USER JOURNEYS DISCOVER the precise actions a user takes to accomplish a task or objective.
They differ from task models in that, as opposed to representing intended user behaviour, they illustrate the necessary interactions and routes through a system. They differ from sitemaps in that they display specific paths within a website as opposed to the overall logical structure of the site. To ensure that the intended user experience matches, you will find yourself alternating between the three documents, though they must be in alignment with one another.
This post concentrates on thorough, system-based user journeys as opposed to the general paths a user may take when switching between offline and online activities.
What makes a good user journey?
A well-crafted user journey mirrors the behaviour revealed in the task model, which is formulated via investigation and scrutiny. One important way to make sure the system you are developing satisfies the needs of the user is to make sure the task model and user journey match.
When discussing options with the team, a user journey is an excellent tool for figuring out how different site elements will flow together. Drawing out user journeys on a whiteboard or with Post-it Notes is a simple process. In order to make sure that the appropriate content elements are on each page, you can map out the wireframes against them.
When to create a user journey
Th ere are two scenarios where user journeys should always be created:
Product development
When starting from scratch to develop a system, create a user journey.
For instance, you need to know how to implement a new check-out procedure that you’re developing with a client.
Analysis
When testing reveals that the current user journey is flawed and needs to be fixed, create a new one. For instance, rearranging a convoluted checkout process can improve conversion rates.
Product development
While you are creating a new product or service, user journeys should be developed. They assist you in comprehending the system that the user needs to be created and ensure that you can match it in the technical implementation (can the appropriate data calls be made at the necessary points? ) and interface (do you have the correct links to the appropriate places on each page, for example?).
Once you have a strong set of task models and personas to work from, develop the user journey; these will help you make sure you have the right user journey and will also provide guidance. Benchmark testing an existing service—for instance, testing on a prior iteration of the product or on products made by competitors—will assist in identifying issues with the user journey that require fixing and will help you steer clear of repeat mistakes.
Examine multiple user journeys and test each one during development and after the product is launched to help guarantee that the user journey is optimized—but only if time permits this. This can be useful for procedures like an online store checkout, where you can compare how well it performs to request all of the customer’s information on one page as opposed to several. Although the real-world performance and conversion may differ, both solutions are functional.
Analysis
User journeys are great documents to create following user testing or professional reviews of an already-existing good or service. They allow you to see the journey as a whole and take a step back from the page-by-page analysis. There are several ways to accomplish this:
You can illustrate the current user journey and discuss its benefits and drawbacks.
You may demonstrate how the current user journey needs to be modified in order to better meet the needs of the user.
The user journey can be entirely revised in accordance with the user’s requirements.
Or you could demonstrate how the current journey can be extended to include previously undiscovered journeys.
What are you communicating?
The following elements can typically be illustrated in a user journey.
The goal or task
Make the task or goal the title of the page. This is what the user wants to get out of the experience. This could be the user’s intention to purchase the goods in the shopping cart, for instance.
Steps
A single block in a user journey diagram denotes a particular action that users must take to finish their journey. This could be a fact that they need to review or a piece of data that they have to turn in. For instance, they might have to input their credit card number or mailing address.
Decision points
Decision points are employed in situations where the user must make a decision in order to proceed—such as selecting a car colour from a variety of options. With that choice made, the outcome could be to move on to a single subsequent step or to create two or more branches in the user journey diagram that represent different paths.
Start and end steps
The start and finish of the user journey are depicted by the start and finish steps. These are made to stand out by the use of different shaped blocks. For instance, the beginning of the trip could show how things are added to the basket, and the conclusion could confirm that the products have been bought.
Grouping
One step may require its own page. When multiple steps are present on a single page, grouping must be displayed. This could be the section of a personal details page where the name, address, and phone number are all together.
Flow
It is possible to indicate the direction in which the user can move between tasks or steps using single- or double-headed arrows. When showing where users are repeating a task (or tasks) one or more times, curved arrows pointing back to a previous step may work better. An excellent illustration of an iterative process is editing a cart on an internet retailer.
Content
Any content requirements that must be met for the user journey to be finished can be added, and this can be helpful. For instance, you may discover that customers need a rundown of the items they are purchasing to be shown to them at every stage of the checkout process, just to make sure they are getting everything they want. These ought to be included in the content requirements document as well.
Pain points
When analysing an existing user journey, the project team can better focus on the elements that require fixing by creating a clear illustration of the pain points.
External factors
Are there any components required by the user to finish the task that are not part of the system you are concentrating on? These could include talks, outside websites, and more. To create a user journey that is as accurate as possible, it is imperative to illustrate the interrelationships.
Measurement
If your user journey is based on an already-existing system, analytics can be superimposed to the diagram to display how specific elements are actually used. It is a good idea to include the measurement points in your user journey when designing a new system so you can monitor how users engage with it and use that information to inform ongoing analysis and improvement.
The anatomy of a user journey
User journeys are documents with a purpose. To enable the design and development team concentrate on the flow and intricacy of the content, styling is minimised.
Title
The title provides a concise overview of the objective that the user must accomplish.
Groupings
The pages or stages that the steps group into are called groupings. They are nested in this example to illustrate how the journey is divided for various user groups. The shading of an element reveals how it is nested.
Start steps and end steps
The things that initiate a step and the final things that occur are called start and end steps. It may be required, depending on your project, to illustrate the connections between multiple user journeys. Simply rounded corners serve as an indicator for these.
Steps
A step is the task the user must complete or the piece of content he must examine.
Pain points
Individual steps can have pain points from previous research added to them to highlight areas that require improvement.
Decision points
The steps that result in a split in the user journey are depicted by decision points. One diamond is utilised.
Flow
The direction a user can move in between steps is known as the flow. Iterative loops and one- or two-way arrows are used to illustrate it.
Notes
Notes are spaces to record key learning and communication points.
Who is the audience?
The user journey’s audience is made up of members of the project team in various roles, similar to most user experience documentation. The flow and related freedom (or restriction) of movement you’ve discovered through user research and recorded in the task model are fundamental concepts that the entire team must comprehend. The user journey, when examined in detail, reveals precisely what must happen when a user navigates a website—and consequently, where the data and content should be placed to support it.
I’ve split the audience up based on the various practical needs they have.
Business analysts and project managers:
They are interested in every detail of the user’s journey. They will want to confirm that all necessary components have been included and that the process can be developed according to the specifications on schedule and within budget.
The development team:
They want to confirm that the framework and development they are employing can facilitate the intended journey. How can an off-the-shelf e-commerce package, for instance, be modified to fit the necessary user journey?
Copywriters, designers, and the wireframe team:
They must comprehend the user journey’s general flow. In addition to helping them think through how to establish consistency in style and interaction as a user navigates between the pages, it will assist in determining the quantity of pages and templates required.
Business stakeholders:
Does the user journey satisfy the financial, functional, and practical needs of the business? Will users find the tasks easy to accomplish and have a satisfying experience?
How to validate the user journey
You’ll be very confident that the user journey you’re creating is the right one once you’ve finished the research to set it up (see the research and workshop ideas later in this chapter). Throughout the development process, you can validate and optimise the user journey on prototypes and then the live site at various points.
User testing of wireframes, designs, and live sites
Issues with user journeys and, frequently, task models are revealed by testing sites, applications, and their prototypes.
You must take a step back and rewrite the user journey if you observe that the procedure isn’t living up to user expectations (i.e., if users aren’t aware of what will happen next, or if they are unable to complete tasks or locate information when they need it).
This is less likely to be the case if you’ve finished a full user-centred design process than if you’ve just thrown yourself into user testing at the last minute of a project.
A/B testing and multivariate testing (MVT)
To determine which combination of variables is most effective for completing tasks, you can test the real-world performance of two or more design variables against each other using A/B and multivariate testing. While MVT allows for many more variations, A/B testing usually examines two variables.
Make sure all potential solutions are workable (by creating them as part of a user-centred design process) before finishing A/B or MVT testing so you can be sure that none of the solutions will cause the website to malfunction.
You can test the user journey at three levels:
01. Group level to test the arrangement of content chunks on a page.
02. Element level to ensure that particular fields and content are placed and executed optimally.
03. Page level to evaluate the best possible flow across the website.
RESEARCH AND WORKSHOP IDEAS
User journey research and definition are always interesting and educational. You start putting the knowledge gained from the task model and persona development to use by developing the real user experience that visitors will have on the website.
Research participants are well-engaged and feel that they are contributing to the development of the site around their needs. The project team can collaborate to discuss and debate the best user journeys during workshops.
RESEARCH TECHNIQUE: Process sorting
The materials needed for process sorting are the same as for card sorting, labelling cards, or using Post-it Notes. Participants are asked to arrange the cards in the sequence in which they anticipate or desire events to occur. As appropriate, ask the participants to sort the cards into categories they believe belong on the same page.If participants need more steps, make new cards (they may not want all the steps the organisation wants) and note any terminology issues the users are having.
Keep in mind that users may have different user journeys depending on what they are attempting to accomplish. Try assigning the same participant to a variety of different tasks to see if the user journey needs to be modified for each task. For instance, you should comprehend the user journey for reserving a flight and the user journey for reserving a flight and a hotel on a travel website. You’ll be able to observe the points of overlap and accommodations for differences between each journey. This is useful since your ultimate goal is to figure out how to combine all the necessary components to give the user the best possible experience.
Once the participant’s basic journey has been established, use the cards to explore the next level of detail and comprehend the data and content requirements at each step. Make sure your questions are direct and open-ended. For example, “What information would you expect to complete here?” and “What data do you require in order to accomplish that?” The finished product is far more satisfying to the user when a system is matched to their expectations of how it should operate. For instance, it’s much better to know that merely requesting names and email addresses from your visitors on a sign-up page will satisfy them than requesting dates of birth and mobile numbers, which they will not be happy to provide. Another illustration would be to place a clothes size chart next to the area where customers choose their sizes; this way, they can easily access the information they require at their convenience.
Upon completion, each participant will have their own set of processes, which you can examine and identify recurring themes in. You can incorporate the user content requirements that are noted behind each step into the content audit documentation.
This research and analysis serves as the foundation for your user journey document.
WORKSHOP IDEA: Examine user journeys
A useful method for outlining and debating every aspect of a user journey is to hold a user journey workshop with the project team. You should have finished your research using the process-sorting method mentioned at the beginning of this section before you start. This guarantees that you can adopt the user’s perspective, supporting their desires rather than yours or the project team’s.
Inviting attendees
Include as many stakeholders in the project as possible, such as product managers, designers, developers, business analysts, project managers, and marketers.
Request materials from the participants regarding their areas of expertise, including any current analytics and information on the technical platform, content requirements, and data requirements. In addition to providing user insights, this data makes sure you have enough information to decide on the appropriate level of detail for the journey.
Gathering materials
Choose a room with a whiteboard if possible so that lines connecting the components can be drawn or erased and Post-it Notes can be put up and moved with ease. Keep a camera handy so you can record the user journey in its various iterations as it develops (you may need to revert to an earlier version at some point during the meeting or later on in the project).
Additionally, have the task model and personas available so that the user’s objectives and behaviour are reflected in the journey.
Conducting the Workshop
To conduct the workshop, follow these steps:
01. Begin at the top and ask the participants to list the stages and categories (like delivery particulars or payment details) that must be included in the user journey. Concern yourself with the details later.
02. As you compare the groups to the functional and user requirements, talk about any areas where they conflict (e.g., point out differences between what a user wants to input and what the company wants to collect).
03. Arrange the groups according to flow and consider the flow between them. Can users apply filters to iteratively refine a list, or can they only move between elements in one or two directions?
This provides you with your basic user journey. Although it appears simple, past experience has shown that it will lead to a great deal of in-depth discussions about the construction of the system (or a component of a system).
04. Examine the specific content and data requirements required to support each stage of the journey. Once more, you can make sure that every detail is covered by using the functional and user requirements.
Use the user journey workshop to identify the various measurement points required to comprehend user behaviour and evaluate the project’s success if you’re starting from scratch when creating a user journey.
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