User Journeys
A user journey measures a flow of several steps instead of one page load. For example: open the login page, type the email and password, click Sign in, then measure the dashboard that loads. Each step you mark as measured gets its own Lighthouse result.
Journeys are available on single URL tests. You add one in the new test dialog, see Create a new website performance test.
Add a journey
- In the new test dialog, go to User journey (optional) and click Add steps.
- Set the first step to Go to URL and enter the page where the flow starts. A journey always starts this way.
- Click Add step for each next action and pick its Step type.
- Tick Measure on each step you want results for.
- Click Test flow to check that the steps work, then save or run the test.
Move up and Move down change the order of a step, Remove step deletes it. Remove journey removes the whole journey from the test.
Step types
| Step type | What it does | What you fill in |
|---|---|---|
| Go to URL | Opens a page | The URL |
| Click | Clicks an element | A CSS selector, for example #email. Tick Loads a new page if the click opens another page |
| Type text | Types into a field | A CSS selector and the text to type |
| Choose option | Picks an option in a dropdown | A CSS selector and the option value |
| Wait for | Waits before the next step | A CSS selector to wait for, or a time in milliseconds such as 2000 (30000 at most) |
A journey has at most 10 steps. Steps cannot contain a single quote (').
Measured steps
Tick Measure on the steps you care about. A Wait for step cannot be measured. If you tick nothing, the first step is measured.
Steps that load a page are measured as a page load, with the Performance score, LCP, TBT and CLS. Steps that interact with the page are measured as an interaction, with blocking time, layout shifts and responsiveness (TBT, CLS and INP).
Each measured step uses one run of your plan. The line next to the buttons keeps count, for example "Measured steps: 3. Each run of this test uses 3 of your plan's runs." A test with a journey runs once each time, so Runs per test does not apply to it.
Secret steps
For passwords and tokens, tick Secret on the Type text step. The field turns into a password field, and the value is stored encrypted and never shown again.
- Use secrets only in password fields. Screenshots of the page are kept with each result, so a secret typed into a visible field could show up in them.
- When you edit the test, leave a saved secret empty to keep it. The field says "Saved. Leave empty to keep it."
- If you change the steps of the journey, type the secret again. The saved value is only reused while the steps stay the same, so a changed journey cannot send it to another page. Changing only the Measure ticks is fine.
- A copy of the test does not carry its secrets. Type them again in the copy.
Test flow
Test flow runs the steps once in a browser before you save. It skips the Lighthouse audit and does not use a run of your plan. It takes a minute or two.
You then see "All N steps ran." or "The flow stopped before the end." with a screenshot of the page where it stopped, so you can fix the step at fault, usually a selector. If you click it many times in a row, wait a moment and try again.
Read the results
A run with a journey shows a Journey steps section on the result page, with one row per measured step: its type (Page load or Interaction), Performance, LCP, TBT, CLS and INP. A step that failed shows Error. Open the full flow report opens the complete Lighthouse user flow report.
Limits
- Up to 10 steps per journey, on single URL tests only.
- Journeys cannot run from the Middle East (Bahrain) or Middle East (UAE) locations yet. Pick another location.
- A test with a journey runs once per test run, with no repeat runs.
- Experiments do not support tests with a journey yet.
- Test flow only runs against public addresses, not private or internal ones.