A user journey map integrates identifiable steps, from actions, tasks, feelings, to areas of improvements.

How to build a user journey map in UX

Defining user goals, tasks, feelings, and areas of improvement

User journey maps complement user personas and user stories. Like a road map, a user journey map defines the strings of experiences users on their journey to reach their intended goal.

Think of the 3-tiered user definition, persona, user story, journey map, like a book. The persona is your protagonist character, the user story represents your plot, and the journey map is your story outline.

The user persona, the user story, and the user journey map build the 3-tiered user structure for whom we are designing the product.

First, we define the user persona for our project. Then, the user story clarifies the who, what, and why. To complete the set up of our user, we craft the user journey map, outlining the entire sequence of events and interactions the user has while using our product or service.

A user journey map helps the UX design team focus on how a user persona, not we (the design team) thinks and feels as a user throughout the journey.

The 5 principal steps of a user journey map

From goal to opportunities of improvement