How Does An App User Flow Work?

When creating an app user flow, you’ll design a diagram that outlines the journey a customer will take, accounting for the backward and forward movement between pages.

The initial stage of the flow will always be the first page that a user comes to when they open your app, and it will typically end with the final screen that appears after a desired action is completed, like a checkout or form submission.

Why Is App User Flow Important?

As a business owner, you probably have a lot of contact with your customers, and if you understand their needs and requirements well, it might seem strange having to develop a user flow for your new app. After all, you understand their journey, so shouldn’t it go without saying?

There are, however, some key reasons why an app user flow is beneficial:

• Creates The Best Customer Path

Planning your app with a straightforward user flow designed for the end user gives them the best results. They’ll be using an app that is well thought-out and considerate of their needs.

• Supports With App Development

Often, when creating an app, different individuals can have wildly different expectations around what the final product will look like, and this is even the case for your developers. By creating a structured, clear user flow, you can provide your developers with a solid understanding of what they need to build, to deliver the best possible product to the end user.

How To Determine The Best User Flow For Your App: A Guide

Now that you understand the importance of a user flow for your app, you can implement positive changes to your existing flow, or design one from scratch.

Focus On The Customer Journey

When determining the best user flow for your new app, the customer journey should take priority throughout your decision-making. This will help your UX (User Experience) designers create an app that promotes seamless transitions and an uninterrupted experience.

There are a number of ways that you can consider customer decision-making behavior in your UX design:

• Keep It Simple

When navigating your app, customers can get overwhelmed if they’re presented with too many choices. Keep things simple by designing your user flow to offer only a handful of options for customers.  

• Give Customers Control

Customers like to feel as though they’re in control of their decision-making, so it’s crucial to consider this mentality when designing your app user flow – ensure that the journey is natural, and doesn’t make customers feel forced to visit certain pages, such as the checkout.

• Frame Your Products Effectively

Framing bias defines how customers take in a product’s information based on its presentation. Framing a product or service on your app by focusing on its positive traits will encourage the customer to disregard some of the negatives.

Consider All Unique Elements Of A User's Journey

If there’s one thing we know about consumer behavior, it’s that not everybody is the same regarding how they interact with businesses and navigate applications. Any good user flow accounts for this.

By considering all of the unique elements of a user’s journey, and including the possibility of nontypical decision-making, you can create a solid foundation that can accommodate a vast range of user choices.

When planning your flow, make sure to include options for customers who might change their minds about a product purchase or subscription. Remember to provide value even if a customer backs off – not only does this make the journey smoother, but it also works to build customer confidence.

Integrate Wireframes

Finally, a great user flow design approach is incorporating wireframes into your planning process. Wireframes are sketches of the proposed app, to give designers an idea of what screens and functionality will be required.

There are three main types of wireframes:

• Low Fidelity (Lo-Fi)

Lo-Fi wireframes are a simple sketch of an app or webpage, designed to give a rough overview of what the user flow could look like in practice.

• Mid Fidelity (Mid-Fi)

Mid-Fi wireframes give a more accurate and extensive depiction of what the app could look like, and go into more detail for specific concepts or sections. They exclude imagery or animation, and still serve primarily to highlight a typical customer journey.

• High Fidelity (Hi-Fi)

Hi-Fi wireframes go all out – they can include imagery, final form content, and animations. Most commonly seen during later stages of development, hi-fi wireframes can be used to pitch to investors or brief other company departments.

Although wireframe creation typically follows the delivery of a user flow, combining these two stages of app creation can actually give your team a solid understanding of expectations – by seeing what each page will look like, designers can create a user flow that supports this, and vice versa.