Why Experience Maps?

We’re often asked why we tie ourselves so tightly to the concept of mapping.

‘After all,’ someone might ask, ‘Isn’t being human or customer centred all about talking to people?’

It is.

Without a doubt.

And we spend a lot of time talking, observing and learning with people.

But research isn’t the end-all-be-all of Human Centred Design. Instead, research is about gathering insight, building (cognitive) empathy and learning how a domain, people, process or technologies work.

Then, all of that understanding can then be fashioned into some form of Experience Map. Which can, of course, include charts, flows, journeys, diagrams and more.

As the famous phrase goes, ‘The map is not the territory.’ But a good map is a great outline of the territory. A way of seeing a place, time, space or sequence at events at a different scale.

Events that occur across meters or kilometers, minutes or months, can be put onto a single large poster or shown in a few minutes of animation.

If design is about creating ‘Scaffolds For Thinking,’ then maps are one of the key scaffold frameworks.

Ironically, maps aren’t the end-point of design, but the beginning. Maps help build understanding, consensus, and vision.

But designs, prototypes and eventual field-tests of new technologies help validate if theories developed in research, and sharpened in design, are matched by reality.

But it all starts with a map.

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