UX is all about the journey, not the destination
Journeying with users for a UX reality check
The purpose of modeling the journey is to deeply understand the user’s motivations, needs and concerns at every stage, and hence most importantly empathize better — to design a user experience that places the user at the center of everything, well almost.
From planning to deciding, experiencing the product to takeaways, most users of products/services at different points of time, would go through all or some of the stages outlined here in the customer journey model.
Rather than restricting the journey to a narrow experience of your specific product or service, it’s important to understand the complete customer journey, to evolve your product fit, positioning and accordingly define the user experience.
You can’t design interactions without interacting with users. Period.
The true journey of a user can be understood and mapped only through interactions with different sets of users, be it one-on-one discussions or focus groups.
Any attempt to model the journey, without user interactions — based on research reports, hypotheses, data or assumptions, would render it largely academic.
Interactions with the user are key as it helps you, well, sort of get under the skin of users, for whom you are designing the experience.
Mood swings and expressions of delight, satisfaction, doubt, disappointment and remorse are emotions that can never be accurately reflected in a report, you have to experience these moments with your users — the memories of these interactions is what will enable you to design with empathy.
Another point to be noted is that depending on their needs, users could freely enter and exit from any stage in this journey — this is not a linear path. But if your product had been able to satisfy those specific needs in a quick and delightful manner, the product is very likely to have a high recall for the user.
Also, no product or service would be able to serve all the needs that emerge in each stage of the journey — however, understanding the vital needs that emerge at every stage gives a far-reaching view, which enables us to understand how the product could fit into our users’ lives, and design accordingly.
Again, there is no panacea to positively evolving the user experience other than through constant engagement with users, which serves as a perpetual reality check.
The Travel Experience | Journey
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Let’s take the example of a travel platform used by a wide range of personal and business travelers for flights, hotels, cab rentals and holiday packages.
To deep dive into the travel experience and understand our users better, let’s model the overall experience of travelers — and not restrict it to only their existing experiences with the product.
This model would give a comprehensive look into our users’ thoughts, feelings and actions, as they pass through different stages — and help plug gaps and foster enhancements to strengthen user engagement.
The model captures only key points, the whole data generated through user interactions is part of offline document sets — which one can sift through and do in-depth analysis later.
Planning the trip
What’s going in the minds of users, while planning for a trip.
- The purpose — Break/ Holiday/ Business
- Shortlist destinations, check distance and duration to destination
- Explore travel modes (Flight/Train/Bus/Cruise/Cab/Self-drive)
- Look up hotels (location, child policies etc), read user reviews
- Find things to do/see
- Estimate costs to arrive at a trip budget (check prices/offers on
flights/hotels)
- Go through cancellation policies (hotel/flight)
User outlook
Insights that could help enhance and streamline the user experience
- Present fares/prices that are all inclusive, wherever possible.
- Add-ons should be upfront and clearly demarcated, not embedded
- Frequent business travellers would like tips on best seats on different plane types
- Families travelling would like to know about child-friendly activities at the destination
- Show destination packages that fit a user’s pre-defined budget
- Tool to help estimate travel and stay costs for specific destinations
- Check multiple sources for information (friends, booking platforms, Facebook etc)
Exceptional situations
Could the product play a role in handling such unique situations whenever possible?
- Postpone/drop plans for the trip due to personal/official reasons
- Destination weather or circumstances not conducive
Could we help the user cope better, by providing timely information on destination weather conditions, alternate travel plans or suggest similar destinations?
Getting the bookings done
It’s time to firm up the destination, dates/duration, travel mode and place of stay.
- Looking for an orderly, intuitive booking experience
- Secure and smooth payment process, with range of options
- Travel mode confirmation — with clear details, driving directions and helpline number
- Hotel confirmation — with clear room details and helpline number
User outlook
Insights that could help enhance and streamline the user experience
- Confirmation from airline/hotel directly is more valued than confirmation from travel aggregator
- Destination guide (videos, weather, clothing, tips, things to do, culture etc)
- Suggested itineraries at the destination
- Emergency helpline (If customer calls from number given during booking, call should connect to an executive with case history of customer clearly visible on screen, so basic information and assistance can be given immediately)
Exceptional situations
Could the product play a role in handling such unique situations whenever possible?
- Booking not confirmed, payment processed
- Postpone/drop plans for the trip due to personal/official reasons
- Destination weather or circumstances not conducive
Could we help the user cope better, by coordinating assistance, follow-ups? Provide timely information on destination weather conditions or alternate travel plans.
Travel & Stay
The experience — or the moment users have been waiting for.
- Smooth travel experience (Flight details/ On-time)
- Travel to hotel, fast check-in
- Clean, easily accessible, well lit room (bed, washroom especially)
- Looking ahead to experience activities/local food & culture
- Connectivity (mobile and fast Wi-Fi)
- Dependent, clean cabs/public transport for local travel
- Share photos with family and friends in real time
- Optimum utilization of time
User outlook
Insights that could help enhance and streamline the user experience
- Can booking site proactively keep track of guests’ travel and stay, ensure everything is smooth (send reminders, reconfirm with hotel etc)
- Local representative of booking site (to help with emergencies, local itineraries)
- Destination guide (events, local transport, weather, clothing, tips, things to do etc)
- Readymade itineraries (things to do/see based on number of days)
- Local restaurant/shopping vouchers/deals etc
Exceptional situations
Could the product play a role in handling such unique situations whenever possible?
- Flights delayed or cancelled
- Medical emergencies
- Credit card not working
- Change of plans midway due to personal/official reasons
Could we help the user cope better, by providing timely information or alternatives?
Trip Takeaways
The memories and the takeaways from the trip.
- Sharing updates and photos on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/WhatsApp
- Share experiences and feedback with family and friends
- Recollecting local culinary adventures
- Call to mind unique experiences
- Experience didn’t match pre-tour expectations, overhyped
- Service on flights and at hotels
- Review destination, hotel (TripAdvisor)
User outlook
Insights that could help enhance and streamline the user experience
- Reminder to carry essential medicines
- Help stick to trip budget
- Tips on forex conversion
- Local representative for assistance/emergencies
Exceptional situations
Could the product play a role in handling such unique situations whenever possible?
- Leftover forex conversion
- Refunds
- Lost baggage
Could we help the user cope better, by providing timely information or alternatives?
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This journey never ends — it’s all about being in constant touch with your users, they are also changing and are full of surprises — sometimes delightful and at times, not so delightful.
Be in touch with them and keep refining the customer journey model — it should be always evolving, not just a pretty artifact pinned on a wall.
