Ruminating on User Journey Maps

Creating user journey maps is an integral part of any UX or design thinking process. There are many ways in which you can create a user journey map. The links below would serve as guidance on the different approaches one can take to illustrate customer journey maps.

http://www.joycehostyn.com/blog/2010/03/22/visualizing-the-customer-experience-using-customer-experience-journey-maps/

I liked the sample journey maps created by Lego and Starbucks.

• Before creating a user journey map, you have to define personas - based on customer segmentation and personality types. 
• Then identify the customer experience journeys that you want to illustrate for each persona - e.g. transactional process of buying a car insurance, lifetime journey for an insurance customer, etc. 
• Each journey is then broken down into various stages or phases that the customer goes through.
• For each step, identify the customer emotions (e.g. positive, negative, neutral) and think on improving the customer experience - making it a 'wow' moment. 

Joyce also has a great presentation on SlideShare that shows many examples of customer journey maps and how they can be used to create superior customer experiences. My personal favourite was the below example that was a simple yet powerful tool to create wow moments for your customers.

There is another great blog post by ThoughWorks on facilitating collaborative design workshops.

Ruminating on Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a philosophy or a set of principles that can be applied to any creative endeavor. User Experience SMEs have been using similar methodologies for UX design for decades.

Design thinking also embraces many of AGILE concepts such as iterative prototyping, closer end-user engagement to get a first-hand experience of the customer business context - i.e. more human-centric or customer-centric, fail-fast culture.

Jotting down a few video links for folks who want to learn about Design Thinking.

https://hbr.org/2008/06/design-thinking  -  A good video at the bottom of the article.

http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/#crash-course-video  - A free video crash course on design thinking.

https://www.infosys.com/insights/human-revolution/Pages/design-thinking.aspx

http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2014/03/31/design-thinking-a-unified-framework-for-innovation/#abaa3d856fca

The IBM design thinking process is also similar - https://www.ibm.com/devops/method/content/think/practice_design_thinking/

Ruminating on the UX Design Process

Centerline has published a neat infographic illustrating the UX design process. While there are a  lot of UX related infographics on the net, I liked the simplicity and clear thought process of this one :)

When we create compelling user experiences for our customers, we follow a similar process.

1. Gain a deeper understanding of the customer and the industry segment the customer operates in. Who are their end-customers? What is the market positioning of their product? 
2. Based on customer segmentation, create personas and user journey maps. 
3. Create a high level information architecture. 
4. Create low fidelity prototypes (mockups) using Visio, PowerPoint, etc.
5. After review, create high fidelity dynamic prototypes using tools such as iRise, Axure, etc. Work with Visual/Graphic Designers during this phase. 
6. Once the application is developed, do a usability test using tools such as TechSmith Morae. Create a feedback loop for UX changes that gets incorporated in the next agile release. 
7. Make sure that your UX team and Web/Mobile Analytics teams are working in tandem to resolve all UX concerns and improve the customer experience.