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Discovering and understanding the Experience Map
Thomas Huber
8/7/2020
8 min reading
Design
8/7/2020
8 min reading
Design
Also known as the customer journey, the Experience Map is a virtual synthesis of the customer's experience of a given product or service. A veritable mapping of the user experience, this design method helps to define the various potential problems that the user may encounter. In other words, when developing a product or service, the Experience Map highlights obstacles as well as opportunities for improvement, based on the user's journey.
Identifying the needs and feelings of users when faced with a new product or service is the primary objective of any innovative project designer. Based more on the user's experience than on a product's utility, today's marketing methods focus on individual feelings in the context of interaction. It is in this context that theexperience map has become an essential tool in the design of new products and services. While defining a sustained vision of the interaction between user and product/service, this method also highlights the potential limits and prerogatives attached to it. Drawing the user experience in a simplified graphic, this approach is the task of any designer or innovation manager.
Experience Map is a UX mapping tool used by any web designer or development manager to "bring the customer experience to life" by mapping out the customer's experience of using a new product or service. Ultimately, it will serve as an essential corporate device as the primary structure for innovation design. The Experience Map is a model of the user journey, simplified into a legible map accessible to all those involved in the design process. It tells a comprehensible story to which everyone can refer in the development of a new product or service, and thus aligns the identification and journey of the user persona in interaction with it.
First of all, the Experience Map is a design tool that has become universal in the corporate world, knowing no borders or sectors. As such, it can be used in a wide variety of environments, and can be applied to the design of a wide variety of products and services. Mapping the user experience enables us to anchor a product in an experiential action, and to define potential obstacles or opportunities that may arise during the customer experience.
Because of its modular nature and the diversity of its fields of application, theExperience Map can be summarized in the following general characteristics:
- Define and delimit the potential obstacles encountered when using a new product or service through customer feedback.
- Identify opportunities for improvement and innovation based on this user experience
- Decide on new directions based on lessons learned from previous stages
- Provide a common materialization for all players involved in the product design project, through a map that is easy to read and accessible to all.
- Unify decision-making and align objectives with the concrete reality of the product or service provided by this experience mapping.
Increasingly favored by product/service design managers, the Experience Map has become an essential tool for refining and targeting the impact of products and services. With theuser experienceat its core, it enables us to gain a deeper understanding of consumer expectations, rather than simply responding to a specific need and purpose. It also stimulates the creativity and interactivity of those involved in the design process. So, in addition to designing innovative, user-centric products and services, theexperience map is a genuine tool for promoting ideation, and can also prove to be an unrivalled competitive tool.
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