A good design starts on paper and ends up with Features, User Flows and Task Processes defined before you ever get to the finished design. Quality processes result in Quality products.

Anything a user can do is a 'task'. Task flows and processes are critical to understanding the path the user will take at anytime to perform the tasks required of them.

Completing a layout of the big picture helps to ensure that all features are understood, all tasks are defined and all data is accounted for. Big pictures are critical to projects.

Laying out a clear plan for today and tomorrow allows you to account for the full lifecycle of a product. Planning ahead make things much easier in the future.

Good UX/UI is more than just about making sure the user understands what's happening, it's about making sure everyone involved understands the feature and how it works.

After laying out the feature map, each grey box starts getting replaced as the features come into the wireframe phase. This is just before we start concepting visual presentation.