An introduction to the main types of user journeys; when to use them, advice for creating them and real examples to refer to.

1. Are we nearly there yet?
A closer look at user journeys

2. Introduction
“thought patterns, processes, paths”
Auriea Harvey
zentropy8

3. Types of journey

4. 1. From A-Z asap
March Hare: Why don't you start at the begining?
Mad Hatter: Yes and when you reach the end... Stop.
Alice in Wonderland

5. It’s the act of creating, completing or recording information
requires significant interaction from user
Often form based

6. What does this journey resemble?

7. Or it could look like this

8. Preparation is required
Real life or digital

9. I’m doing this because I have to
Often bureaucratic experiences e.g tax return/applying for a job

10. I’m doing this because I want to
Fun journey - creating something –
moo.com / 100 feelings felt.org / lulu.com

11. Early barriers
Common pitfalls with this type of journey

12. - [ ]
mouse miles / inconsistency

13. Necessary offline activity
Activity on another website

14. Distractions along the way
What can often go wrong with this type of journe

15. Passport control, tickets and fares

16. What can go wrong?
Just too much like hard work

17. So how can we design these journeys better?
Indication of how long the journey is and where you are
Progress bars that start with some mileage on the clock and that get faster and faster

18. Use progressive disclosure

19. Automatically save progress
Simple and clear orientation - Where am I? Where was I? Where do I go next?

20. Buttons bigger hit range than visually indicated
Only 1 clear next step – and no peripheral distractions
Timely help and informative errors

21. **
2. Desparately seeking…

22. What does this journey look like?
Narrow down possibilities and options
The information scent should get stronger with each page

23. I know exactly what I want
Fiiltering out what I want from what I don’t want

24. *
Could be fun searching for clues - eg treasure hunt - eBay

25. Could be panicked - eg emergency medical or legal advice

26. Alternative devices and routes to desired content
User has a fairly definite end point in mind
Characteristics of this journey

27. Recipe, article, person, event, product, address, picture
Situations and scenarios where it occurs
and examples

28. Poor retrieval tools or over-whelming amount of information at once
What can often go wrong with this type of journe

29. Distractions on the way or misleading or non-existent sign-posting
Poor retrieval tools or over-whelming amount of information at once
What can often go wrong with this type of journey?

30. *
Traditional menus and faceted classifications
Accelerate as information scent gets stronger and stronger
Use long links - 9-10 words per link
Design journeys around the possible contexts of the content
How to do it better

31. 3. Exploration and inspiration
**

32. Most commonly a lattice, but sometimes even a maze or labyrinth
What does this journey look like?

33. -Speed/tempo irregular
Emphasis on active engagement/interaction
Maps are particularly useful for this type of journey
Can be social
Characteristics of the journey

34. Library
Situations, scenarios and examples

35. Gallery
Situations, scenarios and examples

36. Playing
Situations, scenarios and examples

37. Learning
Situations, scenarios and examples

38. Avoid motion sickness
What can go wrong?

39. Innaccurate, generic or missing context
What can go wrong?

40. -Design journeys around the possible contexts of the content
How to do it better

41. Provide prominent links to strongest contexts
Progressive disclosure depending on the strength of the context
How to do it better

42. -Chain content according to context for richer journeys
How to do it better

43. Allow the content to breathe
How to do it better

44. -Show where you've been
Show where others have been
How to do it better

45. **
I know exactly what I want
Fiiltering out what I want from what I don’t want
4. Rooted to the spot

46. Mostly passive participation in a live event
Actions prompted by changes happening in the event – reactive
Journey is happening to the user rather than the user actively undertaking the journey
What is this journey?

47. *
Fixed focus of attention in the centre with all the activity going on around it
What does this journey look like?

48. Journey is in 3 parts - build up, live event and post mortem
Characteristics of the journey

49. Interface is dynamic…
Characteristics of the journey

50. …and contextual
Characteristics of the journey

51. *
Sports event – fli
Stockbroker
Live apple announcements
Situations and scenarios where it occurs
and examples

52. *
Technology
Lliveness not explained and exploited and interfaces left bare when even not happening
Generic info not specific info
What can go wrong?

53. *
Provide alternative consumption models - eg video, audio, text based
Provide good error messaging
Make everything contextual to the main event
How to do it better

54. Disjointed but frequent - as and when needed
Away we go!

55. Characteristics of the journey
*
Journeys that enhance and mingle with reality - augmented reality
Fusion of real and virtual worlds
Emphasis on experiential
Completely contextual - location or time based
Relies on push technology
What are these types of journey?

56. rjdj
Examples (real and ficticious!)

57. Walkr

58. Are we nearly there yet?

59. seeing through walls

60. Design sites with the journey type in mind
Try and identify types of journeys early on and consider their specfic characteristics, common
problems and ways to counteract these.
Apply contexts sensitively, carefully and accurately
Predict and test potential pain points then design to guard against them
Summary

61. Thanks for reading!
(some of the images used in this presentation are mine, others aren’t. I
did collect credits along the way, but managed to delete the slide, oops. If
I’ve used one of yours, please let me know if you want me to remove it or
would like a credit and I’ll amend accordingly. Cheers!)
cath@electricelephant.com