The Map Is Not the Territory, and Neither Is an Experience Model
Maps are visual communication tools used to guide you from point A to point B. They are not replicas of the landscapes that you must move through to complete the journey. They are flat, leave out neighborhood details, don’t tell you about the upcoming potholes, or mention the pedestrian crossing the street. If you’re driving, you use a map of the roads, and if you’re hiking, you use a map of the trails. Their form shifts depending on the navigation you need.
If we “map” this concept back to experience models, we can argue that models behave the same way. Experience models guide insights; they do not depict the reality of the situation. And, just like maps, they communicate you through a particular journey of an organization, but leave out work culture and water cooler conversations.
Maps and Models Provide Structure
Personas remind the team who you’re designing for and what the principal tasks they need to accomplish, but don’t represent the complexity of a human being. Journey maps provide a window into how the user is experiencing the current service an organization offers, but the view into the journey is limited to those you engage. Ecosystems are a networked map of stakeholders and channels, but they can’t fully capture the complexities and nuances of the relationships.
But, just as a map provides navigation through a physical space, experience models serve as a map to navigate an organization and the goals they are trying to achieve. Models are an armature to hang the unpacked insights of people performing tasks to achieve an objective within a system of moving parts.
Guidance into the Future
Going somewhere new and unknown can be exciting, a little scary, and make you question your judgment. It’s ambiguous and can be confusing. Maps and models aid in getting to that new, unknown place by giving direction and answering the question, “How do we get there?”
