User journeys in Usermaven

User Journeys show you the exact steps visitors or users take through your website or product. This helps you identify the most common paths to conversion, where users get stuck, and how to optimize their experience.

What is a user journey?

A User Journey is the series of steps a person follows to reach a goal on your site—such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or completing onboarding. In Usermaven, you can visualize and analyze these steps to see how users navigate your site or product over time.

Why are user journeys important?

• Identify drop-off points: Pinpoint where users are leaving your site or abandoning a process (like a form or checkout).
• Optimize Conversions: Understand which steps lead to higher conversion and what behaviors drive users toward a goal.
• Improve user experience: See if users take unexpected or “detour” paths that signal confusion or inefficiency.
• Compare different segments: Understand how different user segments (e.g., new vs. returning, small business vs. enterprise) navigate your product.

Typical use cases

You can use User Journeys in Usermaven to answer questions like:

• What do users do right after signing up?
  Do they update their profile, watch a tutorial, or browse features?

• How do users discover key features?
  Which paths do they take before using a core feature for the first time?

• Where do users drop off in an onboarding flow?
  At which step in the onboarding sequence do they lose interest?

• Which marketing campaigns lead to the most engaged users?
  Compare journeys by campaign source to see which drives better engagement.

• How do users navigate from trial to subscription?
  Understand the steps successful (and unsuccessful) trial users take.

Creating a New User Journey

To create a new user journey in Usermaven:

1. Click "Create New User Journey": You'll find this button at the top right corner of the screen.

2. Provide a Name: Give your journey a descriptive name that reflects what you're tracking (e.g., "Sign-Up to First Purchase"). Add a brief description if needed.

3. Set Up the Event to Track: Choose whether you want to track actions before or after a specific event. For example, you can see what users do after signing up. You can use either a Page URL or a Custom Event to define these actions in User Journeys.

4. Choose the Path Type:

   • Session-based Path: Tracks all actions a user takes during a single session or visit to your website. This path helps you understand user behavior within a specific timeframe.
   • User-based Path: Tracks user actions across multiple sessions, providing a complete view of the user's interactions over their entire lifecycle with your product. This helps you understand long-term engagement and behavior trends.

5. Group or Exclude Actions (Optional): You can group similar events or page URLs under a single alias to simplify analysis. For example, you might group all product pages together under "Product Views" to track how users engage across different products more easily. Additionally, you can exclude specific events or page URLs that are not relevant to your analysis, such as internal team visits or irrelevant page views, ensuring your data remains focused on user behavior that matters.

6. Click "Create": Once you're done configuring, click "Create" to set up your journey.

Analyze the user journey flow

Once created, your User Journey report appears as a flow chart illustrating how users progress from one step to the next. Here’s how to read it:

• Inner Circle (or Leftmost Step): The first step in the journey (e.g., “Signed Up”).
• Subsequent Circles (or Columns): Each ring or column represents the next step in the user’s path.
• Hover for Details: Hover over a step to see the number of users who reached it, as well as the drop-off and conversion rates from the previous step.

You can adjust the Interactive Depth Level to show more or fewer steps—ranging from 2 to 12 levels. This allows you to drill into details or keep a high-level overview.

Tip: You can set a minimum conversion rate threshold for each step in the journey; any step that falls below this threshold will be automatically grouped into "Others," keeping your chart concise and easier to interpret.

Most commonly taken paths

Below the flow visualization, you’ll find a table summarizing the most frequently traveled paths. Each row in the table represents a sequence of steps, and you’ll see:

• Completion Rate: The percentage of users who moved from one step to the next.
• Number of Users: The raw count of users who reached that step.
• Drop-Off Rate: The percentage of users who abandoned the journey at this point.

Use this table to quickly identify:

• High-Conversion Paths: Which paths are most effective at moving users forward?
• Major Drop-Offs: Where are users most likely to exit the journey?