Flows Best Practices

Use Flows for sequential actions such as product tours, tutorials, and UI guidance.
For more information on creating a Flow, see Create a Flow.

Name each Flow clearly for easy retrieval. Use simple, descriptive words that your audience is likely to use. Keep titles concise and avoid special characters.

Avoid special characters when naming a Flow. Special characters can cause issues when downloading the Flow as a video. For more information, see Download Flow as a video.

If the Flow title includes spaces or any of the following special characters (<,>,:,",/,|,,?,*,#,%,\s,\n,.), replace them with an underscore (_) when downloading the Flow as a PDF or Video.

Use simple language and keep the description in your Tooltip concise and to the point.

Create Flows in a stable production or live application. Frequent changes to the underlying code could break the Flows.

Limit the number of steps in a Whatfix Flow to no more than 15 steps. This enables users to understand the value proposition of the guides quickly and easily.

If it is not possible to keep the number of steps under 15, then consider splitting the guide into two parts and interlinking them. This keeps your guide concise and simplifies user tasks.

When interlinking content, ensure that the button on the end message that links to the remaining procedure is titled appropriately. Use a short, action-oriented phrase.

When interlinking content, ensure that the button in the end message linking to the remaining procedure is titled appropriately. Use a short, action-oriented phrase.

Ensure that Tooltips do not obscure important UI elements. Proper positioning prevents user frustration.

Remove personal or sensitive information using the Blackout feature. While creating a guide, use the Blackout feature to avoid capturing sensitive information such as email, phone number, username, and more.

Use the Spotlight feature to capture the user’s complete focus on the element where the tip is displayed. Users cannot interact with other elements when the Spotlight tip is active.

When inserting images in content, ensure that they don't exceed the width of the tooltip. Exceeding 270 pixels introduces a scroll bar.

Instead of creating individual steps for each field in a form, create Smart Tips that describe each field. This approach allows the creation of a single step for the entire form, prompting the user to interact with the fields for more information. This further reduces the total steps in the Flow. Also, the users can choose to view tooltip help only for the fields they need information about,
 rather than seeing information for every field in the Flow steps.

Another benefit is that you can use Smart Tips to validate user inputs ensuring the right information is entered. For more information, see Data Validation using Smart Tips

When a field or element in an application does not appear to a specific set of users, configure such steps as Optional to maintain the continuity of the Flow.

If the field or element does not appear, the Optional steps are skipped and the Flow continues to the next step. If the field or element is present in the UI, then the Flow progresses as usual. There is no need to create a separate Flow and trigger it based on the appearance of the field or element. For more information, see Define a step as optional.

Use contrasting colors to make the Tooltip noticeable on your website or application. This approach ensures that the Tooltips are not lost in the interface, as they cannot be distinguished from the underlying application.

For more information on contrast checking, see this contrast checker website that could help you decide.

Use simple words and sentences while creating Whatfix content. Keep the description in the Tooltip brief and to the point.

Select the most suitable Tooltip theme to ensure the UI of the Tooltip matches your website or application’s UI.

For more information, see Change the design of the tool tip.

Use user actions to trigger automated data entry between different tabs of an application. Create a flow that links fields between tabs. For example, when a specific value is selected in Field 1 on Tab 1, a flow can automatically populate Field 2 on Tab 2 with a corresponding value. This automation, triggered by a user action on Field 1, navigates to Tab 2 and populates Field 2.

Here's an example:

For more information, see Trigger a Flow using User Actions.

Add an end message to all Whatfix content to ensure users are well informed about the next course of action.

For more information on adding an end message, see Customizing the end message of a Flow