The User Flow feature provides a comprehensive visualisation of how users navigate your web and mobile applications. It allows businesses to track users' specific paths as they interact with various pages, clicks, and perform actions within the application. By visualizing the user journey in real-time, this tool reveals key touchpoints, highlights commonly travelled routes, and identifies critical drop-off areas where users may lose interest or exit. 

Navigation

To access this feature, go to the Analytics section in the NotifyVisitors dashboard, then click the User Flow tab. 

• If you’re new to this tool, you’ll directly get filter options to create a new flow.

• If you’ve previously created user flows, you'll see a flow list where you can select an existing flow from the dropdown or create a new one.

Filter Options

When you click on the “Create new user flow” option, you have to configure the filter options, which will help you design the flow preview. This flexibility will allow you to experiment with different configurations and find the best representation of your users’ activity data.

Let's discuss each option in detail.

Select Date

First, we have the date filter, where you can choose the time frame for which you want to analyze user path data.

Filter by segment

The "Select Segment" capability allows you to focus on a specific audience for which the flow will be created. You can select a particular segment to focus on a specific group of users rather than all. 

Select flow event

Here, you can choose a specific event along with the “Start with an event” or “End with an event” condition. You can select an event and add multiple attributes through the "Filters" icon. 

The "Start With an Event" or "End With an Event" condition defines the starting point and ending point of the user's path, providing valuable insights into their behaviour and experience.

The "Start With an Event" option highlights the first action or interaction that initiates a user's journey in path analysis. It could be actions such as "App Launched," "Login," or "Product Viewed." When you choose a start event, you can see all the user paths (event trails) that follow it. This step is vital for identifying which user actions commonly kick off a particular journey or sequence of interactions. 

The "End With An Event" option highlights the concluding action or interaction in a user's journey, like "Purchase Completed," "Logout," or "Subscription Activated." When you select an end event, you can observe all the user paths that follow it. This allows you to see where users typically finish their experience and whether they convert successfully or drop out.

Include/Exclude event

In this section, you can add multiple events with their attributes to either include or exclude from the user flow analysis based on your requirements.

Time window

You can specify the desired time frame(Minutes, Days, Hours) to analyze user paths that occurred within a particular duration. 

Flow steps

Here, you can define the specific number of steps (events performed) that you want to explore in your flow analysis. You can have up to 20 steps.

Repeated event

You can choose whether to hide consecutive occurrences of the same event.

By default, it’ll exclude repeated instances of the same event for a user in a session. Only the first occurrence of the event is counted, ignoring subsequent repetitions.

When you turn off this button, it will include repeated events performed by the user. This means that if a user performs the action (like "Add to Cart") repeatedly, each occurrence will be considered in the analysis, enhancing your understanding of how frequently users repeat that event.

Summary

On the right side of the flow setup, you can view a quick summary of your selected options such as start/end with an event condition, selected event, time window, flow steps, and included/excluded events.

After applying all your filter options, you can click the save or “View Flow” button to access the flow chart. 

Flow chart

You will see a user flow chart that outlines the events (steps taken by users) and the paths. The flow of user paths is depicted using a Sankey Chart, which moves from left to right. The lines or areas linking two events indicate the path. You can refer to the image below for a visual representation.

This visualization is useful for identifying various versions of a similar path or monitoring a specific route. It provides a clear and intuitive representation of user engagement with different events along the user journey. 

By default, the chart displays with a 2% depth percentage, merging all events occurring at less than 2% frequency after the previous event into one streamlined path, enhancing clarity without losing critical insights. However, you can adjust the depth by selecting a percentage from the depth dropdown.

The height of each bar in the chart corresponds to the number of users who successfully completed that particular event, allowing for quick comparisons between different stages. Additionally, the height of the connecting lines between the bars offers insight into user behaviour, illustrating how many users transitioned from one event to the next in a consecutive manner. 

By hovering over an event, you can see the total number of users who reached that step compared to the previous one. It also provides insights into how many users dropped off after this event and how many proceeded to the next step.

Similarly, by hovering over a path, you can view the number/percentage of users who performed both adjoining steps/events of the path. It includes the names of the starting event and the destination event.

In the flowchart, you can zoom in or out using the “Zoom” option with the plus-minus icon in the right corner of this section. You can also click the reset button to restore the chart to its default view.

Finally, you can save the user flow you created by clicking the ‘Create User Flow’ button, allowing you to access it later. 

Once saved, the flow chart will show up in the dropdown mentioned earlier.

Conclusion

Our User Flow feature provides you with a clear view of how users interact with their web and mobile applications. It tracks user behaviour, emphasizes crucial interaction points, and reveals areas where users drop off, facilitating smarter decision-making. 

This tool uses customizable filters to analyze specific user segments, events, and timeframes. The flow chart visualization delivers insights into user journeys, engagement, and retention at each step. By comprehending these user behaviours, you can improve the user experience and your ultimate conversion rate.