Walking a Mile in the User's Shoes: Customer Journey Mapping as a Method to Understanding the User Experience

Abstract

This article introduces using Customer Journey Maps (CJM) in libraries and the role mapping can play in visualizing the user's journey in order to help library staff better understand and optimize the user's experience. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the importance and relevance of the mapping process for any library user experience. The article will also review findings from the Reed College Library use of mapping discovered during our own review of services and resource usage.

KEYWORDS:

• customer journey maps
• service design
• user experience
• library services

Notes

A channel is any method a user takes to interact with a service. In the case of a library, users can use a web channel to find a research database, or they can use the catalog to retrieve a call number to find a book in the library. When using the reference desk, they may opt for the online chat service versus going to the reference desk to get information related to a research task.

Use of the word “sketch” in this case is not strictly related to the act of drawing, but is used to capture any method a user prefers to convey the steps required to describe the task.

If the user prefers a whiteboard or to verbally share the steps required, the research team will want to document the end result using cameras or an audio recorder that can later be translated into the creation of a graphical map.

Exercises included service safaris, expectation scenarios, customer journey mapping, and a week in the life diary. Additional descriptions of the tools can be found at http://www.servicedesigntools.org/repository.

This is a term the members of the SWG used in reference to any library staff employee. Per an earlier comment on user perception of the library, all employees in a library are librarians.

At the time of this SWG meeting, the library was planning for a full website redesign. Certain items mentioned in the course of the discussions were already in the planning stages.

The library has colloquial naming conventions for various spaces in the library. While never codified, the colloquial naming gets passed on to entering freshmen.