The user journey or experience map visually represents a user’s experience with a product, a service, or even an entire ecosystem.
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Mapping the user journey
The user journey aims to enable users to complete a series of actions as smoothly as possible. It involves mapping the user’s mental path and the questions they may ask themselves.
To build this user journey map, you must answer three questions regarding usage, needs, and feelings:
- Usage: What are the user’s actions to achieve their goals?
- Needs: What are their thoughts during this journey or while completing their task?
- Feelings: What are their emotions at each stage and interaction?
This information is gathered during the user research phase through interviews and observations. This is how friction points to be corrected, difficulties encountered by users, and innovation opportunities emerge.
Key takeaways
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For a highly educational approach, Melo presents the complete flow of a user journey in his inimitable style:
What is the difference between a user journey and a customer journey?
The user journey (Experience Map) differs from the customer journey map in that the former focuses on the experience itself, while the latter emphasizes the user as a customer. See also our definition of Customer eXperience: CX.
User research to build the user journey
The success of the user journey depends directly on research conducted beforehand and the information gathered. Ethnographic studies, user surveys in the form of UX interviews, and to some extent, focus groups provide access to users’ experiences during the use of a product or service. This data provides a global view of the experience, which will then be mapped out.
Field studies provide essential data to establish this map. However, other sources of information can also be used, for example, user feedback collected by support or website traffic statistics.
Personas are complementary to experience maps. Indeed, persona profiles describe the characteristics and behavior of one or more user archetypes. The experience map will help “bring them to life” by describing the experience of each persona.
Optimize the user journey with a CRO audit to improve your conversion rate. The quality of the journey depends directly on the understanding of UX and UI roles.
Structuring data and mapping the journey
Maps are always built collaboratively, preferably involving a representative from each department. Information collected before the meeting, or the persona profile that embodies the user, is made available to participants. Remember that the key elements are:
- Actions,
- Thoughts,
- Emotions.
Depending on the context, it may also be useful to include information about the location, duration, devices used, or any other element related to the task performed by the user.
How to draw the user journey or experience map
The simplest method to draw the user journey or experience map consists of tracing a horizontal axis with the stages of the journey chronologically, and a vertical axis with their actions, thoughts, and emotions.
The user’s goal—their task—has been defined following the research phase and is found in the persona profile. For example, the goal of Jérôme, our persona seen previously, is to be reimbursed quickly without being buried in paperwork.
User journey stages
Stages correspond to the various events that mark the user’s experience to reach their goal. In Jérôme’s case, the first major stage could be “consulting the file,” and the last, “obtaining the reimbursement.”
If a customer journey map has already been built, it is easiest to refer to it to complete the stages and actions. The experience map is inspired by the user (or customer) journey map, except that we focus on the lived experiences. It is, in a way, the story of experiences throughout the user journey.
To build loyalty, offering a seamless journey is no longer enough. Today, it is essential to identify opportune moments in the map to insert a “wow effect” lever capable of exceeding initial customer expectations.
Experience map built in groups
When the experience map is built in a group, it is better to form teams of up to five people. Each team will contribute to building the map by proposing sticky notes for actions, then thoughts, emotions, etc. Using sticky notes of different colors—for example, blue for actions, pink for emotions, and yellow for thoughts—facilitates reading.
Do not be afraid of putting too much information on the map. In the end, there will potentially be duplicates, but key moments will emerge. It is only at the end of the session that you should sort through the data to keep the most important items.
The role of empathy
Using the first-person singular facilitates empathy (creating an empathy map) and allows access to the user’s thoughts and emotions. For example, the participant puts themselves in Jérôme’s shoes and notes: “I can’t understand how to send the supporting documents for my file; this situation makes me anxious” or conversely: “I immediately understand how to do it; I am satisfied and reassured.”
It is important to consider the user’s state of mind. In this instance, Jérôme prefers face-to-face contact. He is therefore not comfortable when connecting to the site. The interface must allow him to access his file quickly; otherwise, his experience with the service will be negative. Gradually, it is possible to fill in the “thoughts” and “emotions” fields based on the actions. Emotions can be described with sentences, drawings, or emojis.
Determine improvement opportunities then design the poster
After completing the actions, thoughts, and emotions at each stage, it is time to add cells to reflect on modifications to be made to the studied service or product. If Jérôme has difficulty understanding which documents to provide to get his refund, the improvement opportunity for the service could be: reduce the amount of information displayed on the site. This decision will simplify Jérôme’s task.
3 essential characteristics of a good experience map
The experience map usually takes the form of a chronological table. Its design is important because it is a communication tool intended for all project members. In general, a successful user journey is considered to have three essential characteristics:
- Be clear and understandable for all team members,
- Stimulate creativity in order to improve the service or product,
- Tell a story that allows everyone to identify with the user.
The experience map is then used to guide the design of the product or service. It may therefore evolve over time.
Optimizing the journey to boost conversion
To effectively transform a visitor into a customer, optimizing the user journey is paramount. Every friction point or hesitation on this path can lead to abandonment. This is where CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) comes in. CRO is a systematic approach aiming to increase the percentage of visitors who perform a desired action (purchase, registration, contact). Optimizing the user journey for CRO involves analyzing visitor behavior to identify obstacles. This includes simplifying steps, improving ergonomics and site speed, impactful calls to action, and intuitive navigation on all devices. To precisely target the necessary improvements, one can perform an in-depth CRO audit. This audit evaluates every stage of the journey to detect weak points and propose concrete solutions, thereby ensuring a smoother experience that naturally guides the user toward conversion, thus maximizing your site’s performance.
A tool for the whole team
Beyond the utility of this map, its creation constitutes a positive experience for the team. The process of building the map is engaging. By adopting the users’ point of view, participants often gain a different image of the service or product. Finally, it is an excellent way to allow the entire team to adopt a UX mindset, centered on usage rather than technique.
FAQ: 5 questions about the user journey
What is the major difference between a user journey and a customer journey?
The user journey (Experience Map) focuses on the overall human experience and feelings during use, while the customer journey (Customer Journey Map) emphasizes the commercial relationship, the sales funnel, and the interaction with the brand as a buyer.
Why do we use “Personas” to create an experience map?
Personas serve as a reference basis. The experience map allows “bringing to life” these archetypes by simulating their real journey. We do not map a generic experience, but that of a specific profile (e.g., “Jérôme”) with his own barriers and motivations.
Why is empathy (the use of “I”) recommended during workshops?
Expressing oneself in the first-person singular (“I don’t understand how to validate my cart”) allows designers to truly put themselves in the user’s place. This helps identify subtle emotions that would be ignored with a purely technical approach.
Must an experience map necessarily be linear and chronological?
Although the chronological table format is the most common for its clarity, variants exist. Some maps can be circular or break away from the classic timeline to adapt to complex services where the user navigates non-linearly.
What is the purpose of a CRO audit in the context of the user journey?
The CRO audit uses user journey data to spot exactly where visitors drop off. It allows turning identified “friction points” on the map into concrete solutions (form simplification, ergonomics) to increase sales or registrations.