Understanding User Flow
User flow is the path you intend a website user to take while they are performing a desired interaction or interactions. The ‘desired interaction’ will be different for every website, and is based on the purpose of your website. For example, if you own an online business the user flow might look something like this: a user navigates from the homepage to a page of products, adds a product to their cart, goes to the checkout, and pays for the item. In cases like this, the user flow of your website is defined by your goal to have paying customers, and if visitors to your site don’t follow the intended path it can directly impact your revenue.
Creating a Seamless User Flow
Since it is so crucial for the success of your website that users follow the intended path, it is important that your user flow is intuitive. If a visitor to your site has to spend time figuring out how to add an item to their cart, for example, you have failed in creating an intuitive user experience. Navigating a website should be almost effortless, so it is usually best to keep your website simple and follow conventions. Luckily, this can be achieved by hiring the right designer. Hiring a UX designer means that they take the user experience and user flow into account throughout the design process, which allows you to avoid the high bounce rates and low conversion rates that follow user frustration and a poor user experience. It can also be beneficial to create a UI/UX roadmap: this is a sort of plan that ‘maps’ out the desired interactions and how users should achieve them, and it is used throughout the development process by the whole team. However, once you build a site with an effective user flow it is essential that you maintain it.
Maintaining your User Flow with Miyar
Miyar is a great tool for helping you monitor and maintain your user flow. We allow you to record tests for your user flow, and run them in the background while you concentrate on your business. Miyar will monitor your user flow by running your test at preferred intervals, and will be notified immediately in the event that your flow breaks, so you can review it, and fix the issue. We know you work hard on your websites, so we want to help you provide the best product you possibly can (and ensure you don’t lose customers and revenue unexpectedly).