if the way their actions were anticipated was right.
4. Keep it simple
It’s important to not add in too many steps in order to complete a task, as the users might get confused. Keeping things as simple as possible in the flow is the best thing to do, in order to have a successful process.
5. Navigate clearly
Keeping things simple is not easy, so in order to do that the navigation needs to be intuitive enough. The design should include proper buttons and links to clearly guide the user through.
6. Provide context
You cannot expect the users to figure everything out by themself. Sometimes they need a little bit of guidance, with information or options in the given context, to give relevance to an action or a step. However, too many options are also not good, as they can be confusing at some points.
Context can also be created by using the right colors or icons, to highlight the importance of certain information. In addition they can be used to replace text when you want to save up some space.
7. Testing 1, 2, 3
The best way for identifying pain points and details that need to be improved is through usability testing. This is the perfect way to observe how users think and act and it could help in the process of collecting valuable feedback to consider.
8. Keep bugs away
While creating an app from scratch you have to think about everything, and that includes edge cases. If the user stumbles upon an action that cannot be completed or something that is missing, displaying error messages or helper texts would give him clarity.
9. Do it for the mobile
Certainly the concept of “responsive” design is familiar to everyone by now. It is also important to provide it to the user, especially on mobile. Since people use different types of phones, the design should be intuitive and responsive for different behaviors.
These steps are crucial for obtaining one of the best user flows out there and creating a truly amazing experience for the users. Every app is different, so each process should be tailored in the best way for your audience.
Is the process of creating a user flow overwhelming?
We are here to help you. Just give us a sign and we will provide you with a UI/UX assessment, in order to discover your product’s design's biggest flaws. This is completely free and beneficial for your app, as we would underline pain points and give you valuable recommendations, based on research, best practices and years of learning and experimenting in the field.
