User Flow Modeling

user-flow-modeling

Registry Trigger

Use when

• A named actor journey changes its goal, starting state, preconditions, reachable entries, branches, exits, interruption, recovery, authority disclosure, or side-effect outcome.
• Navigation, refresh, cancellation, timeout, async completion, duplicate action, or unknown result can alter what the actor sees or what the system has committed.

Do not use when

• The open decision is content grouping, route implementation, one interaction state, visual composition, or an unordered scenario inventory.
• No actor goal, precondition, journey branch, recovery, authority, or side-effect outcome changes.

Skill Role

Model ordered journeys through actor goal, preconditions, reachable entries, branch outcomes, interruption, re-entry, user-visible authority, side-effect states, and asynchronous recovery.

High-Value Rules

• Define the actor, goal, starting state, preconditions, and every reachable entry.
• Define observable branch predicates with both user-visible and system outcomes.
• State what each relevant exit shows, persists, leaves unknown, and permits next.
• Define interruption, refresh, expiry, re-entry, input retention, sensitive cleanup, and focus behavior.
• Distinguish side-effect initiation, commit, unknown result, duplicate attempt, retrieval, partial completion, and compensation.
• Separate user disclosure and recovery from backend authority.
• Cover timeout, away, failure, return, and notification outcomes when work outlives the view.

Anti-Patterns

• A happy path is complete while direct entry, interruption, unknown outcome, partial completion, or re-entry remains implicit.
• Input or draft preservation and sensitive-value cleanup are selected by convention without a current owner and lifecycle rule.
• Retry, back, refresh, or duplicate actions can replay a side effect, while the flow invents a client key or transport status instead of routing the contract.
• Hidden, disabled, or omitted UI is presented as authorization, or denial reveals protected state without a disclosure decision.

Stop Conditions

• Stop fail-closed only when an applicable fact decisive to the changed journey is unknown or unavailable.
• Accept evidence-backed non-applicability for authority or disclosure ownership, downstream consumers, and side effects.
• Treat missing journey-validation evidence as blocking only when it could change the selected branch or recovery or re-entry behavior.
• Do not select branch or recovery behavior from assumptions.
• Route actor, scenario, information, route, and view-state decisions to their specialist owners.
• Route authorization, duplicate handling, effects, implementation, acceptance, and proof to their specialist owners.

Output Contract

• user-flow decision with actor goal preconditions entries predicates exits interruptions recovery authority side effects proof limits and specialist routes

Targeted References