What is a user flow

A user flow is a visual roadmap of your user’s journey. It lays out the steps they take to complete a specific task inside your product or service, from the first spark of “Oh, I need this” to the final “Perfect, I’m done!”

Think of user flows as the blueprints for UX design strategy. They help designers and product managers understand how users move through your system and identify potential roadblocks before the build.

Why is user flow important in UX design

User flows matter because they help you design smarter, faster, and more user-friendly experiences. Here’s how:

Smooth user experience. User flows highlight roadblocks early, so you can fix them before launch.

Clear alignment. User flows give stakeholders a simple visual to rally around, saving time and avoiding confusion.

Efficient design. User flows eliminate guesswork and streamline the design process, revealing the quickest path for users to reach their goal.

Focused priorities. Focused priorities. User flows spotlight the most critical tasks, helping teams decide what matters most.

How to create a user flow in five steps

Follow these five steps to streamline your design process and ensure a flawless user experience with user flows:

Step 1: Define the user and their goal

Before you can map a flow, you need to know who you’re mapping it for.

Who are they? Picture the real person using your product: a college student trying to book cheap flights, a parent signing up for school alerts, a small business owner managing invoices.

What do they want to achieve? The clearer you are on their goal, the sharper your flow will be.

How tech-savvy are they? Your design should be accessible and intuitive, so even users who are not familiar with the platform can logically navigate it.

Step 2: Identify the entry point

Every journey starts somewhere. Maybe it’s a Google search that drops them onto a landing page. Maybe it’s a “Sign up” button on your homepage. Or maybe it’s a push notification that lures them back into the app. Pinpointing this moment helps you see the path through the user’s eyes.

Step 3: Map out the steps

This is the core of your user flow: sketching out the sequence. Consider:

1) What’s the very first action they take?

2) What choices do they face along the way?

You don’t need to capture every click, just the meaningful moments like the forms they fill out, the buttons they tap, and the UI components that move them forward.

Step 4: Include decision points

Remember, no two users take the same path. Some choose round-trip, others one-way. Some breeze through checkout, others run into an error message. These forks in the road are where frustration creeps in, so make prompts clear and design with alternatives in mind.

Step 5: Determine the endpoint

Now define what success looks like for your users. Knowing the endpoint helps you design a journey that ends on a high note. The endpoint could be:

Reaching a confirmation page after a purchase or account creation

Landing on a success screen, like a dashboard after onboarding

Returning to a previous screen after completing a subtask

User flow best practice

Once you’ve learned how to create a user flow, the next step is to refine your process. Implement these best practices to build user flows that are clear, effective, and collaborative.

Always start with user goals. Begin with a strong understanding of what your users want to achieve. Grounding your flow in real goals helps keep the design focused and intentional.

Keep it simple. Aim for clarity and efficiency. Flows with too many steps or branches can be hard for users and your team to follow.

Stay consistent. Use the same symbols, shapes, and labels so anyone can follow along at a glance.

Focus on one goal per flow. Each user flow should map to a single, well-defined task. This makes it easier to test and optimiz

Share and iterate. Share early, gather feedback, and adjust. Flows work best when everyone has a hand in shaping them.

From ideation to final deliverable, clear and focused user flows make every part of the design process smoother.

When to use a user flow

User flows are incredibly versatile tools, and knowing when to use them can take your design process to the next level.

Here are a few moments where user flows shine:

At the idea stage. Before you make wireframes or build prototypes, map the user’s journey to make the big picture clearer.

When adding new features. A user flow helps you think through how users will find and use a new feature, enabling you to spot gaps.

Before usability testing. A user flow can guide your test scenarios and ensure you’re evaluating the most important steps in a task or journey.

For cross-functional alignment. A simple diagram can help designers, PMs, and engineers see the same journey.

Think of user flows as design tools that work across the product lifecycle. Whether you’re just starting a project or refining an existing experience, they help you keep user needs front and center.

When to use a user flow

Check out these user flow examples and templates to get started.

Redesigning a mobile app feature

A user flow becomes a powerful roadmap when tackling a mobile app redesign, particularly for a specific feature like the login process. By visually mapping out the login journey, UX designers can pinpoint potential roadblocks and identify areas for improvement.

For example, imagine you’re rushing to get ready for a workout and want to fire up your favorite exercise playlist on Spotify. Instead of the music, you’re confronted with a clunky login process. A user flow helps UX designers identify these pain points and redesign the login process to get you to your music quicker.

Creating a new user onboarding experience

A user flow is a guiding light while developing an online app’s new user onboarding experience. Designers can visualize the entire journey by outlining a new user’s steps, such as creating an account, choosing their interests, and enabling push notifications. This user flow identifies potential points of confusion or frustration where users may encounter issues.

Imagine you’re a first-time user of a home-booking app, excited to book your dream vacation. But instead of browsing cozy cabins, you’re stuck in a maze of confusing sign-up forms. Frustrating, right? That’s precisely what a good user flow helps prevent.

Adding a new item to a shopping cart

In e-commerce, a user flow maps the online shopping process. Designers can identify potential friction points by visualizing the steps from product discovery to purchase confirmation. Does the “add to cart” button stand out clearly? Is the cart easily accessible for review and modification?

When shopping on Amazon, for example, a clear “add to cart” button and easy access to the cart make the experience smooth and straightforward. User flows help designers test different design solutions, ensuring a smooth process for users adding items to their cart. This leads to a boost in conversions and sales.

Differentiating user flows from similar charts

While user flows are a powerful UX design tool, they’re not the only way to map out processes. Understanding the differences between user flows and similar charts helps ensure you use the right tool for the job.

Flowcharts

Flowcharts are versatile tools for visualizing workflows and decision-making processes. They typically consist of a series of connected shapes representing steps, decisions, and outcomes.

Similarities: User flows and flowcharts both map out steps and decision points.

Differences: User flows consider user actions and goals within a user interface, whereas flowcharts can encompass broader system processes that are not limited to user interaction.

Task flow

A task flow is a zoomed-in version of a user flow. It focuses exclusively on the specific steps a user takes to complete a single action within a system. It maps out the most efficient path for users to achieve a particular goal.

Similarities: User flows and task flows map out steps to achieve a goal.

Differences: User flows can include a range of user journeys within a system, while task flows focus on a single action.

Wireframes

Wireframes are low-fidelity prototypes that visually represent the layout and basic structure of interface screens. They focus on functionality and user flow without the visual details or polish of a high-fidelity prototype.

Similarities: User flows and wireframes can show the sequence of screens a user interacts with.

Differences: User flows focus on actions and decisions, while wireframes visually represent the interface elements themselves.

Customer journey maps

A customer journey map visualizes the entire user experience across all your product or service touchpoints. It considers actions, emotions, and perceptions throughout the customer’s journey.

Similarities: Both user flows and customer journey maps consider the user’s perspective.

Differences: User flows map out actions within a specific interface, whereas customer journey maps encompass the entire user experience across various touchpoints.

Sitemaps

A sitemap is like a blueprint for a website or app, outlining the page organization and hierarchy. It visually illustrates how content connects, making it easier for users to find what they are looking for.

Similarities: User flows and sitemaps offer a visual representation of the system's structure.

Differences: User flows focus on the user journey and actions to complete tasks, while sitemaps focus on content organization and navigation structure.

User interface (UI) flows

A user interface flow dives deeper than a user flow, focusing on the user’s specific interactions with the elements on each screen. It maps out how users click, tap, and navigate the interface to complete tasks.

Similarities: User flows and UI flows both map out the sequence of user actions.

Differences: User flows tend to focus on high-level steps across multiple screens, while UI flows delve deeper into the specific interactions and functionalities within each screen.

Create seamless user flows

A user flow helps you understand how users interact with a system so you can find ways to enhance the user experience. Streamline your UX design process and eliminate user roadblocks with intuitive user flows.

The following tools can help you build clear and intuitive user flows:

FigJam FigJam’s user flow templates make it easy to visualize UX flows quickly and clearly. From early ideation to structural planning, you can efficiently map out user journeys in a single shared space.

Miro Miro is a powerful online whiteboard tool designed for large-scale collaboration. With rich support for sticky notes, flowcharts, and UX templates, it’s well suited for workshops and cross-functional teams to organize user flows rapidly.

Whimsical Whimsical stands out for its lightweight and intuitive interface. It’s ideal for visualizing simple user flows or quickly organizing ideas during the early stages of design.

Lucidchart Lucidchart is a strong choice when you need to create structured, logic-driven flows. It’s especially effective for aligning with engineers and PMs on clear steps, decision points, and complex branching logic.