Stop Journey Mapping, Starting Universe Mapping
How linear is a customer experience? We often think of customer journeys as step-by-step processes, but in an evolving digital landscape, experiences are layered with unpredictable factors. Breaking down data and complex research can be overwhelming and transforming journey experience findings into an enriched visual story is a challenge.
Universe mapping is a centralized, layered framework I’ve designed to organize complex qualitative data and factor in empathy metrics. Understanding the foundations of visual storytelling is key to a strong interaction narrative so you can understand who your customer is and how to build for them.
Since the start of my data visualization career, I have studied and designed conceptual models to guide participant experiences in qualitative studies such as diaries and in depth interviews. In June 2022, I presented this new universe framework of how break down findings and map out a multi-faceted customer experience map of profiles, journeys and discovery work to get past tech talk and visualize the opportunity space. Showcasing highly illustrated market research examples and custom data visualizations, I shared a few different scenarios the universe mapping model would be applicable based on exploratory qualitative research. Below is the excerpt I shared at UXPA International San Diego.
