User Journey

What is a User Journey?

The User Journey is a visual representation of the process a consumer goes through to perform a task on a product or service and their emotions during this process.
The User Journey combines storytelling and visualization and can relate to many different types of users, from an e-commerce buyer, to an airline passenger, and even a hospital patient.

The elements of a user journey

The user journey is composed of 5 elements:

Actor:
These are the people involved in the journey. For example, a passenger looking for a driver via an application;
Scenario and expectations:
In this step we see which process will be mapped and what the expectations of the actors are. For example, in the travel request by the passenger, his expectation may be to find a driver as soon as possible;
Actions, thoughts and emotions:
What are the actions, thoughts and what emotions these points are causing in the actor. What actions do users need to do to complete their tasks? Are the passenger and the driver happy or frustrated? This element is very important, because without it we will only have the mapping of a process;
Contact points and channels:
The map should align contact points (times when the actor interacts with the company) and channels (methods of communication or service delivery, such as the website or the physical store) with the user’s goals and actions. These elements deserve special emphasis, because at this point we find brand inconsistencies and disconnected experiences;
Insights and opportunities:
This is the most important element: what have we learned from this journey, what are the weaknesses that need to be improved, and what opportunities can we take advantage of?

When to aplpy?

To be effective, a User Journey project must always be linked to a company’s objective. The objective can be external, such as getting to know a type of consumer of the company in greater depth, or internal, such as knowing the logistics of the deliverers in a logistics center.

Benefits

A vision more focused on customer needs, since companies usually have a vision more focused on their own processes;
A more comprehensive view of all the company’s processes shared with all sectors of the company, since various sectors participate in the project;
Clearer assignment of the main points of contact with the customer, since during the construction of the journey, it usually becomes clearer which points of contact are not responsible or are not very effective;
Segmentation of a specific customer: the journey maps can help the company focus on an audience with greater return for the company;
Better understanding of quantitative data: during the journey mapping, the cause of some qualitative data can be discovered.

What is the ideal number of participants?

We recommend the participation of 10 to 12 users of each target audience profile because it is qualitative and ethnographic research.

What are the stages?

A user journey mapping project includes the following stages:

Interview and alignment with project stakeholders;
Internal immersion:
Research of company documents that contain information about processes related to the journey;
Co-creation workshop:
In this stage we align all the content of the interviews and internal material and make a draft of the initial user journey;
Qualitative research with users:
In this stage, the initial journey designed through interviews with users and field observation techniques should be validated;
Co-creation workshop:
Now it’s time to bring together the data collected internally in the company and the results of the external research and map the user journey.