I rarely see an app designed in a way where the app asks you questions about what you want, like a dialogue. Instead, the app leads you to a first option and lets you navigate through the choices. Personally, I find this configuration very desirable for the following reasons.
To make my point clear, let's take 'Gmail' as an example. When you open Gmail, it never asks you questions like:
- "Do you want to read an email?"
- "Do you want to write an email?"
- "Do you want to see what you have sent?"
Instead, it leads you directly to the "inbox," and from there, you can navigate to "compose" or "sent." The reason behind this approach is that the extra steps might be useful for a few new users initially. However, as they get used to the app, the extra steps become nothing more than a cumbersome process.
The second reason is that user flow is not always a linear path. Users need flexibility to jump around and explore. If the flow is configured in a linear way, such as requiring users to answer specific questions to reach their desired destination, it can become quite annoying.
Lastly, this navigation method might feel somewhat alienating. For instance, if users can easily access the "inbox," "compose," or "sent" boxes with just one click from the navigation options at the top, they may question why they need to answer questions as they did before.
What’s your thought on this? Does anyone have different opinion or different angle to share?
