Considering the entire user journey
It’s easy to think of user experience as simply a start and a finish. For example, you want to buy a camera, then you buy one. On a surface level this may be true, however the user’s journey has far more steps and is much more individual than that.
As designers, we need to consider every step of the user’s process. After all, they will be interacting with our work more than just at the beginning and end of the process.
By creating a journey map, we can begin to look deeper into each step of the user experience. In short, a user journey map is a visualization of all of the steps a user takes when interacting with a design.
There is not one specific way to create one of these as each person’s experience is highly individual. However, if we consider our audience into segments in the form of user personas, then we can get a better idea of what user might do.
To put this into perspective, let’s look at a user of MPB.com. Our user – who we will call Johnathan – is a very busy, fulltime freelance videographer. He is looking for a new camera that will help him to more efficiently work on the shoots he does. Although he wants the latest and greatest, he prefers to do plenty of research before making a purchase and does not mind buying a product used.
As we have established, Johnathan will not simply want a camera than buy one. Rather, he will need to determine this need, research options, explore reviews of each, decide, purchase that camera, receive it, then interact with it and leave a review.
From there, we can get even more detailed. We need to explore the actions that Johnathan will take an each of these steps, what touchpoints he will interact with, and the pain points that he may experience across the way.
For example, before deciding what he is going to purchase, Johnathan will likely visit MPB.com and explore their options, he will read reviews on the website and view the specs. An additional touchpoint may be outside YouTube videos or blogs to see what others are saying about the product. However, Johnathan may be struggling with finding meaningful and reliable feedback. Another pain point can be considering a used camera when he knows a new version will come out soon.
As you can see this journey is incredibly nuanced and more detailed than when thought about at first glance. This is why journey mapping is so valuable to designers, because it forces you to think about the user at every step of the process. This will allow for your designs to be fuller and allow for a better overall experience, rather than just at the start or finish of the process.
If you are interested in seeing the full journey map I created for Johnathan, click the button at the beginning or end of this blog post.
Hi! My name is Peyton McKenzie.
I am a professional graphic designer, photographer and content creator.
I encourage you to explore my portfolio to get a better idea of the work I create. If you are interested in working with me or have inquiries of any kind, don’t hesitate to reach out over email.
