Menu flow
Also said as Screen flow, UI flow, Wireframe flow
The map of every screen in a game and how you get from one to the next: what Back does, where the cursor lands, what comes after a game over.
Players visit menus hundreds of times. A small flaw in the route, such as a cursor that forgets where you were, is repeated all those times, and flow is what makes a menu feel fast long before anything is animated.
Say it
“After a game over, put the cursor on Retry with one press to restart. Back always returns to the row you came from, and no screen is more than three presses from play.”
Not to be confused with friction
Menu flow is the route itself. Friction is what it costs to travel it, and you can also find friction outside menus, in a long animation or a slow door.