Efficient journey mapping — How can we create a journey map that captures density effectively
A journey map is a visualisation of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.(1) After primary user research, we often come to a point where we have identified different personas from our user base but we need a structure to efficiently map out their interactions and understand each goal with its own series of steps so that opportunities and paint-points can be identified in an end to end task flow. Apart from multiple tasks that a user can achieve, there are multiple users and stakeholders too who are a part of that journey.
Journey maps are the tool to help fulfil this gap between user research and ecosystem dynamics. They are framework to understand the relationship between a service/product and user interaction.
Imagine a simple scenario of a flight booking service — There will be several user goals that will be associated for this service as: booking a flight ticket, rescheduling, cancelling booking, adding extra baggage, special needs like wheelchair assistance or meals and many more. Each specific goal needs an individual journey mapping to understand the emotions, goals and actions through time. Here is a Journey map template provided by NN group.
What can a Journey Map be used for?
- See and assess end to end user interactions with a single task accomplishment in a system
- Understand logical & organised order of touch-points & user interactions to accomplish a goal
- Understanding a user story to map out emotions, frustrations, actions & opportunities
- Identify - different paths a user can take to accomplish a particular task at a particular touch-point
- Set a framework/boundary for cross-team collaboration
How can we make a journey map represent multi-channel experiences?
- Connect several interconnected touch-points in a single journey and see their with all the different types of users that might connect with it.
- Identify opportunities /loop-holes in the end to end task flow
- Get a sense of time and series of steps to reach a touch-point
- Bring multiple stakeholders at the same level and plan development efficiently
- Connect several journey maps to see entire product or service ecosystem
- Analyse a future state journey to be planned
However a journey map also comes with several drawbacks like:
- Only one user goal can be represented, in a single journey but in reality a service would have several interconnected user goals.
- Too much data heavy journey maps might confuse different stakeholders and make a standard journey more complicated.
- It does not highlight hierarchy or importance of touch-points, which might make it harder to plan a development.
