User Journey Mapping
Seeing the Whole Experience
A persona tells you who your user is. A user journey map shows what they go through, step by step, as they try to reach a goal. That includes the moments before and after they touch your product.
Journey maps are one of the most useful artefacts a designer can make, because they help the whole team see problems that no single screen reveals.
The Anatomy of a Journey Map
Most journey maps are a grid. Across the top are the stages of the journey. Down the side are lanes that describe each stage.
Stages
The big steps the user moves through. For opening a digital bank account they might be:
Discover → Sign up → Verify identity → First deposit → Everyday use
Lanes
- Touchpoints: where the user interacts with you (Instagram ad, app store, SMS OTP, customer support chat, a POS agent).
- Actions: what the user does at each stage.
- Thoughts and feelings: what goes through their head, often plotted as an emotion curve that rises and falls.
- Pain points: what frustrates or blocks them.
- Opportunities: ideas for how the team could improve that moment.
A Nigerian Example: Opening a Digital Bank Account
| Stage | Touchpoint | Pain point | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | Friend's referral on WhatsApp | Unsure if the app is licensed | Show CBN licence and NDIC cover on the landing page |
| Sign up | Play Store, app onboarding | 150 MB download on a full phone | Offer a lighter app or web sign-up |
| Verify | BVN and NIN entry, selfie | OTP SMS arrives late or never | Voice-call OTP fallback, clear retry timer |
| First deposit | Bank transfer from old bank | Does not know the new account number | One-tap copy of account number, share to WhatsApp |
| Everyday use | Transfers, airtime, bills | Failed transfer, money "hanging" | Real-time status and automatic reversal message |
The lowest point on the emotion curve is usually Verify. That is where many Nigerian fintechs lose most sign-ups, and it is invisible if you only look at individual screens.
Current State vs Future State
- A current-state map shows how things work today, including all the pain. Build it from research: interviews, support tickets, analytics.
- A future-state map shows the improved experience you want to design. Use it to align the team on the vision.
Always make the current-state map first. Designing the future without understanding the present leads to solutions for problems nobody has.
How to Build One
- Pick one persona and one goal. "Tobi wants to split rent with his flatmates." Mapping everyone at once produces mush.
- List the stages from the user's point of view, not your org chart.
- Fill in touchpoints and actions using research evidence.
- Plot emotions. Where are the highs and lows?
- Mark pain points, especially at the lows.
- Brainstorm opportunities for the biggest pains. These feed straight into "How Might We" questions in the next lesson.
Tools: Miro, FigJam, or sticky notes on a wall. Global teams like Airbnb and Spotify still start many journey maps on paper.
Try It in the Lab
The lab has a journey for Tobi paying his school fees online. Drag each sticky note into the right lane and stage (or click a note, then click a cell). Then set the emotion for each stage and watch the curve update. The map tells you where the biggest opportunity is.
Try it yourself
Key Takeaways
- A journey map shows the user's experience across stages, including touchpoints that happen outside your product.
- Common lanes are touchpoints, actions, thoughts and feelings (the emotion curve), pain points and opportunities.
- Map one persona and one goal at a time, using evidence from interviews, support tickets and analytics.
- The lowest points on the emotion curve are usually the biggest design opportunities.
- Build a current-state map before a future-state map, so your vision fixes problems that really exist.
Quick Quiz
1.What does a user journey map show that a single screen design cannot?
2.Why should you usually create a current-state journey map before a future-state one?
3.On a journey map for a Nigerian fintech sign-up, the emotion curve drops sharply at 'Verify identity'. What is the best next step?
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