How to create a user flow from scratch? (UX Basics)

Summary

This video provides a step-by-step guide to creating a user flow for an e-commerce website's checkout process. It covers essential prerequisites such as identifying features, pain points, and gathering inspiration. The process involves mapping out the ideal user journey, addressing potential edge cases, and using conventional flow shapes to visualize the user experience. By the end, viewers will understand how to design a clear, functional user flow that enhances both user experience and business goals. The tutorial emphasizes practical tips, real-world applications, and helpful resources to improve design decisions.

Takeaways

• 😀 User flows are crucial diagrams that map out the entire journey a user takes within a feature, helping identify friction and gaps.
• 😀 Before designing a user flow, gather all the necessary features, sub-features, and requirements to understand the scope of the feature.
• 😀 It's important to identify user pain points, as well as business pain points, in order to design an empathetic and effective user flow.
• 😀 Researching inspiration and best practices from similar applications can guide your flow design and help you identify gaps or opportunities.
• 😀 Start by defining the final outcome of the user flow and then determine the most optimal, ideal path for a user to achieve that outcome.
• 😀 The 'happy flow' refers to the ideal scenario where the user successfully completes the process without any issues or errors.
• 😀 Substeps must be included under each step in the flow to provide a detailed picture of the user's actions and decisions at each stage.
• 😀 Handling edge cases, such as errors or incorrect inputs, is essential for creating a complete and realistic user flow.
• 😀 Use standard flowchart shapes that are universally recognized, so all stakeholders can understand the flow regardless of their role.
• 😀 Tools like Sketch can be used to visually map out the flow, ensuring clarity and providing a high-level view of the entire user journey.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of user flows in design?

User flows are diagrams that depict the end-to-end journey a user takes in a particular feature. They help identify friction and gaps within the journey, allowing designers to make improvements.

Why is it important to have prerequisites before starting a user flow?

Having prerequisites helps you make more informed decisions and design a better user flow. These prerequisites include understanding the scope of the feature, identifying pain points, and building empathy for both users and the business.

What should you do before starting the design of a user flow?

Before starting, you need to gather a list of all solutions, subfeatures, and requirements related to the feature. Additionally, analyzing inspiration from similar apps and researching best practices can help guide your design.

What is a 'happy flow' in the context of a user flow?

A happy flow represents the ideal, error-free path a user takes to achieve the final outcome of a particular feature. It's the scenario where everything works perfectly and the user faces no issues.

How should you handle different steps and substeps in a user flow?

Each main step in a user flow should have substeps that detail what the user will do at that stage. For example, in a checkout process, entering payment information could have substeps like adding a new credit card or linking a digital wallet.

What role do edge cases play in designing a user flow?

Edge cases are scenarios where things don’t go as planned, such as a user entering incorrect information. It’s essential to account for these edge cases to create different branches in the user flow for error handling and alternative paths.

Why are conventional shapes important in user flow diagrams?

Conventional shapes are universally recognized symbols that help stakeholders, such as clients and developers, easily understand the user flow. These shapes make the diagram more readable and ensure clear communication of the design.

How can you ensure your user flow is comprehensive?

To ensure your user flow is comprehensive, you should break down each step into detailed substeps, consider different possible outcomes (like error states), and visualize the entire flow to account for all possible user scenarios.

What tools or methods can you use to create a user flow diagram?

You can use a variety of tools such as mind mapping software, digital drawing tools, or even paper and whiteboards to sketch out user flows. These methods help map out all the steps and substeps clearly.

How can looking at other apps' designs help in creating a user flow?

Analyzing similar apps can provide inspiration and help identify gaps and opportunities that you might have missed. It also allows you to learn from best practices and avoid reinventing the wheel.