User Journeys & Travel Symbology

WHAT ARE USER JOURNEYS ?

Not this…. Or this…

User Journeys The mapping of the user’s path & flow using their motivations, objectives and experiences.

Usually this….

IT COULD BE MORE We encourage the use of Transportation as a visualising tool to map out journeys.

Why? Transportation is all about taking a journey from a set location to a destination. This is essentially what a journey is in the digital landscape. You want to take the user from one point to another to achieve an objective.

A B C

The following transportation networks we find work really well…

A lot of the countries around the world have an existing road network signage, which can be adapted and used to create journeys

Road Network

IT’S GREAT & ALL…. The symbology is easy to follow. Majority of people can relate to it. Visually it looks great!

Journeys using Road Symbols

.

Journeys using Road Symbols Internationally

BUT…. Heavily reliant on that country’s road symbols. Approach fails if a collection of good road symbols are not available. Won’t work well in less developed countries. (Won’t work in the North

Pole, they don’t have any roads!)

Underground/Metro Network

Only around 140 metro systems in the world.

THIS IS AWESOME TOO… Clearly identifies the

flow the user takes. Easier for the reader

to follow through. You can start to build

up a network and show interconnecting journeys.

Again, visually it looks great!

Underground/Metro

OH NO…. Heavily reliant on their

being a underground/metro network in place.

If there is no network in that city then the user won’t be able to relate to it.

Not country based, but city based.

Will it work Internationally?

COMING SOON TO A CLIENT DOCUMENT NEAR YOU…

Air Travel

WOOHOO… Internationally

accepted symbols. It transcends cities,

countries & language.

Air Travel

DOH! Too many sections:

check-in, arrivals, security, departure, what to focus on?

Not everything is relevant.

More thought needed in selecting the signs.

SO WHAT’S THE POINT…

Obviously… It makes your journeys look ‘pretty.’ Allows you to quickly capture the whole flow. More importantly… Effective communication tool. You can get your point across. You get a real sense of the journey the user takes by using a

complete metaphor. Bring the journeys to life with visual cues such as signs.

You can capture the reader’s eye by highlighting decision points, directions, tangents & actions.

You can identify importance of the

journey. For example, M journeys & Red Line = main journey.

THANK YOU @SHEANMALIK

Training courses are available on how to apply these techniques. For more XD insights please follow @uxentropii