Journey Maps

A journey map is a representation of how customers engage with a product or service over time. You can use journey maps to identify a customer’s thoughts, feelings, pain points and successes across a scenario, touch point or channel. This allows you to find opportunities, changes or areas in need of attention. Journey maps are developed through research, including customer interviews, surveys, use of data and other methods. 

Elements of a customer journey map

While journey maps can differ depending on your needs, they generally contain many, if not all, of the following.

1. The Customer: The customer or audience group that is the focus of this particular journey map. This can tie in directly to your User Personas.
   
   
2. Scenario: The set of actions that this customer is completely on the journey.
    
3. Goals, Expectations, etc: You can optionally include further details about the customer to provide more context for the information on the map.
   
   
4. Phases: The primary phases of the journey, generally kept to 3-5 items that easily explain the stages.
   
   
5. Actions: The specific actions taken within each step of the phases.
   
   
6. Timeline: A timeline is essential to a journey map, displaying how actions and feelings happen over time. The timeline can be labeled with dates or periods of time.
   
   
7. Customer Experience: The persona's thoughts, feelings and reactions at different points on the timeline. This is often displayed as a line graph, charting the customer's change in mood or other factors.
   
   
8. Quotes: Optionally, include customer quotes from actual research, tied into specific actions on the timeline.
   
   
9. Touchpoints: Defined the channels that the customer interacts with at different points on the timeline. Example: Website, Support Desk, Phone Call
   
   
10. Opportunities: As a result of the information across the user journey, start to define opportunities for the organization to improve at each phase. Example: Reduce clicks for the online checkout experience.

Why to use a customer journey map

1. Identify Pain Points and Opportunities for Improvement
Customer journey maps allow UX designers to visualize the entire user experience, from initial interaction to post-purchase or use. By mapping out this journey, designers can identify areas where users encounter frustrations or obstacles. For example, if users struggle to find key information on a website, this would be highlighted in the map, allowing designers to address those pain points directly and create solutions that improve user satisfaction.

2. Align Cross-Functional Teams
Creating a customer journey map provides a shared understanding of the user experience across different departments (marketing, sales, customer support, product development, etc.). It helps align team efforts by offering a holistic view of the user’s needs, expectations, and interactions with the company at various touchpoints. This ensures that all teams work towards a consistent and user-centered approach, enhancing overall product quality.

3. Design for User Emotions and Engagement
Journey maps not only outline user actions but also reflect their emotional states at each stage of interaction. Understanding how users feel—whether they’re excited, frustrated, or satisfied—helps designers create more empathetic and engaging experiences. For example, if users tend to feel anxious during the checkout process, a designer can focus on simplifying and reassuring users during this critical step, resulting in a more pleasant experience and potentially higher conversion rates.