Journeys, not just screens
A product isn’t a collection of screens. It’s a series of journeys.
Users arrive somewhere. They want to get somewhere else. The journey between those two points is what they actually experience — even if, behind the scenes, that journey moves through a dozen screens and several pieces of logic.
When the journey is clear, the screens feel almost incidental. The user just moves forward. When the journey is unclear, even well-designed screens feel disjointed. Users hesitate, get lost, double back, give up.
Designing simple, clear journeys is the foundation of usable products. It’s also one of the cheapest design improvements you can make — most of the work happens on paper, before a single screen is built.
What makes a journey clear
A few qualities tend to show up ...
