The easiest way to achieve this is through asking questions of your sketches and designs as you create them, before you bring them into the usability lab. Use these questions as seeds of discussion for brainstorming, and for comparing and generating alternative ideas. When considering designs for an entire Web site, or just key elements like the home page and navigation systems, you must have knowledge about the common activities your users need to do. In answering these questions, you'll be forced to make choices about how things are presented, including demoting certain things and emphasizing others. You can't possibly achieve flow if common activities are as difficult for users to pursue as things they never need.
Flow requires focus on the part of the designer.
Once your users are in the right place to do what they want, flow comes into play as an attribute of how much work they need to do to satisfy their goal. Imagine being in a rental car and not being able to figure out where to put the key to start the engine. You'd know you were in the right place for your task, but you'd be frustrated as to how to go about completing it. Your questions would not be about location, but about the steps you need to follow to start the car and drive to the beach. Flow Deferred Learning Microsoft Visual Studio takes time, as does learning to drive a car, or typing at a keyboard.