User Journey & UX: Mapping the Path to Success

A modern digital product is a combination of aesthetics, functionality, and user-centricity. When users consider cooperating with the brand, they estimate it by the level of personalized solutions to their needs. This aspect of product creation is covered through user experience (UX).

The idea of UX is to create the best conditions so that every service user enjoys a seamless interaction with it. But how do you know which path customers will take? User journey mapping covers this answer. Let’s discover the opportunities this technique offers and learn how to use it.

What Is a User Journey in UX?

A user journey is a course of action users take to reach their goals. This might be looking for specific information, signing up for services, or purchasing a product. Whatever the final purpose, outlining the steps customers go through refers to journey mapping.

User journey in UX is a part of user research. It helps to gain valuable insights on building a digital product to deliver the best user experience. The survey data confirmed the effectiveness of investing in UX mapping: companies that outlined and utilized journey maps had 200% more chances to outperform their competitors. When crafting UX journey maps, researchers and designers cover these principal elements:

• User personas. The user is the main character of the journey. To proceed with creating the steps, it is essential to analyze the target end user. A client persona is a fictional image of the ideal customer. Depending on your niche’s narrowness, several of them can be. These images are formed based on market statistics and research.
• Touchpoints. Every time the customer interacts with your brand, it is a new touchpoint. You appeared in the search, and a client opened your website—this is a touchpoint. A person got interested in your product and clicked to learn more—this is another touchpoint. There might be numerous of them depending on which path the client pursues.
• Goals. User goals are those actions they want to perform with your business. It can be finding information, buying a product from you, or satisfying a specific request. Knowing what customers want helps to provide them with relevant services.
• Needs. Users come to businesses not only because they are interested in the products but because they need them. So, your brand’s emotions are deeply based on what people need. For instance, if you want to buy a dress, you won’t primarily browse for pants.
• Pain points. Users often stumble across problems when they can have a smooth experience. These pain points might be a slow-loading website, not intuitive interface, a lack of information, etc. By analyzing customer feedback, you can make the user journey more seamless and easy to follow.

The fundamental goal of a user journey map is to circle out the steps customers will take when using the services. Prediction of actions helps to tailor the product’s design and functionality to transform the path into a smooth one.

Benefits of User Journey Mapping

Crafting a user journey map encompasses various processes and takes time and resources. However, if you aim to create a user-centric product, the following benefits prove the importance of mapping a customer path.

Better User Understanding

UX maps illuminate user motives, needs, and pain points at every touchpoint. This information helps provide a personalized experience for every customer. The statistics confirm the necessity of listening to clients: 60% of customers will likely return to brands offering customized shopping experiences.

Increased Empathy

Empathy is a key to any successful relationship, including with customers. It helps build trust and loyalty; we all want to be heard. By researching user personas and delving deeper into their motivations, designers and developers can tailor the product more precisely to user needs.

Uncovered Opportunities

According to Forbes, user mapping reveals problems in a larger picture. As a product developer or designer, you can only assume or be unaware of where your project fails. However, going through the steps real users take can uncover those hidden issues and thus fix them.

Better Collaboration and Communication

Drawing user journeys requires various processes and involves different teams. So, designers, developers, researchers, stakeholders, and other parties participate in that process. This contributes to enhanced team collaboration and communication and streamlines further development stages.

Data-Driven Decisions

UX journey maps are based on actual user data. This information can be used for the UX mapping and the overall design process. Real data helps to make the right decisions, which prevents businesses from building products based on guesswork or assumptions.

The User Journey Mapping Process

User journey maps require going through these several steps. Let’s look at them closer.

Building User Personas and Identifying Their Goals

The process starts by answering, “Who are my product users, and what do they want to achieve?” To build user personas, designers have to conduct user research. This can be done through various methods, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, feedback, market research, and others. Most products have several target audiences, so designers need to create separate journey maps for each type of user persona.

Drafting Touchpoints

When you know who will use your services, list where customers interact with your platform. These connections happen through different channels: on social media when they see your ad, website, or application.

Mapping User Actions, Thoughts, and Emotions at Every Touchpoint

Every touchpoint contains numerous user actions based on user needs, thoughts, and emotions. For instance, if the interaction is the signing-up process, it has several steps, such as inserting data, getting verified, and creating a password. To learn what customers experience, dive deeper into every action. Is it easy to input information? Is the information saved when the page is refreshed? Is the verification process complicated? Researching every touchpoint contributes to a more seamless linking process.

Identifying Pain Points and Growth Areas

User pain points serve for improvement. To deliver the best experience, learn where your customers stop and have difficulties with product usage. The pain points can hide behind poor navigation, a confusing interface, or even slow platform responsiveness. Gathering customer feedback through research methods like interviews or usability testing will shed light on the issues.

Using Frameworks and Tools

Even though drawing user journeys might be associated with a pen-and-paper method, designers use plenty of tools that streamline this process. These are the most useful and popular ones:

• Miro. This is a must-use tool for every designer. Miro allows users to map out the steps with plenty of tools. It is easy to collaborate, which is perfect for remote teams. It is also suitable for non-tech specialists.
• UXPressia. User-friendly tool with a clean design and rich functionality. Professionals use UXPressia to craft not only advanced but also appealing designs and journey maps.
• Microsoft Visio. A very simple tool that makes the process of creating diagrams as easy as possible. Microsoft Visio can be used for analyzing data during user research.

User Journey Mapping Example

So, let’s get from the theoretical part to the action. Meet our new user, Anna, who wants to register for your application. You must do this to ensure Anna receives an excellent user experience.

1. User persona and goals. Anna is an average Internet user looking for an expense tracker app. She aims to find a tool to help her manage finances and see her expenses transparently.
2. Touchpoints. For the registration process, the touchpoints are the following: seeing an ad for your product, going to the App Store, downloading it, opening it, signing up, getting confirmation, and logging in.
3. User actions, thoughts, and emotions. Through every touchpoint, Anna will have plenty of thoughts and perform numerous actions. Let’s take, for instance, the “going to the App Store” touchpoint. She is reviewing customer feedback and hesitating. She thinks, “Will it be helpful? Will I benefit?”. Her actions are searching for initial information about the product and considering downloading it.
4. Pain points and improvements. Anna has faced several difficulties during the sign-up process: the password field was masked, and she didn’t have the option to see the input; there was no option to use a social login that would streamline sign-up; and the verification was not possible via email, only via phone but Anna had poor mobile network coverage and couldn’t receive the code. So, from this feedback, you understand that you have to enable users to see their password input field, add a social login option, and an email verification option.

The visual representation of the user journey would look like this:

Implementing User Journey Maps in Practice

The efficiency of user journey maps depends on transforming valuable user insights into data-driven decisions. Pain points clearly show what needs improvement. However, gathering user feedback doesn’t have to end when the journey map is crafted. Embrace iterative UX design practices in your development and maintenance routines, and be constantly aware of users’ feedback.

User journey maps can serve throughout the whole product development process. For instance, in the planning stage, user goals can define the scope of work; in the designing step, customer feedback can help to shape the design according to their expectations; in the testing phase, end-user data can validate the product performance.

Conclusion

A user journey map is an irreplaceable element in successful digital product development. It visually represents customers’ steps when using the platform and discovers people’s motives, goals, needs, and pain points. User journey mapping can be applied to UX design and all development stages as it reflects the client’s behaviors and helps make data-driven decisions.

Our Uitop design agency follows a user-centric approach and uses a user journey map as an essential technique for delivering the best user experience. Contact us, and we will consult you on the best design decisions for your business!