Reflection Point: Design Patterns & User Flows

Photo by Enrique Vidal Flores on Unsplash

I never realized how meticulous and time-staking User flows are. Designers have learned over time how people interact with a product. It’s difficult to learn anything new, but as designers, it’s imperative to help the user learn the product as easy as possible. Thats where design patterns come in. Through research and testing, there are design patterns that users seem to understand.

Within this reflection, I would like to dive into a product I personally use every single day, Spotify, to explain why design patterns and user flows are important steps in UX design.

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

In this reflection, I will be focusing on the mobile version. There are 2 design patterns I would like to focus on: Bottom navigation and Cards.

2 design patterns are present on this landing page of Spotify.

1. Bottom Navigation

Very simple bottom nav, which is most accessible with your thumbs. It has an music playing indicator on top of the bottom nav as well. It feels like its apart of it. I also love the way its highlighted depending on where you are.

2. Cards

These cards are so useful especially when you want to go back to the song, playlist or podcast right way. The user can also swipe left for more cards as well. With a much smaller screen than a desktop, the card pattern is so helpful with mobile devices like this.

User flows are important for designers to understand how a user would navigate through a product such as Spotify. The world we live now is designed so that the user is able to the product with minimal effort. Almost effortlessly. Essentially, user flows are visual steps of how a user would navigate. Its a painstakingly long effort but it has too many benefits for the user and the stakeholders. Furthermore, it allows the company to put out their product that a user is more likely to use.

Through this UX journey, I am enjoying this process of learning different ways to help users and the stakeholders get what they want and at the same time, it allows the designers like me to unleash my creativity in the process.