Mapping User Experiences

I recently listened to a podcast on theelearningcoach.com, called "Mapping Experiences to Improve Design." Jim Kalbach, head of Customer Success at MURAL, discusses how to map user experiences using thoughts, feelings, and actions as the root of the experience, from which he then expands using other facets. According to Kalbach, this approach allows designers to get a good framework of the user's mindset or point of view as they are interacting with a learning event.

Getting an in-depth "snapshot" of what is going on inside a user is a difficult task, which is made more so because feelings and emotions are often intangible and difficult to define. However, creating a map of user experiences helps design teams to visualize the experience, from which they can then discuss and expand on what is happening to users. This mapping approach can help clarify problems that analytics and other data miss.

Kalbach offers the following advice when creating a user experience map:

1. Choose the point of view to map. Who's point of view do you want to consider? The conference attendee? The manager? What is the relationship to the person and the event? Mapping experiences are complex, and it needs to be framed in the correct way in order to reach your outcomes.

2. Know your scope. What are you looking for? Where will you begin and end? 

3. Determine what part of the experience you are going to focus on.

4. Decide how to structure/represent the experience.  Select the map which you feel best matches the focus, scope, and experience.

5. Determine what to do with the information gained. How do you want to use this information? How are you going to use the information to foster conversations with your audience? What is your outcome?

Examining both the hard and soft data of user experiences creates an holistic view of complex problems that can help designers create more comprehensive solutions that enhance the user experience, and lead to innovation in user-centered design.

Check out the full podcast here: http://theelearningcoach.com/podcasts/33/