Module 1 · Understanding the user Lesson 3 of 15
Journeys and flows
A user flow is the sequence of screens a person passes through. Drawing it before designing screens keeps you from designing pretty dead ends.
The concept
A journey is what the person experiences, end to end, including the parts you do not control: sees an ad, searches, reads a job post, signs up, applies, waits. A flow is what the interface has to do at each step. Draw the journey first — it shows the waiting and the doubt, which is where people actually leave.
Map the steps as boxes and arrows, mark where the person is uncertain, and write the emotion beside each step. Then note how many screens, taps and form fields each step needs. Twenty fields between a fresher and a job application is a design decision, and the map makes that visible before anyone builds it.
JOURNEY (what the person experiences)
ad -> search -> job post -> sign up -> apply -> wait
^doubt ^friction ^silence
FLOW (what the interface must do)
Landing -> Results -> Job detail -> Auth -> Apply form -> Confirmation
Add the unhappy branches: no results, validation fails, session expires.
Count the fields between a fresher and an application.Common mistakes
The mistake is drawing only the happy path where everything works and everyone finishes. Add the branches: no results found, the form fails validation, the session expires, the user is on a phone with 2G. Designing the unhappy path is most of the work in a real product.
Worked example
Drawn on paper, a five-step sign-up flow usually collapses into three once you can see it end to end — that is the point of drawing it.
Your practice task
Sketch the end-to-end flow for one task in your project on paper, and mark where a user could get stuck.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
A journey is what the person experiences, end to end, including the parts you do not control: sees an ad, searches, reads a job post, signs up, applies, waits.
Keep your place in this course
A free account saves which lessons you have finished and unlocks the certificate. The lesson itself stays free to read.
Create free account or sign inCourse complete
You finished every lesson.
Your certificate is ready, and the projects you built are the proof to attach to an application.
Almost there
15 lessons left of 15
Finish every lesson to unlock the certificate. Each one ends in a practice task — do them and the final project brief writes itself.