Physical Journey Maps: Staging Users' Experiences to Increase Stakeholders' Empathy towards Users

Abstract

Customer Journey Mapping is a widespread service design tool that synthesizes and communicates user research insights to stakeholders. In its common form, a journey map is a synthetic (typically non-interactive) visualization of the key steps of the users' experience with a service or product. By decomposing the elements of a journey map and staging them under the form of a physical and interactive installation, we intend to leverage the power of journey mapping to break silos and prompt employees within an organization to discover end-users journeys in a compelling and empathic way. This aims to support the user-centered maturity of the organization by developing employees' curiosity and empathy towards users. We illustrate this approach through a case study on railway passengers' experiences. We explore the value of richer transfers of user research insights through physical journey maps and discuss design processes and mediums enabling journey maps to come to life.