What is Ecosystem Mapping?

Defining the concept and components of Ecosystem Mapping.

A few days ago, I was speaking with a Service Designer when I came across the term, “ecosystem mapping”. Our conversation revolved around the context of content design when this term came up. So naturally, I wanted to know more about what it meant and how it pertained to the topic of our conversation.

I decided to share what I’ve learned about ecosystem mapping in today’s story. We’ll look at the concept of ecosystem mapping — what it is, how it plays a part in design, and what are its components. We will also look at the steps in create an ecosystem map and an example of it in tomorrow’s story.

What is Ecosystem Mapping?

Ecosystem mapping is a method to frame the working relationships between the parts, players, and processes within a design ecosystem. It’s a tool that is used to outline all the correlations each component has with one another.

This tool is especially useful when we’re looking at design disciplines that involve many moving parts, such as service design, customer experience design, and even in content design as well.

When we are solving problems through designs, we might think that it’s fairly straight-forward to identify all our components at first glance. However, this is almost never the scenario. The fact that we’re living in a world full of complexities and reliance on technology means that most design ecosystems involve layers and layers of…