The basic user flow of someone browsing content.
Like many Redditors, I often find myself having spent two or three hours just reading posts on reddit without even realizing it.
After analyzing a typical logged in user and the site’s user flow, I have a better understanding of why.
Why Open Reddit in the First Place?
At times, I’m looking for a specific topic.
Most of the time, I open the site simply because I’m bored and want to be entertained.
The Infinite Scroll
I enter the homepage and am met with a scrollable feed personalized with my favorite subreddits.
(For those unfamiliar with Reddit, a subreddit is a specific online community on Reddit dedicated to a certain topic, and the posts associated with it. It’s often denoted by r/subreddittopic.)
New users will see a list of Reddit’s most popular or recommended subreddits.
Scrolling down the feed, many of the topics will strike my interest because I’ve curated my list to only follow items I’m interested in: r/personalfinance, r/witcher, r/userexperience.
They also include a paragraph or two of part of the post, easily drawing a user in. Once I find an interesting article, I click into it to read the entire post.
The Post
If I find that the topic is something I can contribute to, I’ll write a comment. If I agree with other people’s comments on the post, listed underneath the post, I have the option to upvote or downvote comments I like.
Each comment or post I write has the opportunity to be upvoted or downvoted.
Every time I get upvoted, I get 1 karma point. Karma points virtually mean nothing, yet it’s an extremely effective way for Reddit to keep users engaged.
By gamifying the experience, users will often contribute more.
Back to the Scroll
Once I’m done reading the post and comments, I go back to the reddit homepage to continue scrolling.
In the user flow I created of a typical user browsing Reddit, you’ll notice I included a “Start” indicator but didn’t include an “end” to the user flow.
For good reason — Reddit is set up in a way that encourages infinite scrolling. A few more scrolls, and you’ll be provided with more drama, more art work, more interesting things happening in the world.
In the End…
It encourages a cyclical user flow where users will keep clicking on articles and scrolling by cutting off story posts and by allowing users to curate their homepage. Users are encouraged to contribute to gain karma points.
Users will leave the flow once they feel satisfied they’ve been entertained enough or they have an outside engagement to interrupt.
