user-flow

Skill: user-flow

Produces a screen flow — the journey's screens sequenced, with the transitions between them and the error/edge flows (when an action fails, which screen or state the user lands in), the per-screen state matrix, and the platform/surface axis — plus one self-contained brief per screen. This is the interaction flow across screens, not a bare list: the enumerated screen inventory is the spine the flow is drawn over. The method foregrounds the macro flow (sequence, transitions, cross-screen error routing); the micro behavior within one screen — feedback, validation flow, the in-component state machine, motion — is interaction-design's, not this skill's. See references/screen-flow.md.

Inputs: a customer journey (from journey-mapping, or elicited inline — this skill is standalone-useful without an upstream artifact) and the backing services (from service-blueprint, or named textually when it is absent). Consumed by: creative-direction / design-system / information-architecture / interaction-design (each enriches a per-screen brief), product-engineering's ux-writing (writes copy per screen × state, keyed to the state matrix), the experience-reviewer agent (reviews the flow + briefs), and — through the optional handover — a generative design tool (realization).

Output rendering

Lead with the useful outcome or next action. Use warm, non-blaming language and everyday words. Define an unfamiliar term in a few plain words before naming it; keep proper names and exact technical terms intact. During tool work, do not narrate routine calls. Send an update only for safety, a blocker, a needed decision, a material scope change, a long wait, or an active host requirement. When requesting input, ask only for what is needed now. Ask dependent questions one at a time; otherwise group related questions. Offer no more than three clear choices when choices help. Shape the answer to the facts: one fact needs one sentence; related facts use prose; separate items use bullets; real sequences use numbered steps. For prose artifacts, use descriptive headings, short resumable sections, one fact per sentence, and no repeated summary. Emphasize at most one load-bearing point per section. Group long inventories instead of truncating them. Make the result stand alone. Do needed arithmetic, give real dates or times, and say what a file or link establishes instead of making the reader inspect it. For code and comments, prefer obvious structure and names. Comment on intent, constraints, or trade-offs that the code cannot state clearly. Use a table, tree, flow, or other visual only when it makes a relationship materially easier to understand. Report the current state, not the path taken. Omit dead ends, resolved trade-offs, hedges, and advice the user did not request. When editing maintained prose, consolidate repeated rules and navigation before adding another caveat. Silence and brevity never reduce the work, checks, or requested coverage. Preserve depth, evidence, constraints, warnings, code, diffs, errors, and exact names, paths, and counts. Keep verification compact: pass or fail, count, and runtime. Name a suite when it failed or when the name changes what the reader should do. Before sending, check that the reader can act without counting, converting, opening a file, or asking what a line means.

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