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UX/UI Design vocabulary · Information Architecture and Navigation

User flow

Meaning in UX/UI design, with examples

nounCore term

In UX/UI design, user flow means: A diagram or sequence that shows the screens, steps and decisions a user goes through to complete one task in a product, such as resetting a password.

In Turkish: kullanıcı akışı, akış

How it is used

Drawn with boxes and arrows before wireframing, or shown by linking screens in a design tool. People often just say 'flow': the onboarding flow, the checkout flow. Useful for spotting missing screens and dead ends.

Example sentences

  1. I mapped the user flow for password reset and found two dead ends.

  2. Can you add the error screens to the user flow before the review?

Common collocations

  • map a user flow
  • user flow diagram
  • checkout flow
  • simplify the flow
  • user journeyThe full series of steps and experiences a person goes through to reach a goal with a product, often starting before they open the app and ending after they finish.
  • wireframeA simple, usually black-and-white drawing of a screen that shows where content, buttons and navigation will go, without final colours, images or styling.
  • happy pathThe ideal route through a flow where everything goes as expected: the user enters valid data, nothing fails and the task is completed without problems.
  • edge caseAn unusual situation that happens rarely but must still work, such as a very long name, no internet connection or a user with 500 saved items.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Information Architecture and Navigation

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