https://xd.adobe.

com/ideas/process/user-research/user-journey-vs-user-flow/
User Flows depict the physical journey of the user through an app or piece of software.

Example of user flows

A typical example of purchase flow for the eCommerce website would go as

follows:

 The user starts on the home page;

 From the home page, the user navigates to a product category;
 In a product category page, the user selects a specific item and navigates to
the item details page;
 On the item details page, the user adds an item to the cart and navigates to
the cart page;
 From the cart page, the user navigates to checkout;
 From the checkout page, the user completes the purchase and sees a
confirmation page.

To design the best possible user flow, you have to have the best possible
understanding of your user. Understanding the user’s needs and
motivations allows you to make informed choices when determining how to
get users into that flow-like state when interacting with your product. Here
are some questions to ask yourself when getting to know your user.

 What are the needs of your users?

 What problems would they like solved?
 What features are most important to them and why?
 What initial questions do they have about your product?
 What information needs to be provided in order for them to
effortlessly interact with your product?
Define the elements of your
user flow
Rectangle
The rectangle is arguably the most common shape used in user flows.
They usually represent a page or display screen. Unlike circles, there is no
action to be taken. Rectangles are best used when depicting things like a
homepage, onboarding screen, confirmation page, etc.

Circle
The circle is used mostly for displaying an action. They show a task that
must be completed or steps that must be taken. Use a circle when you
want to represent a process, task, or operation. 

Diamonds
Commonly termed a “decision diamond”, this shape always asks a
question. 

USER JOURNEY
User Journeys deal with the emotions, the pain points, and the motivations of the
customer.

User Journey Maps, or Customer Journey Maps, are particularly useful to Product
Managers for a number of reasons.

1. Discovering pain points. By walking in your customer’s shoes, you might

find issues that you didn’t know were there.
2. Discovering opportunities. On the flip side, you can discover ways to go
above and beyond for your customers, and find opportunities to delight.
3. Encouraging a customer-centric mindset. By focusing on your customer’s
emotions and motivations, your teams will be more driven to build customer-
focused products.