If you’re a UX designer, you’ve no doubt thrown around the terms ‘user journey’ and ‘user flow’ a million times, sometimes even interchangeably. While they may sound similar and are both visualizations meant to create an understanding of how a user interacts with your product or service, they serve distinct purposes.
This article explains those key differences, gives you examples and highlights the benefits of both as well as how they work together; less user journey vs user flow, more user journey and user flow.
If you’re a visual learner, take a look at the video below where we unveil the crucial insights that UX designers often keep under wraps—focusing on user journeys and user flows!
Key takeaways
- User journeys provide a holistic view of user experiences, capturing emotions and motivations, while user flows focus on specific actions to complete tasks.
- Starting with a user journey is key for identifying pain points and user needs, which in turn guide the creation of effective user flows for a seamless experience.
- Combining user journeys and user flows raises the user satisfaction level by making sure both emotional and functional aspects of UX are being addressed.
Understanding user journey vs user flow
In the world of UX design, understanding the user journey vs user flow distinction is a must.
A user journey provides an overview of a user’s interactions and emotions through all touchpoints with your product or service, offering a macro view of the entire user experience.
A user flow, on the other hand, outlines the specific steps a user takes to complete a task, considering all possible routes and decisions to paint a picture of micro interactions.
A task flow dismantles each user flow into the sequential steps required to complete that particular task.
We’ll break each down further in the next sections but if you take nothing else from this article, let it be understanding that difference.
What is a user journey?
A user journey focuses on the broader narrative, mapping out all the interactions and emotions and captures key touchpoints a user experiences with your product or service.
It’s a visual representation of the high-level journey, from the initial awareness stage to post-purchase reflections and everything in between that helps you understand user behavior.
Key elements of user journeys
The key elements of user journey maps include:
- User personas
- Scenarios and goals
- Phases
- Touchpoints, actions and emotions
- Internal ownership
This macro perspective, with all the accompanying user research, helps you understand not only what users do, but also why they do it — their motivations — and how they feel along the way. This allows you to grasp the full spectrum of user behavior, tackle journey-related problems and ultimately create more customer-centric designs.
💡SlickTip: To go deeper and better comprehend the user journey, jump into story mapping.
Example of a user journey
Let’s take a look at Sarah, a 29-year-old from Buffalo, New York, and her goal of buying a snowboarding jacket online.
Her user journey starts when she sees a stylish jacket in a social media ad, which gets her pretty stoked.
She then visits the website, browses product details, reads reviews and signs up for their email list, still feeling cautious about the purchase.
After more research, Sarah receives a coupon code that does the trick and she decides to purchase, confidently adding the jacket to her cart, completing the payment and eagerly anticipating delivery.
Upon receiving the jacket, she’s straight-up thrilled and shares her excitement on social media. Finally, feeling fulfilled and valued as a customer, she tells friends about the store, becoming a proud advocate of the brand.
This comprehensive view helps pinpoint obstacles, uncover opportunities and promote a customer-centric mindset through the design process.
Keep in mind, Sarah is one of multiple user personas for this brand so her journey and customer behavior would be different from a 58-year-old man who may never see that initial social media ad. His customer journey map would be totally different and would require its own user research.
The importance of starting with user journeys
These work best in tandem as one informs the other but the user journey is generally going to be the place you start your design process. Why? Because charting an effective user flow is going to be tough without a deep well of knowledge and user research to inform why your flow is the way it is and that requires the bigger picture user journey.
In other words, the user journey is broader and maps the overall experience, while the user flow is more detailed, focusing on specific interactions within the product and the nitty gritty technical details of how they complete tasks.
Focusing on the user journey early allows designers to understand user needs and expectations, informing the design of each user flow which will in turn improve the entire customer experience.
Understand the big picture > Identify touch points > Design user flow
How user journeys guide user flows
Again, it’s not user journey vs user flow, it’s user flow and user journey mapping working together to create better UX.
Mapping user journeys first uncovers the pain points and emotional states that are crucial for designing effective user flows.
The insights and intel gained from building the user journey map help identify the key touchpoints, actions and emotional responses that shape the user’s experience, providing a foundation for creating user flows and alternative paths that address these needs.
Functional flows come from having that sort of granular knowledge.
What is a user flow?
User flows zoom in on the details providing a step-by-step representation of the actions a user takes to achieve a specific task on your site or app, starting from where a user enters and ending where their goal is accomplished.
They use flowcharts to visualize the path a user follows, describing every decision point and action taken in a process, with each symbol in a user flowchart representing a step toward achieving their goal.
A user flow helps identify potential obstacles and streamline the user experience, allowing you to improve usability and create the most logical progression through a task, ensuring it intuitively leads to the desired outcome.
Key elements of user flow diagrams
User flow diagrams include a handful of must-haves:
- Decision points
- Actions
- Feedback loops
Decision points are the moments where users have to choose between different paths. Actions are the steps users actually take and feedback loops provide responses based on those actions. Analyzing user flows can help identify inconsistencies in the user experience and communicate design ideas effectively.
When to use user flows
There’s not one specific time to use these. From new product development to upgrading a site, you can — and should — use flow diagrams throughout development and after. Being able to see the entire flow through a task in one place makes it easier to pinpoint problem areas and refine the interaction.
So basically, anytime you need to refine how a user interacts with your site or app, a user flow is your go-to.
Building a user flow can answer questions related to bugs, flow improvement and reducing the amount of steps or screens needed, ensuring that navigation is as smooth as possible. Speaking of improving navigation, the user flow vs sitemap difference is one you should learn up on too.
Creating effective user flows
User flows are clutch for developing seamless UI and kicking your user experience up a notch en route to task completion. To that end, making sure you’re putting them together effectively is important. The key focus is on the baby steps required to achieve a goal on your site or app and visualizing them in an easy-to-understand way.
These user steps are generally mapped using flowchart or diagramming tools, highlighting each decision point and action. This helps you identify and fix confusing or frustrating interactions, leading to more intuitive pathways.
Testing user flows with real users and gathering user feedback is critical for user flow optimization and redesigning interfaces to meet user expectations.
Example of a user flow
User registration and account activation is a task common to the vast majority of sites out there. It’s such a ubiquitous process that we all basically know the steps to complete it by heart.
However, just because we know the steps, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t map the flow. Maybe your registration process has a unique element or CTA. Amazon’s checkout process user flow, for example, includes an upsell screen before getting to payment.
If nothing else, putting together this user flow gives your UX designer and product design team a roadmap to follow when moving from concept to wireflow to final product.
Registration is fairly straightforward but a user flow diagram makes a difference when you get into more complex interactions. User flow tools like our Diagram Maker are indispensable for creating effortlessly suave UX/UI design that users can, well, flow right through.
🎬 Learn what Slickplan can do!
We filmed a short video to show you exactly how to use Slickplan
User journey vs user flow comparison
We’ve been mentioning how user journey mapping and user flow vary throughout, but seeing them compared in one place is always helpful. Let’s put them head to head — user flow vs user journey — first in a quick chart then in detail.
| Comparison | User journey | User flow |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of analysis | Deeper | Surface |
| Emotional consideration | Total | None |
| Design-focus | Less | More |
| Touchpoints | All | Single |
| Starting point | Brand awareness | Entry point |
Scope of analysis
The user’s journey has a broader scope than user flows, encompassing the whole user experience across multiple channels and touchpoints. They capture user behaviors before, during and after interactions with a product, providing a deep understanding of the journey from awareness to post-purchase evaluation. This comprehensive view is essential for creating customer-centric designs that address the full spectrum of user needs and expectations.
A user flow, in contrast, is limited to specific interactions within your app or site, focusing on the step-by-step progression to complete a task. They provide a surface-level analysis of what takes place on a user’s screen, only taking into account movement from the entry point to the completion of a task, offering detailed insights into usability and navigation.
Emotional consideration
Any journey is ripe with emotion, which is to say that the user journeys capture the emotional responses of users at each stage, getting you into the mindset of a customer. This emphasis on emotion is crucial for creating empathetic and engaging experiences that resonate with users on a deeper level, drawing them in more.
On the other side of the coin, a user flow isn’t concerned with emotion. They’re focused on the cold, mechanical breakdown of the user interface. They’re task-oriented and prioritize the logical progression of a user’s actions, step 1, step 2, step 3 and so on.
While user flows are essential for usability and functionality, they lack the emotional context that user journeys provide, highlighting the need for integrating both perspectives to create a well-rounded user experience.
Design focus
A user journey map doesn’t care about design at all. They take a holistic view of the user experience, considering all interactions and emotional touchpoints throughout. This broad perspective helps you build UX that addresses the full range of user needs and expectations.
On the flipside, a user flow focuses heavily on the design elements that facilitate a smooth experience towards achieving a particular task. A user flow diagram is a diagram of movement through a system, ensuring that each step taken is clear and intuitive. By focusing on the details of user interactions, a user flow helps designers create efficient and user-friendly interfaces that support the entire user journey.
Touchpoints
The user journey encompasses all touchpoints, on all channels (email, social media, on-site, in-store, etc.), across the entire interaction over time.
Perhaps we’re beating a dead horse here but each user flow deals with only one touchpoint or interaction.
Starting point
The user journey map begins with brand awareness, proceeding to the moment a potential customer or visitor recognizes a problem that you can solve and onward to a purchase. The endpoint of the journey typically stretches past a purchase or when the user leaves your site and includes mapping of retention and advocacy.
A user flow, conversely, starts wherever the customer enters your site. It can be the homepage, a landing page, a product page, whatever. Where they enter is the starting point. The end of a user flow diagram is the point at which they achieve the goal they came for.
Practical applications and benefits
It all comes down to improving the experience for a user or customer. Each of these tools is utilized during the design process to help you create engaging UX that meets user needs and, by extension, your business goals. They do this by shining a light on friction points and issues.
Identifying pain points and opportunities
A clumsy pathway to complete a task that requires redundant steps and visiting unnecessary pages is the perfect way to kill a user’s experience and their will to stay on your site.
Finding those pain points in a task is the work of user flow charts and identifying issues in the larger experience is where customer journey maps play the bigger role. Turning those negatives into positives is one place where opportunities hide. By identifying and addressing those trouble spots, designers can create a more intuitive and enjoyable user experience that meets the needs of their customers.
Just be sure to track metrics before and after you implement changes so you can measure the effectiveness of the adjustments you make to both user flow and user journey.
Enhancing customer experience
Customer journey mapping and user flows are critical tools for streamlining user interactions with your products, ultimately driving customer satisfaction. User journey maps in particular are great for visualizing frustrations and addressing them effectively.
The synergy between both though is what helps you create a more tailored user experience, enhancing fulfillment and creating loyalty. By integrating user journeys and ecommerce user flows, navigation becomes sharper and your user interface becomes cleaner, ensuring that the overall experience feels natural and intuitive.
How to combine user journeys and user flows
At this point, it should be crystal clear that using these two together is the best way to create cohesive and user-centric design from entry point to exit point (and beyond).
Integrating user journeys and user flows enables designers to capture key touchpoints and ensure that the design addresses both the functional and emotional aspects of the user experience.
It works like this; Start by mapping the main stages of the user journey, then add user flow maps to provide a detailed view of the steps users take within each stage. Rinse and repeat for all stages.
Subdividing the stages, or phases, of a user journey into smaller segments helps focus on the corresponding user flows, giving designers the ability to address both successful and problematic scenarios to enhance usability.
By identifying friction points in the customer journey, you can make targeted improvements that lead to a more seamless and intuitive experience for users.
Tools and templates
Sure, you can do all this user experience mapping on paper…but how are you going to collaborate with your team or iterate?
Going digital with your user journey and user flow tools streamlines the creation and sharing of user journey maps and user flow diagrams, making the process more efficient and team-oriented.
A great tool to try out is our very own Diagram Maker which is tailor-made for the job, giving you the space to work together to clarify complex user paths and improve overall UX. Whether it’s a user journey map template or user flow template, we’ve got you covered there too, with a template library that includes those — and a dozen other diagrams.
Use this journey map template
Use this user flow template
Summary
Understanding how user journey mapping and user flows differ and how the interplay between the two works goes a very long way toward putting together exceptional user experiences. While a user journey provides a broad narrative of the entire user experience, capturing emotions and motivations, a user flow describes the specific steps and actions taken to achieve a user’s goal.
By integrating insights from each visual representation, you’re able to get a complete picture of the user experience, addressing function, form and emotional aspects. Identifying friction points, uncovering opportunities for improvement and creating a seamless and engaging user interface.
Not bad for a couple of diagrams.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between user flow and user journey?
The main difference lies in focus: A user flow details the specific actions taken to complete a task, whereas user journeys encompass the user's emotions and experiences throughout all interactions.
What is the difference between user journey and user flow in Figma?
In Figma, a user journey maps the overall experience and emotional stages a user goes through, while a Figma user flow details the specific steps and interactions within the interface to complete tasks. The user journey is broader, while the user flow focuses on navigation and task completion.
What is the difference between user story and user flow?
A user story is an informal, natural language description of a software's features, requests or faults from the end-user's perspective in an Agile setting. In contrast, a user flow outlines the specific steps and interactions a user takes within the interface to accomplish a task.
What is meant by user journey?
User journey maps explore the motivations, expectations and emotions users experience while interacting with your product. These insights lead to a deeper understanding of customer behavior and help you improve user experience.
Which should come first, user journey or user flow?
The user journey typically comes first because it lays the foundation for understanding how users interact with your site or app. By mapping out the user journey, you can create a more effective user flow that truly meets their needs.
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