How Could Dopamine Studies Empower Your Customer Journey Map (CJM)?

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Platea Design Community Kyiv

8 min readMay 12, 2023

In this article, we will go especially more profound with the emotional mapping of the users, not spending much time on basic rules such as when/how to use it, and what CJM is.

What Is A Customer Journey Map?

According to Nielsen & Norman Group[1], CJM is a visual and structural compilation of a series of user goals, actions, thoughts, and emotions into a timeline skeleton.

As we can see in the image above, the CJM structure could be represented by 3 zone types: A, B, and C.

Zone A provides us with a central scenario and problem statement (2) (goals & expectations) that is assigned to a persona (1).

Zone B represents the step-by-step user journey (3). This journey is usually visually supplied with actions (4), thoughts (5) & emotional mapping (6).

Zone C mostly concentrates on finding business opportunities (7) that could improve a product or service. As well it could describe internal ownership (8).

Based On Truth: Data Is The Key

As you already might have noticed, the CJM representation clearly depends on the sequence of steps:

Preliminary preparation — setting up goals and hypotheses
Data collection — user research
Analysis of results

Let`s keep an eye on the 2nd step. Journey maps should result in truthful narratives, not fairy tales. Once you’ve got access to your users and launched a trustworthy conversation, it’s a great opportunity to fill in the gaps of the existing research. Collected data would be the basis that you will interpret and analyze.

While quantitative data can give you a high-level understanding of customers’ general attitudes and levels of satisfaction for specific interactions, quantitative data alone cannot build a story[2]. It is less appropriate for understanding emotions, mindsets, and motivations.

Conversely to quantitative, qualitative research can provide us with insights that could be supported with quotes, screenshots, videos/audio, etc[3].

Why It Is Important To Map Emotions

Let`s have an in-depth look at the emotional experience which is likewise an important part of Zone B of the CJM Structure. With all of these wide ranges of research methods[3], such as customer interviews, direct observation, diary studies, and contextual inquiry, what about emotions? How would you measure and interpret the level of satisfaction of your users?

Why is it actually important to check and design a positive experience[4] for your customers?

Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman explains the idea of decision-making under uncertainty. He talks about the specific way people remember & evaluate their lifetime experiences. Such a psychological heuristic was called as Peak–End Theory[5].

Illustration of Peak-End Theory by D.Kahneman

According to this theory, people tend to remember the peak and the end of an experience more vividly than other parts of it. The emotional intensity of these moments can shape the overall impression on a person, and may even override the memories of other aspects of the experience.

“When people assess an experience, they tend to forget or ignore its length. Instead, they seem to rate the experience based on two key moments: the best or worst moment, known as the peak, and the ending [..] What’s indisputable is that when we assess our experiences, we don’t average our minute-by-minute sensations.” (Daniel Kahneman)[6]

Here is the TED episode where Daniel Kahneman explains this psychological principle:

The Peak-End Theory has been applied in various fields, including marketing and user experience design. By understanding this principle, businesses can work to create positive peak and end moments in their customers’ experiences to shape their memories and overall impressions positively.

How Do The Emotional Peaks Appear?

Here the time for Pleasure-Pain Balance comes to the surface and its’ main driver — dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter, the chemical messenger, most involved in processing rewards.

In Dopamine Nation[7], author Anna Lembke (the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic) explores the interconnection of pleasure and pain in the brain, the role of dopamine in the motivation process of getting a reward and helps explain addictive behaviors — not just to drugs and alcohol, but also to food, sex, and smartphones.

“In addition to the discovery of dopamine, neuroscientists have determined that pleasure and pain are processed in overlapping brain regions and work via an opponent-process mechanism. Another way to say this is that pleasure and pain work like a balance.” (A.Lembke) [7]

Illustration of Pleasure-Pain Balance Theory by A.Lembke

We all have a baseline release of dopamine that’s sort of always there. And when we ingest certain substances or engage in certain behaviors, our dopamine either goes up or down in response to that substance or behavior. So, for example, chocolate increases dopamine above baseline by about 50%. Sex is about 100%. Nicotine is about 150%.

Let’s return to the Peak-End Theory and imagine that we have just eaten a great meal at a restaurant and are tempted to finish with our favorite dessert. Everything was perfect, and the anticipation of the dessert only increased our cravings. However, if the dessert is disappointing, it may leave us with a less positive overall impression of the experience, regardless of how great the main meal was.

“We don’t choose between experiences, we choose between memories of experiences.” (Daniel Kahneman) [6]

Dopamine’s Level Game

We experience pleasure, dopamine is released in our reward pathway, and the balance tips to the side of pleasure. But remember, once the balance is level, it keeps going, tipping an equal and opposite amount to the side of pain.

“Here’s the important thing about the balance: It wants to remain level, that is, in equilibrium … Hence, every time the balance tips toward pleasure, powerful self-regulating mechanisms kick into action to bring it level again.” (A. Lembke) [7]

In the laboratory experiment described in Dopamine Nation[7], the rats showed anticipation and cravings for the reward of the ‘drug of choice’ that was associated with external effects & required actions.

The concept of ‘drug of choice’ is based on interindividual differences and refers to a particular substance or behavior that an individual has a strong preference for when seeking its pleasurable effects.

The anticipation and craving for the reward is a key component of addiction, and it is linked to the dopamine reward pathway in the brain.

Laboratory Experiment of Dopamine Levels Changes (part 1)

When people or animals engage in behaviors associated with rewards, the brain releases dopamine, which reinforces the behavior and encourages them to continue seeking out the reward.

We usually feel pleasurable anticipation knowing something good is coming, and that can be attributed to the dopamine surge triggered by the conditioned cue that precedes the reward.

Right after the conditioned cue, there is a decrease in dopamine firing in the brain that goes below baseline levels. This temporary dopamine mini-deficit state is what spurs us to pursue our reward. When dopamine levels drop below the baseline, it creates a feeling of craving, which leads to intentional efforts to obtain the ‘drug of choice’. In other words, the drive to acquire the “drug of choice” is fueled by the urge to restore dopamine levels to their normal state.

Laboratory Experiment of Dopamine Levels Changes (part 2)

The same behavior and reactions were found to be true for humans. Moreover, the entire cycle of anticipation and craving can occur outside the threshold of conscious awareness.

Once we get the anticipated reward, brain dopamine firing increases well above the tonic baseline. But if the reward we anticipated doesn’t materialize, dopamine levels fall well below the baseline. Which is to say, if we get the expected reward, we get an even higher spike. If we don’t get the expected reward, we experience an even lower plunge.

How To Apply Dopamine Studies on CJM?

The studies on dopamine described in Anna Lembke’s book “Dopamine Nation” provide insights into how emotions and behaviors are driven by the brain’s reward system. This knowledge can be applied to improve users’ emotion mapping in CJM by considering the role of dopamine in shaping users’ experiences.

When creating CJMs, it’s important to identify the specific triggers that drive users’ emotions and behaviors. By understanding the specific cues that lead to dopamine release in the brain, you can design experiences that are more likely to engage and satisfy users.

During the process of user research and creating a CJM, it is important to follow these rules to map the most accurate emotional range:

Define the user’s base level of emotion. In a user interview, you can ask clarification questions about the respondent’s mood;
During unmoderated user sessions, you can ask the user to rate their satisfaction or emotional level using a defined scale;
Use a limited range to map emotions, such as -3 to +3, where 0 represents the level of equilibrium;
Keep in mind the peak-end rule to highlight peaks of the emotional intensity on the range of overall experience;
Try to identify possible triggers and note how they can affect user behavior and the consequences of that behavior;
Be aware of the dopamine level game, which tends to maintain the emotional level of the user — internal equilibrium.

Summary

So, now we see the importance of a customer journey map (CJM) and how emotional mapping and understanding dopamine levels can empower it. Understanding dopamine levels can be helpful in creating positive peak and end moments for customers, as emotions are a crucial part of designing a positive experience.

Also, the role of dopamine may be vital in processing rewards, which leads to the pleasure-pain balance and creates emotional peaks. As per Peak-End theory by D. Kahneman, people tend to remember the peak and end of an experience more vividly than other parts, and how dopamine levels can play a role in shaping those moments. Also stressed, it is important to have truthful narratives based on data collection and analysis for CJM, and quantitative data alone is not appropriate for understanding emotions, mindsets, and motivations.