03 Mar 2023Maksym Vysunko

Can User Journey and User Flow help with QA?

It can be hard to create software when you don’t have a clear vision of it and its purpose.

User Journey

  • Who is a User (i.e. client, persona(-s))?
  • What are the User’s goals and motivation?
  • What are the User’s points(-s) of interest in your product?
  • What does he expect to achieve with your product?
  • What is the experience he wants with your product?

QA team can benefit from User Journey documentation when:

  • verifying and refining the requirements and specifications of a product;
  • evaluating the User Interface and User Experience of a product;
  • preparing Usability Testing or User Acceptance Testing;
  • making suggestions on improving particular aspects of a product.
Example #1 of User Journey map (Source: unknown)

Example #1 of User Journey map (Source: unknown)

Example #2 of User Journey map (Source: NNgroup.com)

Example #2 of User Journey map (Source: NNgroup.com)

User Flow

  • What is the user trying to achieve?
  • What input or data does the user need to accomplish the task?
  • What are potential impediments or hesitations during the path?
  • What is important for the user that keeps him progressing on the path?

QA team can benefit from User Flow documentation when:

  • verifying and refining the requirements and specifications of a product;
  • evaluating the User Interface and User Experience of a product;
  • preparing Usability Testing or User Acceptance Testing;
  • creating test cases for manual functional testing;
  • creating scenarios for automated test suites;
  • evaluating results of Performance Testing (i.e. if some parts of a process take longer or cause bottlenecks that might hinder a user’s progress);
  • making suggestions on improving particular aspects of a product.

 

Example #1 of User Flow (Source: piktochart.com)

Example #1 of User Flow (Source: piktochart.com)

Example #2 of User Flow (Source: crayond.com)

Example #2 of User Flow (Source: crayond.com)

Conclusion

  • build a testing strategy for a product;
  • identify and prioritise paths in terms of importance before testing;
  • identify and prioritise potential issues or problem areas that users might encounter;
  • create test cases based on flowcharts;
  • design scenarios for automation testing;
  • evaluate and improve test coverage of a product;
  • use flowcharts as a source of truth and reference any time whenever there is a necessity or a risk of losing track.