User Journey: Guide

This article is part of the product discovery series. In the series we will go through the process of product discovery and how to apply it to your own projects.

In this article, we will go through the user journey.

Summary

A user journey is a map of the experiences a user goes through to achieve a specific goal. It covers the steps the user takes, the decisions they make, and the emotions they feel.
Understanding the user journey is important for product designers, as it helps them to identify pain points and improve the overall experience for the user.

What is a user journey?

A user journey is a map of the experiences a user goes through to achieve a specific goal. It covers the steps the user takes, the decisions they make, and the emotions they feel.

The user journey is often described as a story, where the main character (the user) is trying to achieve a specific goal. By mapping the journey, you can understand the user's behavior and identify any pain points in the experience.

The user journey is a crucial part of the product discovery process, as it helps product designers to understand the users' needs and improve the overall experience.

What a user journey looks like

A user journey can be represented in different ways, but most often it is a visual representation of the steps the user takes to achieve a specific goal. It can be a flowchart, a storyboard, or a simple list of steps.

The representation should cover the steps the user takes, the decisions they make, and the emotions they feel. This will give you a complete picture of the user experience.

For example, let's say you are designing a mobile app for finding restaurants. The user journey could look something like this:

1. The user opens the app and sees the main screen.
2. They decide to search for restaurants and enter a search term.
3. The app shows a list of restaurants based on the search term.
4. The user decides to filter the results based on location, price, and ratings.
5. The app updates the list of restaurants based on the filters.
6. The user selects a restaurant and sees more information about it.
7. They decide to book a table and enter their information.
8. The app confirms the booking and shows a map of the restaurant location.

By mapping the user journey, you can see the steps the user takes, the decisions they make, and the emotions they feel. This will help you to identify pain points in the experience and improve it.

How to create a user journey

To create a user journey, you need to understand the user's goals and the steps they take to achieve them. You can do this by interviewing users, observing them in their natural environment, or by using analytics tools.

Once you have a good understanding of the user's goals, you can map the journey. You can do this by creating a flowchart, a storyboard, or a simple list of steps.

By using DiscoveryBuddy, you can create a user journey in just a few seconds. Based on the other frameworks in your project, DiscoveryBuddy will automatically create a draft of your user journey map for you.

After you have generated a draft, you can edit it to make it more accurate. You can also add more details to the steps, such as the decisions the user makes and the emotions they feel.

You can see an example of a generation below (the example shows generation of a persona, but it works the same way).

Conclusion

A user journey is a map of the experiences a user goes through to achieve a specific goal. It covers the steps the user takes, the decisions they make, and the emotions they feel.

Understanding the user journey is important for product designers, as it helps them to identify pain points and improve the overall experience for the user.