User Experience
User Flow
Plain English
It is the shorter sequence of steps inside the product itself.
Definition
A user flow is the sequence of steps, screens, and decisions a person moves through to complete a task inside a product. It includes the branches, errors, and recovery routes, not only the path where everything works.
In practice
Used to map and optimise glossaryInteractionInteraction refers to any action a user takes within a product and how the system responds. It includes clicks, taps, gestures, and inputs that drive the user experience.Open glossary term.
In context
Drawing one exposes the branches nobody planned. The glossaryHappy PathThe happy path is the ideal user journey where everything works as expected without errors.Open glossary term is four steps and the diagram ends up with eleven, most of them error and recovery states.
The reality
If it’s too long, users abandon.
Compared with
User Flow vs Happy Path
The glossaryHappy PathThe happy path is the ideal user journey where everything works as expected without errors.Open glossary term is the ideal route where nothing goes wrong. The user flow includes it plus every branch, error and dead end. Designing only the happy path is why real users hit screens nobody wrote.
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