Have you ever wondered how users operate your interface? What do they think and feel at each phase? Looking at a user’s perspective is always a sound habit to implement as a UX designer.
It provides you valuable insights and taps into the world of the users. Moreover, it enables you to understand their core desires and inspires you to make that desirable solution for them.
But are there methods that would help you identify those core necessities?
You better believe it. In this blog, we will cover two visualization tools – Empathy Maps and User Journey Maps. And find out why these two qualitative tools will help you understand your ideal user for effective UX designing.
Empathy Maps
It is a visualization tool that allows us to understand the behavior and attitude of the users. It simply helps us paint a picture of our ideal users and understand their needs and desires.
You can build Empathy Maps using sticky notes, commonly used as a collaboration technique among design teams. In addition, you can work remotely using tools like Figma or interview the user directly to collect data.
Framework
First and foremost, it is essential to understand your user persona. It can be one individual or a target group. Ensure you are focusing on that persona alone when gathering data.
Empathy Maps consists of four quadrants:
Says: It implies what your users tell you during an interview. Specifically, we record what they say word-by-word about their pain points and wants.
Thinks: Ideally, it is tricky to know what is really going on in a user’s head. Observe closely when the user speaks about a topic. They might exhibit uncertainty in their body language or be reluctant to share details. As a result, these cues can help you understand what the user is thinking.
Does: This denotes what the user is doing physically. Observe how they use the app, scroll through each screen, and where they encounter difficulties. Using these observations helps you get to know the user behavior better.
Feels: It is about understanding your user emotionally. Jot down adjectives to describe their present state during each phase. Ask them what they are feeling and what evokes those emotions.
It is crucial to keep in mind that occasionally when we record positive reactions in one quadrant, you will notice negative reactions in another. As a result, it is wise to combine all findings and draw out a commonality that stands out during your research.
User Journey Maps
Journey mapping is a visual representation that depicts the customer experience. It is integral in understanding the user flow and their journey using the interface.
Precisely, it narrates and tells a story about how your user interacts with your interface from start to finish.
How to build one?
For making one, it is integral to understand all the components involved in one:
- User persona
Define your ideal user. It should base on the information you have about your target audience. Conduct surveys, interviews, and ask questions. As a result, it will provide you with credible insights about your user.
- Scenario and Expectations
Define the situation that involves your user. It should address their expectations with an end goal in their minds. Let us take, for instance, a user wanting to subscribe or remove particular channels on their TV provider app.
- Journey Phases
Here you will sketch each phase in the user journey map. List out touchpoints and narrate the story. For example, when your customer is looking to subscribe to some channels on their TV provider app, list out each phase in the process. E.g., identifying the need, looking upon existing plans, evaluating packages, etc.
- Emotions and Pain Points
Then, you record the actions and emotions during every interaction. Understand what they feel in every phase and why. Moreover, it helps you identify constraints and pain points that make their experience less fulfilling.
- Opportunities
These are insights gained from your findings. With the help of these insights, note down solutions you believe can optimize the user experience. Ask questions like how can we improve this step? How can I make the customer more satisfied during this phase? Subsequently, this contributes to a sustainable action plan for future designs.
Steps to follow for building an efficient map
Essentially, follow these steps when creating an efficient Empathy or a User Journey Map:
- Step 1: Define scope and objectives
Define a clear purpose for your user experience. Understand what you are trying to accomplish from this experiment.
- Step 2: Identify your user persona
Understand your target audience and base your experiment solely on that user. As a result, it helps you stay focused on delivering value to the ideal target audience.
- Step 3: List out each stage in the user journey
Understand each phase of the user experience journey and list them separately. As a result, it helps you gain insights on every stage and not miss out on any details.
- Step 4: Conduct research
Gather all information by conducting thorough extensive research, interviewing users, and conducting market surveys.
- Step 5: Validate your findings
Combine all the data and draw out commonalities. After a thorough discussion, finalize a few points that require attention and design solutions.
Which technique is better?
It depends on the objectives and the budget to conduct your research. If you are looking to sketch a visual story and understand the user’s interactions with your product, User Journey Maps is ideal.
On the other hand, if you are more focused on understanding every bit of your target customer, then Empathy Maps are more suitable.
Both techniques provide valuable qualitative data, and combining both methods can assist you in finding a particular pain point of the customers.
Mapping out your customer experience…
Empathy Maps and User Journey Maps are some of the most effective ways to visualize information.
Specifically, it is all about tapping into the user’s mind and understanding their perspective.
Understanding their pain points and expectations enables you to design them an experience they will never forget.