If a Persona starts detailing the main character of our experience like a leading lady in a novel, journey mapping starts depicting the world they live in. It speaks to the valley and peaks the person goes through and helps bring their visage to life.
The journey map is an invaluable artifact that helps visualize and tell the story of the people an experience serves. It depicts the journey and identifies key insights in a way that's easy to understand and digestible.
Journey maps can take many different forms, they can be utilitarian (a matrix) or they can be highly visual. Whichever form works really depends on your audience.
I love visualizing journey maps because they become unforgettable. They are also a great research artifact that stakeholders can walk away with. It's hard to walk away with mounds of data but when we make that data come to life, that's when people start truly internalizing the benefits of what user experience experts do and how we make design decisions driven by key insights.
The artifact below has been creating using Adobe XD. Download the template and adapt it to make your story come to life.
Journey Map Artifact
1 Name the journey
Add a memorable title and photo to help ground the narrative.
2 Lens
Ground audience in perspective of this archetype story. Provide demographic information, goals, and expectations to start telling their story.
3 Do
Start defining the experience by describing the action the archetype is doing.
4 Think
Insight about what the person is thinking. Providing verbatim is powerful here.
5 Feel
Provide a sense of what the archetype is feeling. Anxious? Frustrated? Happy?
6 Stage
Name the stage of the journey. It can be by behavior or time.
7 AHA Moment
Insight into what is going right. Something that the archetype finds successful.
8 Opportunity
What is an area that can be improved upon that can help move the archetype forward.
9 Sources
It's imperative that journey maps are grounded in research. Add your sources to provide legitimacy to your narrative.
Journey maps are only as strong as its source data. Browse templates for gaining research insights and organizing the insights with the templates below.
Journey Map Online Activity Board
Before we can create artifacts we need to get the data and refine the findings. We do this by doing research sessions that derive insights that we then slice, analyze, and visualize. Below is an online brainstorming board for journey mapping. Use this to help with brainstorming and analyzing initial findings.
The board was created using realtimeboard. A neat service for online brainstorming & collaboration. Great for remote teams.
Journey Map Printable Activity Board
For co-located teams post-it and a large walkable wall is the best way to collaborate and align on insights. Here's a printable activity board to help with your co-located journey mapping.
