User journey and user flow are two tools that are used to describe the process of interaction between a user and a product. Many designers consider user journey and user flow the same thing. While both tools are used to communicate your designs through the lens of your users’ goals, they aren’t synonyms because they focus on different aspects of created products.
The term ‘flow’ depicts movement. Product creators need to consider the path in which the user will navigate through the website or app, prompting the creation of user flow. This path is divided into a series of steps that the user takes from the entry point through conversion funnels towards the final action (signup, purchase, etc.).
A typical example of purchase flow for the eCommerce website would go as follows:
The above example of a user flow is what we call a ‘happy path’— a simplified version of the user flow with a successful outcome. In real life, there can be a lot of alternative paths—the user usually wants to compare different products, read information about delivery, and so on. That’s why user flows are typically modeled as flow charts with many nodes for various paths that a user might take.
User flows are a great method for segmenting and defining your user experience. They allow you to track what screens users typically see when they interact with a product and how they interact with those screens.
User flows are a great method for segmenting and defining your user experience. They allow you to track what screens users typically see when they interact with a product and how they interact with those screens.