A user journey map represents Interaction of a user with your company / product / brand / service Depict step by step. I’ll show you how to create such a map.
Contents:
You’ve probably held a product in your hand at some point in your life that you thought to yourself:
"The packaging is unbelievably ugly", "It’s totally cumbersome to use", "I can’t get this plastic-wrapped package open, but can’t find my scissors"…
If the inventors of this product knew your thoughts and were even remotely interested in their clientele, the product would probably be better.
Negative thoughts and emotions can arise every time you interact with something. No matter whether it is a product, a service or a call to a telephone hotline of a telecommunications company.
This is exactly why a user journey map is a great tool to map out, understand, and put those thoughts and emotions to work for you.
What is a User Journey Map
A user journey map (or customer journey map) shows you in a timeline or. Step by step how a user with your product / service / company, etc. Interact.
Then in each step the emotions, thoughts and actions of a user are recorded. And for each step, you define ways to respond to the user.
User journey maps can depict a very general or exact process
General processes show a user’s interaction over a long period of time and more detailed processes over a rather short period of time.
A general process would be z. B.:
From the moment someone writes about a product (e.g. B. an app) to the point at which they stop using the product (z. B. App uninstalled).
An exact process would be z. B.
The checkout process within an app
To help you understand the principle in principle, in this article I’ll show you a method you can use to create a simple user or customer journey map.
What is a user journey map good for??
You get to know the emotions and thought processes of your users better. This will make it easier for you to identify problems, understand requirements, develop ideas, and improve processes and products. This way you can better respond to the needs of the user.
If you z. B. have no idea why your users don’t want to buy your product, then you should create a user journey map to find out what thoughts or emotions your user has within the buying process, or. might have. This makes it clearer what is stopping the user from buying your product and how you can respond to it.
The map is also very good for questioning or confirming your own assumptions about a particular process. After all, you know what the user wants? Or? A user journey map can also help here.
How to create a user journey map
1. Collect real user data
To get real results, you should work with real user data from the beginning.
A user journey map should never be based on assumptions or guesses. Your map needs to be backed up with real user data.
You can get such data through surveys, newsletters, and most effectively through User Interviews etc.
Tip:
You should conduct 5 – 10 user interviews before creating a user journey map. Otherwise everything you do here is just speculation.
2. Create Personas
A user journey is always lived by a persona.
Personas are fictional characters and represent one of your typical users. These personas have certain characteristics and traits that several of your users possess.
It is important that your personas are supported by real data. Means, if a user has a certain characteristic, this characteristic should also be reflected in the data of your users.
Personas are best created after the target group analysis and before the user journey map.
You don’t have time, possibilities or resources to create personas?
You must have at least one good customer. You can use this as a persona for now. Try to transfer the characteristics of this customer to my User Persona Worksheet.
3. Set the goal for your persona
What is the user journey about?? What is the goal?. the motivation of your persona? Here you can also define very rough or detailed goals. Depending on how you formulate the goal, the following steps will change.
I would advise you to work rather roughly in the beginning. You can then assign more detailed goals to a persona and run through your user journey map again and again.
A simple example:
John wants to order food from home
A detailed example:
John wants to order freshly prepared Asian food with no allergens from home
4. Define the individual steps
Before the user gets to his destination, he has to go through several steps. A persona can go through any number of steps. And for each persona, the Steps can look different.
TipHave a teammate or friend take on the role of your persona. This user can go through the steps and say all the thoughts out loud. This creates a more realistic scenario.
In the following example, we assume that our product or service is. Service is a food delivery app.
4.1 Define name and description
What is the first step to achieve this goal?? First think about a longer description for it. When you have the description, write down a short name for this step. ImportantOften the user does not know your product or service at the first step.
Description:
John is looking for an app to order food in the App Store
The name for the step:
Search by app
4.2 List the actions of the user
In each step, the user will do several things. List 4 or 5 actions of the user. Note the correct sequence.
Example:
- Go to the App Store and "order food" Enter
- Scan list for good reviews of the app
- View screenshots of the app
- Read App Reviews
4.3 The user’s emotions and thoughts
Which emotions and thoughts does the user have at this step??
To keep this from getting too complicated for starters, consider a few thoughts. Start with 3 to 5 thoughts and sort them in the right order.
Assign the thoughts an emotional score from 1 to 5. In visualization, you’ll get the emotional "ups" on that and "downs recognize.
Example:
- "There are so many apps that are well rated, how am I supposed to make a decision?" – Emotional score: 2
- "Oh, the apps don’t look very nice…" – Emotional Score: 2
- "I’ve seen ads for this app on the subway before, I’m just going to try it out." – Emotional score: 4
4.4 Seize opportunities and solve problems with your user journey map
Each step brings insights and opportunities. What opportunities do you find to respond to the user in this step? What can you do to increase the emotional score? What would be helpful in this process to move thoughts in a more positive direction? What opportunities does this step offer?
Write down any insights, ideas and opportunities. You can leave this completely unsorted or prioritize it later if you like.
Through your Customer Journey Map you will be able to better match your company / product / brand / service to the needs of the user.
Step 1 example:
- The app icon in the App Store needs to be made more eye-catching
- The color of the app icon should match the outdoor advertisement
- The app itself and the screenshots should be reworked by the design
- More outdoor advertising on public transportation
Note: You can also wait with this step until your persona has gone through all the steps.
5. Repeat Step 4.1 to 4.4 for all steps
The finished user journey map for John might end up looking like this:
You can clearly see from the Emotional Score where there is room for improvement and where you have already done a good job.
You should definitely work on the parts with an Emotional Score of less than 3. All other processes you can improve.
Tools to create a user journey map
Actually you don’t need any tools, pen and paper are sufficient. However, since pen and paper are now somewhat out of fashsion and we don’t want your map to look like Ass and Frederick, you can also use any prototyping or graphics program.
I personally prefer to work with Figma or Sketch.
Special customer and user journey map tools are of course also available:
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(btw. I’ll get some cash if you use this link),
if you don’t want to visit it without affiliate (again without affiliate)
I haven’t had any experience with these tools yet. Maybe someone can give me a field report?
Conclusion
Your user journey map doesn’t have to be perfect, and if you come up just short on some steps, move on to the next one. If you think of more things, write them down. There are no limitations on this.
Your User Journey Map will help you identify new opportunities and be more creative as well as empathetic.