At the top level, work out the basic building blocks of a service. If there is a detailed section that comprises its own, clearly defined function or area of knowledge (such as calculating a fee), make a separate flow for it. Sometimes this might mean repeating questions later, but it's worth it to keep your service tidy.
👍 Rule of thumb If you could delegate part of a service to someone else to write or look after, it should be a separate flow.
Any flow that is the same for all councils should be separate. You should never be reinventing the wheel.
🌦 The local TV rule Think of flows as being a bit that bit of the TV where the announcer says 'and now over your local news team for the report from where you are' – except in reverse. Send users out to shared flows, then pick them up when they come back
Generally speaking we have found there are two main types of flows.
Triage flows Are wide, flat flows that organise users where they need to go
Analysis flows These are tall and thin, where you ask users a string of questions in sequence to get the answers you need
If your flow is both tall and wide, it probably needs to be broken down into sub-flows.
In most services there is a natural, legible overarching order which is what the user expects. For example, you start by asking them where the property is, and you end with payment and confirmation.
Broadly speaking most services break into roughly four phases:
1 Triage Ask for key information needed to triage them. For example, the location of the property and what it is they want to do.