User Journey Map

When to use it

Use this tool to think about the steps or milestones of a process or experience and how each one of these impacts your user.

What’s the purpose

Journey mapping helps us build empathy with our users by creating a visual representation of the steps that an individual takes as they move through a process or experience in order to achieve a specific goal. It can help us pinpoint areas in the journey that require improvement by thinking through a user’s emotions at each step along the way.

How to do it

Using the ‘Journey Map’ template, start by naming your journey and add a description.
Then, identify the overall phases of the journey.
In each phase, outline what the user is doing by describing the steps they will go through. Place these steps in the chronological order in which they happen in the row DOING. This is the user’s journey.
For each step of the journey, capture what the user might be THINKING at that specific point in time.
Now, consider the emotional state of the user as they move through each step. Capture highs at the top of the FEELING row and lows at the bottom. Use a line to connect these and highlight the changes in emotion as the user experiences this journey.
Finally, review the journey map as a whole. Notice where there might be opportunities to improve the user’s experience. Make a note of these insights.

Helpful tips

Remember to consider steps in the process that occur before, during, and after the experience you are focusing on.
Focus on a specific persona or user group as you create your journey map, so that you can truly empathize with their specific needs. This also helps you validate or adjust any assumptions that you made about your personas.
You can base your journey map on observations, interviews or persona work, or co-create it with your user.

Using this method in your day-to-day work

When trying to understand a user’s experience, it’s helpful to put yourself in their shoes to imagine what it would be like to live a day in their life. The ‘User Journey Map’ template helps you to consider how a user is feeling and what they might be thinking as they go through a sequence of actions.

When you are next working on something to serve a particular audience and need to step outside of your own reality to build empathy with someone else, use this template to help you build a visual representation of their experience. Then, step back, and reflect on what opportunities it reveals.