MethodsJourney mapping
What
A visualization of the major interactions shaping a user’s experience of a product or service.
Why
To provide design teams with a bird’s-eye view of a service that helps them see the sequence of interactions that make up a user’s experience including the complexity, successes, pain points, and emotions users experience from the earliest phases of researching a product or service all the way through adoption.
How to do it
- Document the elements of the project’s design context. This includes:
- People involved and their related goals
- Their behaviors in pursuit of their goals
- Information, devices, and services that support their behaviors
- Important moments in how they experience a service or major decisions they make
- The emotions associated with these moments or decisions
- Potential harms (e.g. financial penalties, anxiety, damaged reputation) associated with these moments or decisions
- Visualize the order in which people exhibit behaviors, use information, make decisions, and feel emotions. Group elements into a table of “phases” related to the personal narrative of each persona. Identify where personas share contextual components.
- Discuss the map with stakeholders. Point out insights it offers. Use these insights to establish design principles. Think about how to collapse or accelerate a customer’s journey through the various phases. Incorporate this information into the project’s scope.
Additional resources
Considerations for use in government
No PRA implications. The PRA explicitly exempts direct observation and non-standardized conversation, 5 CFR 1320.3(h)3. See the methods for Recruiting and Privacy for more tips on taking input from the public.
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