Research Artifacts: Customer/User Journey Maps
Research is a very important aspect of design. Not only does it help in understanding the market and revealing gaps to be exploited. It also helps in understanding users. Depending on the phase and the amount of data we have collected, we research using raw data sometimes and existing data other times.
The majority of the projects done nowadays are in sprints. When working in sprints, the goal is to come up with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). To come up with a successful MVP It’s essential to understand the primary users. Research is one of the means of getting achieving an MVP. User Interviews, User Personas, and User Stories are some methods that help us better understand primary users and achieve an MVP. Another activity we can carry out is the user journey maps. While the aforementioned activities help understand the primary user and identify pain points. User journey maps provides in-depth knowledge of the users we can’t attain from other research methods. Journey maps are a visual representation of a customer/user’s experience with a product at different stages. It unveils the users’ story, pain point, and interaction with the product from the user’s point of view. It also displays their emotions, thoughts, and reactions at different touchpoints. From the discovery all the way to conversion across different platforms.
Creating a Journey Map can be tasking sometimes especially for a new product. Thus, its always a good idea to create a User Persona before starting the journey maps. Knowing the users’ back story of the makes it easy to identify their highlights and lows while using a product. Users might have to switch across platforms, at different stages of using a product. For example, a user using a mobile banking app might switch to a PC to complete a certain task like a wire transfer. As designers should aim to make the transition a seamless one. The Journey Map helps identify situations in which we can improve users’ experience. To wrap things up, while a journey map might not be as essential to achieving an MVP as a Persona. Having one in combination with a Persona makes it easier to achieve an MVP compared to not having one.
