User journeys: the complete guide
What is a User Journey 🤓
A User Journey is one of the visual data synthesis methods which we can use to have a more general and quicker view of certain research data. It is a visual representation of the whole process of a user performing a concrete task or goal from the user perspective. This process can be related to a digital product or not.
A user journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal tied to a specific business or product. It’s used for understanding and addressing customer needs and pain points.
Nielsen Norman Group.
Why to use User Journeys ☝️
A User Journey allows us to see an overview of the entire process that the users perform to carry out a task, to analyze all users’ friction with this process and identify opportunities for improvement that may be reflected in future designs.
Use User Journeys to pinpoint specific user journey touchpoints that cause pain or delight and to break down silos to create one shared, organization-wide understanding of the customer journey.
Nielsen Norman Group.
We can use the User Journey as one of the starting points when designing our product since it allows us to understand the current process and get an idea of the different steps that our users need to take to achieve their goal.
We can also use a user journey as a tool to test or analyze an existing product or a product that we are designing to find any point of improvement.
How to use User Journeys 💪
To create a User Journey we will need as start point a Persona or typical user (who performs the journey) in whose actions we will based the User Journey.
Start by compiling a series of user goals and actions into a timeline skeleton. Next, the skeleton is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions in order to create a narrative.
Nielsen Norman Group.
To do this, we will define the user’s goal, a task from beginning to end which we will analyze chronologically step by step. This goal can be very general to have an holistic overview of a general process (for example “discover and purchase an item”) or more specific to analyze a concrete stage (for example “log in into the website”).
In each step we will add at least one explanatory title, a more detailed description of the process, that is, the specific actions that the user undertakes, and we can also add a picture that illustrates this stage,
It is important to ask ourselves what we want to use the User Journey for, to determine what type of additional data can be useful to include in our map. We must be consistent and show the same information in each step of the process.
For example:
- For projects that involve digital transformation, it is especially relevant to indicate the different channels or touchpoints that the user uses to perform the task because in that way we can find opportunities to integrate them into a new digital process. There are different channels that the user can use to perform each step. For example, to solve some technical issues in a device, the user can check a support website, have a call with the customer support service or a meeting face to face with a shop employee.
- If we want to understand the effectiveness of the process and the possible friction of the user with it, we can include the experience, how the user feels at each stage of the process. If we have access to a real user, we can ask them to think aloud while doing the task and include their relevant comments and feedback.
- It is always relevant to detect the pain points of the process and write down the possible opportunities it presents.
Once we have defined what we want to include in our map, we will break down the final objective in every one of the steps and actions that the user needs to undertake to carry out the task. We will do it linearly and chronologically as the user performs the task.
If we have access to a real user, we will ask him to carry out the journey and without interfering in the process we will collect all the necessary information. If we do not have it, through an empathy process we will put ourselves in the user’s place and carry out the journey ourselves, always taking into account the type of user with whom we are empathizing and how he would perform the different tasks.
Key take aways 😎
- First step is defining which information is useful for the concrete project, which questions do you want to answer?
- Define the general goal and then break it into steps.
- In each step add pain points and opportunities of improvement.
- Tell a history to make your User Journey more memorable, you can use pictures or descriptions of the different steps.
- You can compare how different customer segments perform the same Journey in an experience Map.
When to use User Journeys 🧐
We can use a User Journey at any point in our design process: either in a first stage of the research to help us understand the user’s usual process to complete the defined objective, or in any test cycle of our project, to analyze step by step the relationship of the user with our product and the pain points or successes of our design. Here are some of the main use cases:
- Mapping users’ actions in their current journey: as part of the research stage, we can use a User Journey to better understand the process that the user follows to perform their tasks.
- Defining a new journey: within the design process, we can use a User Journey map to help us design a new process that allows the user to achieve their goal.
- Testing a product: we can use a User Journey as a testing tool, where we confront the user with our product, asking them to perform some tasks and analyzing the possible friction of the process.
User Journey map use case: User Stories that combines with storytelling
As we know, a User Journey is made up of a series of steps that a user needs to undertake to complete a certain goal. Different frameworks name these steps differently, for example, Google in their guides calls them “micro-moments”.
According to the Agile nomenclature, these steps are the equivalent of a User Story and the complete User Journey, that is, the final goal that the user intends to reach, would be the equivalent of an Epic, where several User Stories are included. In long User Journeys various Epics can be combined as different stages of a bigger process.
User stories are the central part of many agile development methodologies and represent a requirement that the product that we are going to design must meet, they define what must be designed and built in a software project.
However, by simply having a list of user stories, it can be difficult for both the design team and the development team to acquire a holistic vision of the product to be designed and developed, narrowing the different functionalities into mere technical requirements without reaching the understanding of the end goal of these.
User Journeys can play a key role in a project team’s understanding of the direction and ultimate goal of the product being developed. They are a powerful tool that designers have at our disposal to show in a more visual, understandable and memorable way the different requirements of our product, as well as how these requirements are related to achieve a greater user goal.
In addition, User Journeys have the power to reflect other aspects that simply a User Story list cannot contain, for example the user’s experience when performing an action, possible pain points and opportunities for improvement, and make them accessible and understandable for everyone in the project team.
User Journeys are not only useful for rendering User Stories, they are also a great tool for defining them. Designers and business analysts can work together in the creation of User Journeys to define all the requirements of the product to be designed, or analyze User Journeys of an existing product or system that needs to be improved. In some projects User Journeys are developed with collaborative tools, to allow big teams of designers, business analysts and product owners to be involved in the process.
In conclusion, a greater understanding of the entire project team about the user’s objectives is a decisive factor to maintain the focus on the user during the design and development stages. User Journeys are a great tool for the whole team to gain and maintain a user centered mindset instead of just thinking about functionalities and technical requirements.
If you kept reading until here you deserve a clap 👏🏻👏🏻 Thank you!
