journey for usage

A simple (but complete) guide to user journey mapping

Learn what user journey mapping is, and how to incorporate it during your web designing process.

Webflow Team

As a web designer, you incorporate skills from many disciplines into your day-to-day work.

Bringing the perspective of a UX (user experience) designer to your work will help you see your website from the perspective of your users, making your design meet their needs better.

Web designers and developers are typically more focused on the client-side of a site, while UX designers focus entirely on how a site is experienced and what features make using that site easy or frustrating. Web designers who understand some UX design will be able to create more enjoyable, more effective websites.

User journey mapping is one tool from the UX toolbox that every web designer can use to better understand their users and how to meet their needs.

What is user journey mapping?

User journey mapping (sometimes called a customer journey) is a way to understand the experience of your website from a visitor’s point of view. A user journey map is literally what it sounds like  — a visually diagrammed map of the path that a visitor takes through your site — from the homepage, through menus and links — to find what they are looking for.

To create a user journey map, you first will research who is using your site, what they want, and what their experiences with your site have been so far. 

Why user journey mapping is useful

User journey maps help you to better understand how to get the user from your homepage to the information they need or the action they want to take. They’re exceptionally helpful in  refining your website design.

Improves the user experience

This is the ultimate goal with user journey mapping. Site navigation can be especially tricky to assess as a designer because you already know the layout of your website so well. Getting a fresh pair of eyes to try and navigate through your site reveals things you might not have noticed while designing it.

Through doing user research and visually mapping your results, you will begin to see what parts of your design are confusing or frustrating visitors. This process also reveals areas that are working well and can be repeated elsewhere in the design.

Maintains ease-of-use when your site grows

User journey mapping can make even a simple site clearer and easier to navigate. When your website or business grows, and you need to add content and features, user journey mapping can be used to make sure your website’s fundamental flow stays intuitive and easy to navigate.

When you are planning a redesign or a new website, you can even create user journey maps to test your design before you begin building (see future state mapping below!).

Three useful types of user journey mapping

You can approach your user journey mapping differently based on the insight you are looking to get from it. The end result of each map will look similar, but the focus of each is different, which will change the information you get out of it. There are many different types of maps, but these three are most useful to start with.

Current State

A current state map looks at your website as it is right now. It is most useful for identifying opportunities for improvement in your current design and understanding how your website is being used. This is the most common type of user journey map.

Future State

A future state map explores a hypothetical “ideal” website. It asks what it would look like for someone to use your website if everything was exactly as you imagined. This type is useful to use when planning a redesign or a major change. When you collect user research and visually communicate the results, you can use that map to pitch your plans to your client or company.

Persona Based

A persona-based map lays out the journey of any one designated persona. These maps are useful when you want to optimize your website for a specific type of person or improve the experience for users with specific needs.

Master the fundamental concepts of web design, including typography, color theory, visual design, and so much more.

How to get started with user journey mapping

Once you have set goals for yourself and decided what type of map you want to create, you can begin mapping your user journey.

Decide your scope

You can look at your entire website at once, or you can map just one interaction or outcome, such as finding the newsletter sign-up sheet or making a payment. A focused scope can help you troubleshoot an area that isn’t working or ensure an especially important element is working as intended.

A larger scope map gives you a big-picture overview of the way your site works as a whole. It’s a more involved process, but it will help you understand the entire user experience from beginning to end.

Find your persona(s)

A persona is a type of person who might be visiting your site. You can give them names and personalize them a little with details about who they are, what they are looking for, and why.

Focus on users that contribute to your business goals. You might need to get in the mindset of a marketing or sales team for this part of the process. To find your personas, you can talk to current users, look at online reviews, or email your mailing list.

For example, if you are making the website for a store that sells artisanal coffee-making tools, your personas could be:

• The Gift Giver: doesn’t know anything about coffee but wants to get a fancy-feeling gift. They will need more help, so they might interact with an FAQ or Chat feature before going to the Products page. They might leave if they get too overwhelmed by options before getting help.
• The Coffee Nerd: always looking for the best tools. This person might go straight to the products page and will want the details easily accessible. They have high standards and won’t want to purchase without having access to the information. They don’t want to get distracted.
• The Tourist: on vacation and looking for a cute shop to visit. They aren’t going to be interested in your online store, but a gorgeous photo of your store and easily accessible hours and location could convince them to come by.

These three people have very different needs and different goals in visiting your website, but to capture all of their business, you’ll want to map each of them and make sure you’re serving them well.

Put those personas in context

User context is the when and how each persona is visiting your site. A visitor will have a different experience of your site if they load it on a mobile device versus a laptop. Someone visiting your site casually when they have plenty of time will use your website differently than one who is looking for something specific while rushed.

You want to figure out when, how, and in what mindset your personas most commonly visit your site in order to map their experience accurately. This has very concrete impacts on your finished design. If visitors tend to look for one specific page whenever they are in a hurry (like contact info or your address), putting that information on the front page or linked to by a very visible button will smooth the user experience for all of those users.

Persona Example

Jo is a student apartment hunter in her early 20s and is still in college. She's looking for off-campus housing for her and her roommates. The collective group values location and cost more than apartment features.

Context : Jo is in a hurry and trying to visit as many apartments as possible. She is looking for apartment addresses in directions

Method : Browsing the site on her iPhone.

List their touchpoints

Touchpoints are the moments where the user makes a decision or interacts with your website. They are the actions they take to move toward their goals and the emotions they feel when that happens. The first touchpoint is how they got to your website — did they follow a social media ad, click on a search result, or type your URL directly?

Starting there, list each action that is taken and the corresponding emotional reactions. Any time they navigate a menu, click on a button, scroll through a gallery, or fill out a form is a touchpoint. You diagram the fairly dry A to Z path through your site, but you also become a bit of an actor, putting yourself in your persona’s head to figure out their reactions.

A met expectation — for example, that clicking a link called “Shop” will take them to an e-commerce gallery — will result in a positive emotional reaction. An expectation that is not met — say, the “Shop” link takes them to a contact form instead will provoke a negative reaction.

An example of what Jo — our persona above — might experience in her user journey. 

• Loads website in a mobile browser window. (Emotion: Neutral)
• It looks different than on a laptop. She looks for the map and can’t find it. (Emotion: Confused)
• She clicks on the “Apartments” tab. The map link is there. (Emotion: Less confused, a little frustrated)
• She uses the location and price filters to find apartments nearby. They all pop up on the map. (Emotion: Happy)
• She selects an apartment and clicks on it. The address and map are instantly visible. (Emotion: Excited)
• She looks for the agent’s contact info. She can’t find it. (Emotion: Frustrated)
• She scrolls down, clicks the agent’s name at the bottom of the page, and a contact link pops up. (Emotion: Relieved)
• After visiting, she reopens the listing page, and the Apply For Apartment form is at the bottom. (Emotion: Need met, feels satisfied)

Map the customer journey

Turn these touchpoints into a journey by mapping them on a timeline. You are creating a narrative of the feelings they experience over time. Create a graph of the emotional states of your user through each touchpoint by connecting them like this:

The map helps you understand the user experience as a whole. If we look at the graph above, it looks like touchpoint 3 is the biggest challenge to successfully navigating the website. It also takes a little while for the user’s mood to rebound after that initial setback. Improving the element of touchpoint 3 that isn’t working will have the biggest impact.

Translate your user journey map into action

A user journey map gives you insight into your user’s experience, but what makes it effective is the actions you take based on that information. In the immediate short term, use your results to make positive improvements to your website. You can repeat journey mapping as often as you like throughout the design process and explore the ways you might be able to change your design as you grow your website.

User journey mapping can also improve your skills as a designer in bigger ways. It is a tool that can improve your empathy and help you see your designs from new points of view. The choices you make when creating the website you are currently mapping, and all of your future designs, will be more informed by real data and more responsive to the real needs of the people visiting your site. Getting this sort of feedback regularly makes you a better designer, which is ultimately what we are all striving for.

November 10, 2021

Recommended reads, how to create a top-notch career website in 2024 and beyond, how to upsell your services & retain clients (10 best tactics), starting an agency that's built to last, subscribe to webflow inspo.

Get the best, coolest, and latest in design and no-code delivered to your inbox each week.

Join the conversation

Related articles.

How to create marketing personas that start with empathy

Why is content mapping crucial for website building?

UX design process: a simple (but complete) guide

How to create a user flow for your website

The beginner's guide to user research

What is a moodboard and 5 reasons to create one when you design your next website

What ’ s webflow.

• Interactions

Edit and update site content right on the page.

Get started for free

Try Webflow for as long as you like with our free Starter plan. Purchase a paid Site plan to publish, host, and unlock additional features.

Transforming the design process at

• Localization
• Figma to Webflow Labs
• DevLink Labs
• Feature index
• Accessibility
• Webflow vs WordPress
• Webflow vs Squarespace
• Webflow vs Shopify
• Webflow vs Contentful
• Careers We're Hiring
• Merch store
• Accessibility statement
• Terms of Service
• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Cookie preferences
• Freelancers and agencies
• Marketplace
• Libraries Beta
• Hire an Expert
• Made in Webflow
• Become an Expert
• Become a Template Designer
• Become an Affiliate

Quality product content. In your inbox. Every week.

User journey map: the ultimate guide to improving ux.

Skip to section:

What is a user journey map.

A user journey map is a visual presentation of how your customer moves through your marketing and sales funnels. Much like directions guide a driver’s progress through physical space—a user journey map tracks a customer’s progress through time. 

Your customers take a trip from unaware all the way through to being a paying customer. User journey maps are an attempt to capture each potential customer touchpoints along the way, giving you roadmap-like view of customers’ experience with your brand and product. 

Creating a user journey map

Creating a user journey map forces you to identify potential points of friction and opportunities for UX improvements by experiencing your product from the customer’s point of view. 

Before you can map the user journey, you need to gather the appropriate data. You’ll need to pull this data from multiple sources to get the best sense of user interactions. Your marketing metrics will detail how customers are brought in. 

Meanwhile, your product and behavioral data will enlighten you as to how your customers are using your product. User research can provide a great deal of event-to-event analysis of the customer journey. Market research such as customer interviews and surveys can fill in any gaps in the buyer’s journey and help determine the perceived quality of each interaction.

The benefits of user journey mapping

Simply creating user journey maps often reveals insights into your customers’ experience with your product. These completed user journey maps can then be used to enhance:

UX improvement

It’s easy to become nearsighted as you scrutinize your UX. It’s understandable: you’ve been staring at your product for a very long time. However, prospective customers are not likely to be as empathetic. A single snag in their experience can derail an otherwise positive process. If your customer support team is dealing with reports of a steep learning curve, your journey maps may help rectify the situation.

A user journey map allows you to visibly identify pain points in your UX design that may have escaped you during development and in-house testing. Furthermore, a user journey map should be embraced by the entire product team as a way to triple-check your work and vet product usability. Someone else on your team may identify a potential problem area that you were unable to see yourself.

Product and feature adoption

A frictionless UX lends itself to stellar onboarding. Your analytics and market research will reveal to you the critical events that lead customers to fully engage with your product and features. When your user journey is laid out visually before you, it’s easier to identify ways to shorten the distance between signing customers up and converting them into long-time users. For example, let’s say you know that filling out a user profile doubles the rate of product adoption. An analysis of your user journey map reveals that there are 3 steps that occur between initially signing up for your product and filling out a user profile. Instead of hoping that you don’t lose your newly onboarded customers before they fill the profile out, you could add the critical profile fields to the sign-up form and set your customers up for immediate success. This same process also helps pinpoint opportunities to direct customers to underutilized features. Features are designed to enhance overall product engagement and increase retention, but some excellent features can be buried within a UI and thus go unused. Mapping their journey would reveal the best places within their journey to send in-app messages or emails highlighting the wish list feature and describing its benefits. This helps you clearly draw the line between certain features and customer pain points.

MIND THE MAP

Your user journey map + appcues = 👋 low feature engagement.

• Use our product adoption platform to improve feature adoption
• Increase feature usage w/ in-app guidance and education

Company-wide empathy

Team members from every department benefit from understanding the customer needs. Understanding potential frustrations builds empathy for customers and keeps their issues in perspective. It allows others to see how a customer’s experience affects their likelihood to upsell, churn, or even advocate for the brand. Wisdom can be trapped in departmental silos. The insights of others outside the product management team are integral to creating a fully realized user journey map. Meeting with key stakeholders within your company is a critical component of the research stage of mapping as they can provide outside insights that the product team can’t gather analytically.

Components of an effective user journey map

So, what actually goes into an effective user journey map? That depends who you're asking. If you're asking us , we'd say there are a few key traits to them all.

1. Protagonist creation

Different folks use varying terms to describe the individual who actually goes through the user journey. Worse yet, some companies imagine themselves as the heroes in their own stories. In reality, the character at the center of this odyssey is the user—and that's why we give them the title of "protagonist" here.

To chart a user's journey, you have to understand their point of view. The protagonist in a user journey map isn't unlike a buyer persona. Who they are and what they're trying to accomplish will make their journey unique. That's why it's helpful to imagine them as protagonists in a story. Create a narrative arc around each user type to start user journey mapping.

2. Journey stages

In a story, a protagonist experiences rising action, complicating circumstances, and, hopefully, resolution. Each of these different parts are what make novels and Hollywood movies emotionally resonant. They're also at the heart of the user journey.

The stages to your protagonist's' (user's) journey will vary depending on what you sell and how they use it. In the case of B2B software, the journey stages might roughly track against the following steps: 

• Negotiation
• Adoption/value perception

3. User thoughts and actions

This one is pretty straightforward: what is our protagonist feeling and doing at each step of the user journey?

Putting yourself in the shows of your users as they navigate the process of using your product is a useful exercise because they help you understand where things can improve or where the experience is suboptimal, which leads us to our next points...

4. Friction/pain points

Where are users running into problems? What's stopping them from getting the best overall experience? Answering this question helps you identify the opportunities to improve your user experience throughout the journey. Whether your users are running into problems during the purchasing process, onboarding, or while actually using the product, taking a good hard look at the stumbling blocks will only make your user journey more seamless.

How to build a user journey map

The actual contents of an experience map will vary depending on what you’re trying to achieve, but there are several features common to most versions: phases, experience qualifiers, and interactions. Keep in mind that there are many different types of user journey maps that each address specific purposes. For this example, we'll build a basic type called an experience map.

1. Outline your phases

A user journey map is a single quadrant of a coordinate graph. Each interaction your users have is given a visual representation as a point on this graph. Before you start logging these points, you need to define the values for each axis. The horizontal axis of your map measures the time and sequence of your customer journey. The point furthest to the left of the graph should be the first interaction, and the furthest to the right should be the last interaction. Seeing as how a customer’s journey from discovery to power usage might contain dozens of points, it’s best to divide the horizontal axis into multiple phases. Commonly, user journey maps for products are segmented into the following phases:

• Consideration
• Adoption/ongoing usage

Visually, the first stage of building a journey map template might look something like this:

Adding phases to your map delineates the different stages of a customer’s life cycle. A customer experiences your product in a specific sequence. They can’t use your product without first becoming aware of it. Setting up the correct framework of stages establishes how each touchpoint is affected by the one preceding it and affects the event that follows.

2. Identify experience qualifiers

Not all interactions with your product are equally positive. Onboarding struggles or software bugs are downright frustrating. Thus, the vertical axis of your user journey map should track the quality of each interaction. Drawing a line between good, bad, and even neutral experiences will help you identify potential problem areas (and solutions!) upon later evaluation. Such a user journey map would look something like this:

3. Plot user interactions

With your life cycle phases fleshed out, you can start adding interactions to your map. It’s important to remember that you’re not trying to map out every possible user interaction of every possible user. Instead, you’re trying to brainstorm how a particular user persona is likely to interact with your product. For each customer persona you’re attempting to understand, you should create a new customer journey map. Keep in mind that customer experiences occur across sales and marketing channels. These omnichannel interactions with your brand include:

• Social media platforms
• Email campaigns
• Digital advertising
• Your website
• Your product itself
• In-app modals

For best results, your user journey map should note the channels in which these interactions happen to ensure that you engage with the user in the right place. For example, if a customer talks to a pre-sales agent, you should note if that’s expected to happen over the phone or through an online live chat.

Once your initial touchpoint is established, you can begin to move through the phases in logical order. As you add each event to the graph, determine whether each event is positive, negative, or neutral, and log them on the vertical axis accordingly.

Done correctly, your finished user journey map should look something like this:

Build better customer experiences with user journey maps

User journey maps aren’t one-size-fits-all. Many variations on the core concept exist to fit your needs. Perhaps you just want to zoom in on a particular phase of a customer’s life cycle. You might not even want to map your customer’s current experience at all and instead use a future-state map to flesh out their journey through the next iteration of your product. The dynamic nature of a user journey map only increases its value to your product strategy. Your needs and objectives differ from every other company. You can read a book on customer experience to gain general UX guidance, but a user journey map allows you to capture a snapshot of the unique relationship between your product and your customer base. The mapping of your user journey eliminates so much of the guesswork from strategy and innovation. Think back to your friend who gives terrible directions. You can continue to rely on their bad directions every single time you embark and slowly go mad. Alternatively, you could do a little research yourself ahead of time and build your own accurate map that clearly shows the way forward.

And if you use Appcues, you can effectively build user journey maps within the platform to better plan and visualize in-app experiences. If you're intrigued, learn more about Journeys or start a free trial to embark on your own journey of building exceptional experiences.

Send us an email

What is a customer journey map and how to make your own [examples included]

Written by by Kiran Shahid

Published on  November 2, 2023

Reading time  12 minutes

Do you know what your customers see and do before they purchase from you?

They see your ads, interact with you on social media and explore your website before they buy. All these interactions—from the first ad impression to every “Please help” DM customers send—define your customer journey. To keep up with it all and better inform your social media marketing strategy , create a customer journey map as a blueprint to help you understand your customers at each stage.

Let’s explore what customer journey mapping is and how it helps your brand.

What is customer journey mapping?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of each point of interaction your customers have with your company. You can style the map like a flowchart, timeline, table or even on sticky notes.

Creating the map is a great internal exercise. Along the way, you might find pain points or touchpoints you didn’t know existed. A basic customer journey map includes the buying stages (and support touchpoints) a customer goes through.

More detailed maps include:

• actions your customers take
• good and bad emotions your customers experienced
• departments involved in customer touchpoints
• content types you serve your customers
• solutions to pain points

What is a customer touchpoint?

A touchpoint on the customer journey map is the point of interaction a customer has with your brand. It doesn’t need to be a two-way interaction. Seeing a social media ad, getting a branded newsletter and asking a friend for a product recommendation are all touchpoints.

Customers may experience emotions and actions at touchpoints. When someone asks for product recommendations, people might mention your brand. You might not serve that recommendation to them directly but someone still introduces you to a potential customer.

What are the benefits of customer journey mapping?

A customer journey map puts the customer first by giving you a deeper understanding of how your customers interact with your brand. This enable you to make better decisions and improve customer experiences.

When coupled with social media market research , they help brands:

• Provide an overview of the resources your customers use . This helps determine the ROI of customer-centric engagement and service. For example, if blogs are your highest traffic sources, investing more in those channels makes sense.
• Identify content gaps . Pain points without solutions are an excellent source for content ideation and development . If customers need help with a specific product issue, for example, but find limited guidance, create in-depth video tutorials to address this pain point.
• Identify inefficiencies . Maybe some processes are repetitive, or some solutions cause more friction. If your customers have trouble checking out due to a complicated form, for example, simplify it to reduce cart abandonment rates.
• Generate marketing campaign ideas . A clear understanding of customer motivations and journey stages creates targeted campaigns. You can provide them with relevant content and incentives to move them closer to a purchase.
• Guide multiple departments. Streamline content creation, social customer care strategy and messaging optimization across every touchpoint. Departments use the customer journey map as a central reference to ensure a consistent and customer-focused approach.
• Enhance customer communication . Customer journey maps reveal critical touchpoints, like social media interactions, for timely and meaningful engagement. In fact, The Sprout Social Index™ shows 51% of customers believe the most memorable brands on social respond to customers.

Every business and industry has its unique customer journey maps, but the fundamentals remain the same.

Recently, our social team talked about using social media for the customer journey in the auto industry. Watch the video below to hear their discussion on touchpoints, customer experience and how legacy brands are going beyond traditional tactics like targeted ads to tell their story.

It’s a great example of how industry-specific customer journey follows the fundamentals but also has touchpoints specific to them.

What’s included in a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is like a detailed travel itinerary for your customer’s experience with your brand. It includes elements like:

1. The buying process

The buying process is the step-by-step path a customer follows to make a purchase decision. It tells you where customers drop off or face obstacles during making purchases.

Use prospecting tools, content management systems (CMS) and behavior analytics tools to gather data. Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping and TikTok Shop data also provide valuable insights into how customers find products and engage with content via social commerce .

Pro tip : Categorize the journey into stages like awareness, consideration and decision to map these steps horizontally on the customer journey map.

Don’t forget to integrate feedback mechanisms, such as customer surveys or user testing. These offer qualitative insights into the buying process. Understanding the “why” behind customer behavior can be as important as knowing the “what.”

2. Emotions

Emotions show how customers feel at different touchpoints in their interaction with your brand. Emotions heavily influence purchase decisions and brand loyalty which is exactly why it’s so important to include them.

Think about it: When someone has a great experience with your brand and feels happy, they’re more likely to buy from you again. On the flip side, if they feel frustrated or unhappy, they’ll knock on your competitor’s door.

Use surveys or feedback forms to ask customers how they felt during their experience. You might have come across these smileys during your own shopping experience:

These scales are a convenient way to gauge how your customers feel at any point.

Pay attention to what they say on social media and in reviews. You can tell if they’re happy or upset by their tone.

Tools like Sprout Social use AI-driven sentiment analysis to dig into social listening data to give you insights on what people think about your brand.

These insights are handy when creating emotional marketing campaigns . When you know how customers feel, take actionable steps to solve any negative experiences and encourage positive ones.

3. User actions

User actions are the steps customers take when they interact with your brand. They include steps like visiting your website, clicking on a product, adding items to their cart or signing up for your newsletter.

Actions highlight what people do at each stage. Each of these actions tells you something about what customers are interested in and how close they are to making a purchase.

Analytics tools for your website or app are your best bet for such data. These tools show you which pages customers visit, what they click on and where they drop off.

Once you have this information, tailor your marketing efforts and content to align with the actions customers take at each stage.

4. User research

User research examines what customers search for or where they turn for information during the buying process. This part of the customer journey map helps you understand how customers gather information.

For example, in the awareness stage, buyers often rely on search engines like Google to research solutions to their problems. But it’s not just about where they go—it’s about what they’re looking for. Knowing their specific research topics allows you to address their pain points.

What’s the trick? Keep an eye on what customers search for online. Tracking keywords and phrases they use on search engines, as well as social media market research are good places to start.

Also, monitor discussions and conversations to get a deeper understanding of the questions, concerns and topics that are top-of-mind for your potential customers.

The key is to use this information to provide potential customers with what they need at each stage. Targeted content delivery positions your brand as a valuable source of information.

5. Solutions

This section outlines the actions and strategies your brand implements to address customer pain points and improve their overall experience.

It documents the specific solutions or improvements applied at each stage of the customer journey. These include steps like changes to website design that resolve issues and improve the customer experience.

It visualizes how your brand responds to customer needs and challenges at different touchpoints. Besides that, it’s a good reference to ensure your team implements the solutions and refines them to increase customer satisfaction.

What are the 7 steps to map the customer journey?

A strategic approach to building a map ensures you capture every touchpoint, anticipate customer desires and address potential pain points. Here are seven steps to build a journey map unique to your customers and business needs.

1. Set your goals

What do you want to get out of this process? And why does it matter to your business? Knowing your goals sets the stage for how you assemble your map.

Some examples of goals include:

• Identify the top three customer pain points. Use these pain points to create content.
• Understand customer interests and motivations to develop better products and services.
• Total the cost of customer interactions to set a better social media budget .

2. Decide on a customer journey map type

There are several different customer journey maps and each one has its advantages. When you decide which map to work with, you know which details to focus on.

These are four of the most common types of customer journey maps: current state, future state, day in the life and service blueprint. We’ll go further into detail on each one later on.

Understanding your goals and where your brand stands in its evolution will guide you in selecting the appropriate map type.

3. Create and define your customer personas

Which customers will you focus on? It’s difficult to map a customer journey if you don’t have a customer in mind. Customer personas are fictional characters that represent each of your target customer groups. They’re detailed with everything from demographics to interests to buying behavior.

If you’ve already created social media personas to understand your audience, you’re more than halfway there. But if you haven’t, then our buyer persona template  or Xtensio’s will be useful. To really get to know someone’s purchase decisions and shopping processes, interview existing customers.

Pro tip: If you have distinctively different personas—such as, if you serve both a B2C and B2B market—set up different customer journey maps.

4. Break it down: touchpoints and stages

The customer journey map is divided into stages that usually fit within the funnel illustrated above. List out the stages to begin. Next, list out the main customer touchpoints that exist for your company. When you’re done with both lists, place the touchpoints into the different stages.

To get even more detailed, assign department owners to each touchpoint. You can identify where certain social media channels fit into the mix. And, you can assign predicted customer sentiment or emotions to different stages of the journey. It’s up to you how detailed you want the map to be.

5. Gather data and customer feedback

You need rock-solid data on how customers interact with your brand to create an accurate customer journey map. Focus on these three aspects:

Analyze existing data

Jump into the data you already have—more specifically website performance, chats with customer support and sales records. This information can tell you loads about how customers act, what they like and what frustrates them.

This quantitative data offers a foundational perspective on how customers interact with your brand, helping you identify both strengths and areas of improvement.

Conduct customer interviews

Get personal with one-on-one chats with customers. Ask them about their experiences, what bugs them and what they expect when they deal with your brand. These talks reveal qualitative insights that numbers can’t, like understanding the emotional and psychological aspects of the customer journey.

Create surveys and questionnaires

Turn to surveys and questionnaires for a more structured and broader approach to gathering feedback. Send them out to a bunch of customers and get structured feedback. Ask questions about their journey with your brand, how happy they are and where they think things could get better.

A combination of these three aspects gives you a 360-degree view of what your customers really experience with your brand.

6. Test and identify pain points

To confirm your customer touchpoints, you probably checked in on various departments and spoke to customers. This is great work but you need to take another step further: test it yourself. Go through the customer journey from the viewpoint of the customer.

While you’re testing the journey, keep an eye out for challenges, confusion or any frustrating moments. For example, if the website takes forever to load, if instructions aren’t clear or if reaching customer support is a headache, make detailed notes of these issues.

It’s also a smart move to collect feedback from both colleagues and customers who’ve gone through the journey. This way, you double-check and confirm your findings for a more complete picture.

A hands-on approach ensures your customer journey map reflects the real-world experience and equips you to take targeted actions to improve the overall customer journey.

7. Make changes and find solutions

So your map is complete. What’s next? You need to find or create solutions to the pain points you identified in the previous step.

Now’s the time to check in on the goals you established in step one and make the moves to smooth out the journey. Give yourself time and space to implement some of the solutions, whether a quarter or six months, and check back on the map to update it.

As you put these changes into action, make sure to watch your customer journey map closely. Don’t forget to keep it up to date to show the improvements and how they affect the customer experience. This keeps your customer journey map fresh and super useful for steering your brand toward delivering an exceptional customer experience.

4 types of customer journey maps and examples

Let’s take a look at the four most common customer journey maps and examples of each.

1. Current state

Current state customer journey maps are like an audit. You document how your customers experience their buying and service paths in your company’s current state. These are especially helpful to establish a baseline for your customer service experience.

Take a look at this simplified current state customer journey map from Nielsen-Norman.

The map follows the journey of “Jumping Jamie” as they navigate the process of switching to a different mobile plan. The map defines the current journey into four stages. Apart from the journey, it also highlights opportunities and metrics to track.

Current state maps are fantastic for sharing user frustrations with all departments. This helps you get everyone on board with investing in solutions and brainstorming ways to address user pain points.

2. Future state

Future state customer journey maps follow the same format as current state maps except they represent the ideal journey. You can use them alongside your current state maps to identify painpoints and areas to improve.

Here’s an example of a future state journey map:

Why does this visual work? It covers different states, feelings and even touchpoints in a cohesive format.

The map visualizes the best-case scenario to create a north star vision for your brand. It aligns your efforts toward achieving the ideal customer journey.

3. Day-in-the-life

Day-in-the-life customer journey maps outline one of your persona’s schedules as they go about their day. The interactions may or may not involve your company. Creating one of these maps helps you identify the best times and areas to interact with your customer.

Here’s a “day-in-the-life” visual from Pipedrive.

The map doesn’t just highlight when the persona does something, but it also highlights different touchpoints and the different people they interact with throughout the day. And, notice those thumbs ups and downs? Those highlight how the child feels during different activities too.

4. Service blueprint

A service blueprint customer journey map focuses solely on when you provide customer service. It ignores components like ads that might exist in other maps.

Miro, a collaborative online whiteboard for teams, created the above map with a bank in mind. You’ll notice how this map is only about a customer’s visit to the bank. This type of map helps brands look at individual service areas and interactions. It’s a macro version of the current and future state maps.

Get started with customer journey map templates

Creating a customer journey map doesn’t have to be overwhelming. There are plenty of free and paid templates out there to help you create one. If you think you’ll need more guidance or many maps, some companies offer special software to design a custom map. Build your first journey map or improve your existing one with these options.

• Current state template , provided by Bright Vessel.

• Customer journey map template by Moqups, a design and collaboration tool.

• Service blueprint template by Miro

• Customer journey map template by Mural, a planning tool.

• UXPressia’s customer journey map online tool , made specifically to create presentation-ready customer journey maps.

Create a strong foundation with a well-integrated customer journey map

A customer journey map gives you the recipe for crafting personalized, impactful interactions that build customer satisfaction and loyalty.

When you know what they are and why they’re important, it’s time to make yours. Use data to create a solid customer journey map that exceeds customer expectations at every touchpoint.

Check out how you can turn your B2B social media data into a revenue-driving powerhouse and create a memorable brand.

[Toolkit] Communications Toolkit to Safeguard Your Brand

Find Your Next Social Media Management Tool With This Scorecard

How to ladder up your brand’s social media maturity

3 Social media executives share what it takes to build a long-term career in social

• Customer Care
• Customer Experience

How to build customer relationships with social media

Omnichannel customer experience: exploring seamless customer journeys

The role of AI in creating a more human customer experience

• Marketing Disciplines

Customer retention strategies for 2023

• Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

What Is A User Journey Map and How Do You Create One?

10 min read

Without a proper user journey map, it can be hard to engage users in a meaningful way across every stage of their journey. In this post, we will cover what exactly a user journey map is, what it isn’t and how to build one in six steps – so let’s dive in!

• A user journey map visualizes all steps taken by a particular user to reach a particular goal while using your product.
• The difference between a user journey map and a customer journey map is that the former essentially involves steps users take to become customers, and the latter involves all interactions between customers and your product after the purchase.
• A user journey map shows how a particular user interacts with your product, while a user flow reflects the ideal user journey in the eyes of a product team.
• While a user journey map reflects one part of a particular user’s experience, a user experience journey map reflects all segments and interactions between a user and your product.
• A user journey map helps you turn users into customers and retain them.
• To create a user journey map, you need to follow six steps: set an objective, define a user persona, define the user persona’s journey, identify milestones, fill in touchpoints and use a journey mapping tool.
• Users will interact with your product differently, so you need to create a user persona and then a specific user journey map for that persona – our guide will help you with that.
• Define the stages you will include in a user journey map basing on the previously defined objective.
• Identify milestones (key points) in the user journey, which will help you keep track of where a particular user is in the journey.
• Touchpoints are small events that need to happen for a user to reach a milestone – for example, you can create an onboarding checklist out of them.
• If you have followed all the previous five steps, you can then use a user journey mapping tool.

What is a user journey map?

A user journey embodies all steps a particular user takes to reach a particular goal when using your product. Usually shown in the form of a visual map, it considers all product adoption phases in your funnel.

Depending on your objective when building one (we’ll cover this in a bit!) a user journey map can be focused on:

• A current state or a future state perspective
• A single-stage in the journey or start to finish
• Understanding the user persona better (Day in the Life journey map)

But before you roll up your sleeves, you need to decide on what you are actually trying to do. If you google related terms, you may find customer journey map, and user flow terms used as synonyms. That’s really misleading.

Why? Consider the difference between a customer and a user in the SaaS industry:

• A customer is a person who is looking to spend money on your product or already had bought something in the past (a group of customers includes: leads, potential customers, prospects, MQL, SQL, etc.)
• A user is a person who starts using your product without spending money on it (users sign up for a trial , create freemium accounts, start interacting with your SaaS product)

User journey map vs customer journey map

Let’s start with a full understanding of the user journey concept before jumping to mapping and templates .

First of all, a user journey looks like a customer journey.

It consists of steps taken by a user, points of contact with your product, and how they feel as they’re trying to achieve a particular goal inside your product.

There is one major difference, though.

A customer journey involves all interactions between customers and your company after the purchase. It is very high-touch and involves different company departments – from customer success to sales.

On the other hand, a user journey is normally low-touch. Its main goal is to convert users into customers, so most interactions occur within the product itself.

If you want to visualize your user journey, you need to create a user journey map. It will help you determine the most common problems users encounter along their journey and possible solutions.

User journey map vs user flow

Contrary to what you can find on the internet, user journey maps are not the same as user flows. While the user journey map shows how users interact with your product, user flow shows how the ideal user journey should look like according to a product team.

User journey map vs user experience journey mapping

Remember that user journey maps are not the same as user experience journey maps .

The difference is that a user journey map may refer to one segment of the experience that the user has, while a user experience journey map includes every single interaction between users and your product.

Benefits of using a user journey map

Imagine you got lost in the forest, but you actually have a detailed map that will help you get out of the woods on you. Now, what do you do?

A) Refer to the map

B) …throw that map away?

I don’t think you’d choose B.

Logical right?

But I see option B chosen in the software industry over and over again.

Companies are looking for a product-market fit in the jungle full of lookalike solutions until they find it.

Of course, without a map.

However, there is a way to find your PMF quicker. And it leads through a remarkable user experience .

Your users need to be able to recognize the value of your product instantly. It will be the reason they turn into customers.

The next thing you must do is keep providing positive experiences as it keeps users loyal to your product. This will help you acquire new customers and grow the company’s revenue.

You can do that by following these steps:

• Understand how the user interacts with the product
• Personalize onboarding for each user persona
• Activate users faster – by knowing what the activation point is, you can build in-app experiences such as checklists and tooltips to guide users and help them see value in your product faster.

Before you can take these steps though – you need to know how your user journey. And to do that – you need to visualize it by creating a user journey map.

How to create a user journey map?

Step 1: set an objective for your user journey map.

Start by asking – why am I creating this map?

The reasons may be different:

• To improve the specific stage in the user journey
• To eliminate friction at one of the touchpoints
• To improve your PQL (Product Qualified Lead)-to-paid user conversion rate

In other words – what is the big objective you are trying to achieve?

You can zoom in or zoom out on your map as much as you need.

If you don’t set a specific objective, your user journey map won’t be specific enough and it won’t give you the outcomes you’re looking for.

Step 2: Who is your user persona?

Before you start creating a user journey map, you need to know who are you creating this map for.

In SaaS, the final look of the map will depend on the job-to-be-done and use case. Such maps will differ from each other as users will interact with your projects differently.

Basically, you need to remember these things when creating a user persona:

• Preferably use real data (observed and researched) if you can, not guesses or assumptions.
• When creating a user persona, ask real users simple questions. That way you won’t incorporate your own biases when building a persona.
• Focus on asking open-ended questions which don’t suggest the answers nor influence the users.
• If you are just starting out, educated guesses are fine if you don’t rely just on them. Nevertheless, you should start collecting real data as soon as you can.

If you want to learn more about creating user personas, check out an article we wrote on building a user persona (including 10 SaaS user persona examples) .

Step 3: Define the user persona’s journey stages you’re mapping

The objective that you have defined in Step 1 will determine what stages you need to include in your map.

For example, if you focus on optimizing the user secondary and tertiary onboarding only, your map will only include those stages.

Remember to be specific and focus only on the stages that will have an impact on your objective.

Step 4: Identify milestones in the user journey

Milestones are key points in the user journey, which usually happen at the end of each stage. They are an essential part of creating a user journey map.

For example:

Milestones help you define the journey a user is taking and also help you track where the user is at any particular point.

You can use milestones to keep track of where a user is in their journey. You should also set a specific goal for each milestone. Using user journey analytics , you will track each goal completion rate and know how your users advance through their journey.

Example of a milestone: the activation point in a user’s journey, which happens when the user completes a set of actions in your product.

Want to track goals across the user journey and build no-code in-app experiences to drive goal completion? Get a Userpilot demo and see how easy it can be!

Step 5: Fill in the blanks in your user journey with touchpoints

If milestones are key points in a user’s journey, touchpoints are the smaller events that need to happen for a user to reach a milestone.

Let me give you an example – the primary onboarding steps the user has to take to reach the activation point. If we are talking about a social media planning platform, a user must go through the following touchpoints to reach a milestone:

• Create account
• Connect social media accounts
• Schedule first posts

These touchpoints are essential for the user to activate – hence are often referred to as the ‘key activation points’.

In order to push the users to activate (which is essential for them to keep using your product!) you can e.g. create an onboarding checklist that will motivate them to hit these key touchpoints faster.

Step 6: Build the journey using a journey mapping tool

Firstly, add images with what the user sees at each touchpoint.

Secondly, try to identify possible friction points and obstacles.

Thirdly, use product analytic s and session recordings.

Lastly, you will need a journey mapping tool. Most of them (if not all) offer premade user journey templates so it will boost the process of creating such maps significantly. You can then fill out them with qualitative or quantitative research.

User journey mapping tools

We’ve already talked about user journey mapping tools in case you are looking for a comparison, but here’s our shortlist:

The key focus of UXPressia is improving customer experience. Inside, you will find many ready-to-use templates such as user journey maps for customers or even those for onboarding new team members.

Miro is one of the most popular tools out there. You can start using it by choosing one of the templates, including user journey maps or kanban boards. They strongly focus on product education and help customers start as quickly as possible.

Do you want to keep using Google Sheets? LucidChart might be your choice – it offers a great integration. It’s also really easy to start creating the first diagrams; however, it’s not a dedicated tool for user journey mapping.

Conceptboard

Conceptboard is a tool dedicated to remote teams which can use it as an online whiteboard. Thanks to Conceptobard, teams can collaborate regardless of the location.

Smaply helps you notice both pain points and moments of truths in the user journey. You can use it to map your user base and identify user personas and team influencers regardless of the journey stage.

As it says on the website, FlowMapp offers UX tools for web design. You can use it to create various types of flow maps, including user journey maps.

Creating a user journey map can help you identify users’ pain points along their journey and help you ultimately increase conversions and retention.

In summary, you can use:

• Interviews with real users
• Data analytics
• Session recordings

And then follow our six steps when creating user journey maps.

Start with defining an objective of a particular user journey. Then proceed to create a user persona for that journey. The next step is to define stages of the journey of that persona.

Then, identify milestones in that user journey, and then touchpoints needed to reach these milestones. Finally, take all gathered data, information, and images, proceed to a user journey mapping tool and create a user journey map.

Using user journey mapping tools may be a lot of help – especially if you are just starting out. Most of them offer ready-to-use templates that you can use and fill out with your own qualitative and quantitative research.

Want to get started with user journeys? Get a Userpilot demo to find out how.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Get The Insights!

The fastest way to learn about Product Growth,Management & Trends.

The coolest way to learn about Product Growth, Management & Trends. Delivered fresh to your inbox, weekly.

The fastest way to learn about Product Growth, Management & Trends.

You might also be interested in ...

Hacking product growth in 2023 [by sean ellis].

Adina Timar

Finding PMF and Why the Blue Ocean Strategy Isn’t a Good Thing [By Melissa Kwan]

Aazar Ali Shad

Customer Growth Guide: How to Deliver More Value And Drive Expansion

14 MIN READ

SHARE THIS POST

User Onboarding

App user journey: mapping from download to daily use.

15 August, 2023

Growth manager

So, why is this journey so important? It's simple. A well-planned app user journey keeps users coming back. It turns a one-time download into a daily habit. And for product managers, understanding this journey is the key to building an app that people love to use.

So, get ready to step into the shoes of your users as we embark on an exploratory journey, delving into this comprehensive guide to understanding the app user journey. From download to daily use, we've got you covered!

The app user journey defined

An app user journey refers to the series of steps a user takes when interacting with an application, from the moment they first discover and download it to the point where they achieve their primary goal or complete a specific task within the app. This journey can be mapped out to understand and optimize the user experience (UX).

Let's break it down.

Imagine your first day in a new city. You have a map, some destinations in mind, and a whole city to explore. The app user journey is like that map. It's the path users take as they explore an app. From the moment they download it to their daily interactions, every step is a part of the journey.

Now, why does this matter so much? Think about that city explorer again. If the map is confusing, they might end up lost or frustrated. If the destinations aren't interesting, they might cut the trip short. The same goes for apps. If the user journey is confusing or uninteresting, users might uninstall the app or simply stop using it.

But if the journey is clear, engaging, and leads to satisfying experiences, users will keep coming back. They'll tell their friends about it, write positive reviews, and the app becomes a success.

In other words, the app user journey isn't just a path; it's the heart of the app. It's what turns a cool idea into a must-have app. And understanding this journey isn't just helpful; it's crucial for the success of the product.

Stages of the app user journey

The Discovery stage marks the beginning of the user's journey with your app. It's that critical moment when potential users stumble upon your app in an app store, through an advertisement, a friend's recommendation, or any other medium. The goal at this stage is to capture their attention and compel them to download your app. 

There are certain factors that can influence a user's decision at this juncture: 

App Store Optimization (ASO): Akin to SEO for websites, ASO involves optimizing your app's title, description, and keywords to ensure it appears at the top of search results in app stores.

User Ratings and Reviews: Potential users often consider the experiences of others before deciding to download an app. High user ratings and positive reviews can greatly enhance your app's appeal.

App Description and Screenshots: An engaging description paired with visually appealing screenshots can give users a snapshot of what your app offers and how it looks and feels.

Understanding the importance of the discovery stage and optimizing these factors can significantly increase your app's visibility and download rates. 

.css-61w915{margin-right:8px;margin-top:8px;max-height:30px;}@media screen and (min-width: 768px){.css-61w915{margin-right:38px;max-height:unset;}} The Discovery stage is your chance to make a great first impression. Make sure your app stands out in the crowded app marketplace. Every detail - from your icon design to your app's description - should be compelling and appealing to your targeted audience.

Practical tips to optimize each of these factors in the discovery stage;

Use relevant keywords in your app's title and description, and keep track of what keywords competitors are using. Make sure to update these periodically.

Encourage satisfied users to leave positive reviews. Address negative reviews promptly and professionally, showing potential users you care about their experience.

Highlight your app's unique features and benefits in the description. Use high-quality screenshots that display key functionalities of your app.

Mastering the discovery stage will set a solid foundation for the rest of the user's journey with your app. Remember, the goal is not just to get users to download your app, but to pique their interest enough to use it regularly. And that journey begins with Discovery.

Download and installation

Understanding the user journey begins with the crucial first step: the download and installation of the app. The first interaction a user has with your app sets the tone for their overall experience. It's here that they form their initial impressions, and these impressions can significantly impact their decision to continue using the app. 

First impressions matter  

As the old adage goes, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." This rings particularly true in the world of app downloads. If the installation process is slow, complex, or fraught with errors, users may already start contemplating uninstallation. Thus, it's essential to ensure a smooth and hassle-free download and installation process. 

The download and installation experience is the user's first encounter with your app, so make it count. A seamless process can set the stage for a positive user journey.

Tips to create a positive app download and installation experience;

Optimize app size: Large apps take longer to download and consume more storage space on a user's device. By optimizing your app's size, you can make the download process faster and more efficient, leading to a positive initial experience.

Clear permissions: If your app requires certain permissions to function, make sure to communicate this to the user transparently during the installation process. Ensure they understand why these permissions are needed and how they contribute to the app's functionality.

Error-free installation: Testing is crucial to identify and address any potential issues that might occur during the installation process. An error-free experience is key to retaining users right from the start.

By focusing on these areas, you can create a positive download and installation experience that bolsters user trust and sets a strong foundation for the subsequent stages of the user journey. 

Let's dive into the pivotal phase of onboarding . This is the first significant interaction your user has with your app after the initial download. It serves as the golden opportunity to make a positive and lasting impression, guiding your users through the functionalities of the app while demonstrating the value it can bring them. 

Optimized onboarding: A win-win  

A well-designed onboarding process can make or break an app's success. Why? Because it's all about user retention. The more comfortable a user feels during their initial experience with the app, the more likely they are to continue using it. Remember, a user who understands the app's value proposition is a user who'll keep coming back. 

The goal of onboarding is to convert users into regular users by demonstrating how the app fulfills their needs.

Key strategies for successful onboarding;  

Personalize the Experience: Allow users to tailor certain aspects of the app to their preferences during the onboarding process. This creates a sense of ownership and encourages further engagement.

Highlight Key Benefits: Show users the unique value your app provides. Demonstrate how it can enhance their daily life or solve a problem they might have.

Get Feedback: Onboarding isn't just about instructing the user, it's also about learning from them. Use qualitative feedback from watching actual session replays during this stage to continuously improve the process.

Effective onboarding is like a friendly guide, gently ushering users to realize the value and usability of your app. It’s an investment that, when done right, yields high user retention rates and contributes significantly to the success of your product.

Engagement is the lifeblood of any app. It is not just about the number of users who download your app, but also about how often they use it, how long they stay, and how much value they derive from it. 

Let's delve into strategies to enhance engagement and ensure your users are not just hooked, but thoroughly satisfied. 

Use user data to tailor content and features: There's no better way to improve user engagement than tailoring your content and features based on user data.  For example, if you notice a user often uses a certain app feature, similar suggestions can be made. If a user has difficulty with a feature, customized tips can be provided. This level of personalization keeps users engaged and satisfied, showing the app meets their specific needs. But how can you collect, analyze and activate user data? I hear you ask. Enters UXCam .  UXCam is a mobile app analytics tool that allows product managers to understand user behavior by capturing and visualizing in-app interactions. This provides invaluable insights into how users engage with your app, what they love, and where they face challenges. With UXCam, you get to: 

Understand user behavior: UXCam records all touch gestures, screen transitions, and even device orientations to help you understand how users interact with your app.

Identify usability issues: With its unique user session replay feature , UXCam lets you watch user interactions as if you were sitting next to them. This makes it easier to spot usability issues and fix them before they affect user engagement.

Optimize user journeys: UXCam’s funnel analysis tool lets you visualize the steps users take within your app. This helps you identify where users drop off, so you can optimize these journeys and ensure a seamless app experience.

Keep in mind that a one-size-fits-all approach won't cut it. And with a tool like UXCam, you're well on your way to creating an engaging and personalized app user journey leveraging real user interaction data. 

Craft an intuitive interface: Your app's interface is the first point of contact with the user, and it can make or break the user's experience. An intuitive, easy-to-use interface encourages users to explore further and stay longer. Strive for simplicity and clarity, ensuring that navigation is seamless and features are easy to find. The goal is for users to be able to use your app effectively with minimal effort or instruction. 

Offer value: Users are more likely to engage with your app if they perceive it as valuable. This could mean providing unique features, delivering high-quality content, or solving a problem that the user has. Consistently delivering value will keep users coming back, and can also encourage them to recommend your app to others. 

Push notifications: Used wisely, push notifications can be a powerful tool for increasing user engagement. They can keep users informed about new content, remind them to complete actions, or alert them to special offers. However, be careful not to overuse push notifications, as this can lead to annoyance and app abandonment. 

Regular updates: Regularly updating your app can also enhance engagement. It shows users that you're actively working to improve their experience and meet their needs. Updates can include new features, bug fixes, or improvements to speed and performance. Always communicate these updates to users, so they know what's new and improved. 

Engagement is about building a relationship with your users, about understanding their needs and expectations, and delivering an experience that not only meets but exceeds them.

By focusing on engagement, you can ensure that users not only download your app, but continue to use it on a daily basis.

Let's dive into one of the most critical stages of the user journey: Retention . After the initial download, installation, and exploration of the app, the goal becomes to turn these first-time users into regular users. This is where the concept of retention comes into play. 

Retention is the process of engaging users consistently over a period of time, ensuring they return to your app again and again. The ultimate aim is to transform these regular users into loyal customers who rely on your app as a part of their daily lives. So, how can you achieve this? There are several strategies at your disposal. 

Offer value consistently: If your app consistently offers value, users are more likely to return. This could be in the form of fresh content, new features, or regular updates that enhance the user experience.

Personalize the experience: Users appreciate when an app aligns with their specific needs and preferences. Offering personalized recommendations, notifications, or features can significantly boost retention rates.

Engage with users: Engaging with users can take many forms, from push notifications to email newsletters. The key is to keep the communication relevant and not too frequent.

Listen to user feedback: User feedback is a gold mine of information. Use it to continuously improve your app and address any issues or pain points your users may be experiencing.

However, retention doesn't just happen overnight. It's a long-term process that requires continuous effort and adjustment. To guide your strategy, consider the following key metrics: 

A strong retention strategy can make the difference between an app that's a passing fad and one that's an integral part of users' daily lives. Remember, it's not just about getting users to download your app, but keeping them engaged and making them want to come back. 

Retention is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires a deep understanding of your users and their needs, as well as the patience to iterate and improve your app over time.

You've guided users through the initial stages of discovery, installation, and consistent usage of your app. But the journey doesn't end there. The final, and arguably the most critical stage in the app user journey is Advocacy .  When users love an app, they talk about it. They become brand ambassadors, spreading the word and bringing in more users.

But how do you transform everyday users into advocates? Here are some proven tips: 

Superior User Experience : Ensure your app delivers a top-notch user experience, addressing user needs efficiently and intuitively. A satisfied user is more likely to recommend your app to others.

Incentivize Referrals : Offer incentives such as discounts or premium features for users who recommend your app to their network. This not only encourages users to spread the word, but also fosters a sense of loyalty.

Personalized Communication : Regularly interact with your users through personalized messages, emails, and notifications. This helps build a relationship with the user, making them more likely to advocate for your app.

While these strategies can foster advocacy, it's also crucial to track and measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Use metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge how likely users are to recommend your app. 

A user who advocates for your app is not just another download number. They are a valuable asset, helping to grow your user base organically, improving your app's reputation, and ultimately driving the success of your product.

Challenges in mapping the app user Journey

Navigating the intricate maze of the user journey can sometimes feel like trying to solve a complex puzzle. For product managers, understanding this journey is crucial, but it's not without its challenges. Let's dive into some common pitfalls and how to sidestep them, and also explore the indispensable tools of analytics and user feedback.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Every product manager has been there: meticulously crafting a user journey map, only to discover that it doesn't quite align with the real-world user experience. Here are some common missteps:

Overgeneralization: It's tempting to create a one-size-fits-all map. But remember, each user is unique. While broad strokes might capture a larger audience, they might miss out on the nuances of individual experiences. Tip: Segment users based on behavior, demographics, or other relevant criteria. Tailor the journey for each segment.

Ignoring the Outliers: While it's essential to focus on the majority, sometimes the outliers – those who use the product in unexpected ways – offer invaluable insights. Tip: Don't dismiss unusual feedback or behavior. Investigate and understand the reasons behind them.

Overlooking Micro-Moments: It's easy to focus on the significant touchpoints and miss the tiny, seemingly insignificant moments that can make or break a user's experience. Tip: Pay attention to the small details. Sometimes, a minor tweak in a micro-moment can lead to a significant improvement in the overall journey.

The role of analytics and user feedback

Imagine trying to find your way in a new city without a map or GPS. That's what crafting a user journey without analytics and feedback feels like.

Analytics - The Power of data Most analytics tools provide quantitative data, offering insights into user behavior, preferences, and pain points. However, you are better off with a solution that offer the best of both quantitative and qualitative analytics like UXCam. They show where users spend the most time, where they drop off, and which features they engage with the most. Practical Tip: Use heatmaps to understand which parts of your app or website users interact with the most. This can guide design and feature prioritization.

User Feedback - The voice of the user While analytics offer the 'what,' user feedback provides the 'why.' Direct feedback through surveys, reviews, direct interactions, or indirect feedback through analyzing actual session replays, gives a voice to the numbers. It helps product managers understand the emotions, motivations, and frustrations behind the data. Practical Tip: By analyzing session replays of users who abandoned a purchase or sign-up process, you can identify barriers or friction points in the conversion funnel and make necessary adjustments to improve conversion rates. This helps you understand user preferences and behaviors in real-world scenarios.

Tools and techniques for analyzing app user journey

Dive into the world of user journey analysis, and you'll quickly realize it's a vast ocean of data, insights, and opportunities. But how do you navigate these waters effectively? Let's introduce you to some essential tools and techniques that can be your compass and guide.

Discover the power of UXcam

As a product manager, one of your primary objectives is to understand and enhance the user journey. This starts from the moment a potential user discovers your app and culminates in their daily use of it. A fantastic tool that can assist you in this task is UXcam . 

UXCam website

UXCam stands out as a leading mobile app analytics solution. UXCam's strength lies in being designed specifically for mobile apps, making it a reliable choice for mobile app-focused user behavior data and analytics. The best mobile product teams use UXCam to get actionable user insights to optimize app performance. Teams can analyze user behavior, track interactions with app screens, diagnose low conversion and retention rates, pinpoint areas of improvement and work towards building a better, more intuitive product. 

Why you'll love UXcam:

It's user-friendly, so you don't need to be a tech wizard to get started.

It offers real-time insights, ensuring you're always in the loop.

It's designed with product managers in mind, focusing on what truly matters for optimizing user experience.

Key features of UXcam

Imagine being able to see exactly where users tap, swipe, or linger on your app. Heatmaps give you this superpower. They paint a picture of user activity, highlighting hotspots and cold zones.

Why heatmaps are important;

They visually represent user engagement, making data interpretation a breeze.

You can quickly identify which features users love and which ones they're bypassing.

They help you prioritize design and feature enhancements based on real user behavior.

Session Recordings

Ever wished you could sit next to a user while they navigate your app? Session recordings are the next best thing. They let you watch, rewind, and analyze user sessions, offering a front-row seat to their experience.

What you'll gain from session recordings:

A clear understanding of user flow and navigation patterns.

Insights into potential pain points or hurdles users face.

The ability to validate if the onboarding process is smooth and intuitive.

Funnel Analysis - Mapping the user's path

You've set up goals for your users, be it signing up, making a purchase, or any other key action. Funnel analysis helps you see how many users complete these goals and where others drop off.

Why funnel analysis is essential:

It pinpoints stages in the user journey with high drop-off rates.

You get clarity on which parts of your app drive conversions and which ones need tweaking.

It aids in optimizing the user journey, ensuring more users reach the desired end goal.

Understanding the user journey isn't just about collecting data; it's about making sense of it. With tools like UXcam and techniques such as heatmaps, session recordings, and funnel analysis, you're well-equipped to craft a user experience that's not just good, but exceptional. Dive in, explore, and let these tools guide you to product success.

A well-optimized app user journey isn't just a nicety; it's a necessity. As a product manager, your priority should always be to deliver an engaging, seamless experience at every stage of the user journey, from the initial download to daily use. 

Understanding the user journey, and making enhancements based on user behavior and feedback, can significantly improve user retention and drive your product's success. Remember, it's not only about getting the app into the user's device but ensuring they return to it day after day. 

Consider choosing UXcam to provide you with valuable insights into user behavior that would otherwise be tough to uncover. Visualizing the user journey could be the game-changer your product needs.

If you’d like to try out UXCam, sign up for a free 14-day trial and access all our features. 

You may also be interested in the following;

5 best user journey mapping tools

UX optimization: 4 Steps to deliver a better user experience

How to Increase Mobile App Retention: Ultimate Guide

Ardent technophile exploring the world of mobile app product management at UXCam.

Get the latest from UXCam

Stay up-to-date with UXCam's latest features, insights, and industry news for an exceptional user experience.

Related articles

Product best practices, how to increase mobile app engagement (10 actionable steps).

Discover the top strategies for increasing mobile app engagement and user retention. From push notifications to app gamification, our expert tips will help you boost...

4 Best User Adoption Software and Tools for Product Teams

Learn about the top 4 best user adoption software and tools to enhance your workflow, boost productivity, and foster seamless user...

Dive into the intricacies of the app user journey, from the initial download to daily interactions. Discover how product managers can enhance user experience at every...

• Buyer Persona
• Customer Journey Map
• Business Process
• Business Model
• Design Thinking
• Loyalty Strategy
• Value Proposition
• Customer Experience
• Digital Experience
• Employee Experience
• Partner Experience

Marketing Automation

• Account Based Marketing

Growth Driven Design

Inbound Marketing

Customer Relationship Management

• eCommerce B2C
• eCommerce B2B Process Management
• Adobe Experience Manager
• HubSpot CRM
• Liferay Portal
• Magento Commerce
• Marketo Marketing Automation
• Salesforce CRM
• Tableau Analytics
• Red Hat BPM
• Hospitality
• Blog CX Insights
• English - United States

Difference between Customer Journey and User Journey.

In the digital age, more and more terms appear and become common to use, however, they are often used in the wrong way, including the Customer Journey and the User Journey, it is  quite common  to hear that these are used without any differentiation, because it is assumed that a customer and a user are the same.  

Now, is it  important   understand the difference between Customer Journey and User Journey.

Well, in certain scenarios it is, since not doing so can generate a problem when trying to understand the environment, behavior and thinking of the person during the process or Journey (Customer Journey or User Journey).  

First,  we must understand what each one of them is, the customer journey or customer journey is a visual representation from one end to the other of all the connections that someone has with a company or organization, in all relevant points of contact, whether digital. or physical, it includes the behaviors, emotions, objectives and the environment of the clients.  

On the other hand, user journeys or user journeys are focused on being able to represent in detail how the users' navigation is proposed to be on each page of our website, mobile application, etc. These include the objectives of each page or step that the user must perform, as well as the functions and characteristics that are key to completing a certain task and the navigation flow, all of this as assumptions that are tested in later phases of the process of UX design.  

With the previous definitions we can identify three major differences between a customer journey and a user journey:  

  3. The Customer Journey is about the purchase process and the User Journey about the use process : as its name says, the customer journey is that process that a buyer goes through to finish fulfilling the final objective,  if  they know to the brand even when it needs post-sale services, while the user journey is focused on the experience of using a  single channel that is digital and delves into how a person can navigate within that platform.  

With  all  the above we understand that the Customer Journey and the User Journey are two different terms and require to be distinguished, however, they cannot be taken with separate parts of a company since they must work together to generate more conversions. It can be said that within the Customer Journey umbrella that User Journey enters to give a great customer experience through the digital channel.  

<<Read More: 7 reasons to use the SIPOC to create your Customer Journey Map  >>

About this blog

Customer Experience Insights is a blog to share ideas, experiences and the vision of how to adopt better Customer Experiences in our organizations.

Subscribe today

For weekly special offers and new updates!

Recent Posts

Posts by topic.

• Customer Experience (69)
• Strategy (68)
• Methodology (44)

UX stages infographic

You may be interested

Systematization and automation: a successful digital transformation

In an environment where technology plays an increasingly significant role, digital transformation has established itself as an essential element for companies aspiring to retain their competitiveness and relevance.

Capturing value through effective business strategies

In a highly competitive and ever-evolving market, a company's ability to capture value is fundamental to its long-term success. Effective business strategies are the key to maximizing your company's value and ensuring a strong position in the market. In this...

How to drive and revolutionize sales with AI-generated strategies?

In the condensed economic present we live in, companies must learn new strategies that could make them relevant in today's modern industrial markets. Because recently, all industries have been affected by an unprecedented achievement in humanity's history....

Customer Commerce Experience

Customer Omnichannel CRM

Customer Portal Experience

Customer Process Automation

Customer Web Experience 

Methodologies

Customer Journey

Sales Automation

Lead Conversion

Miami, Florida 333 SE 2nd AVE. 33131

New York, New York City 555 Madison AVE, Manhattan 10022 

San Rafael de Escazú, Costa Rica Centro Corporativo Plaza Roble, 10203. Teléfono: +506 2201 1450

What is a Digital Customer Journey Map? Definition, Importance, Steps and Tools

By Paul VanZandt

Published on: November 3, 2023

Table of Content

In today’s digitally driven world, businesses are constantly searching for ways to enhance the customer experience and build long-lasting relationships with their clientele. To achieve this, companies are turning to a powerful tool known as the Digital Customer Journey Map. This innovative approach allows organizations to gain a deep understanding of their customers’ interactions and experiences across various digital touchpoints. In this blog, we’ll explore the concept of the Digital Customer Journey Map and how it can benefit your business.

What is a Digital Customer Journey Map?

A Digital Customer Journey Map is defined as a visual representation of the steps a customer takes when interacting with a company’s digital assets, such as websites, mobile apps, social media, emails, and more. It helps businesses gain insights into customer behaviors, emotions, and pain points at different stages of their online journey. Unlike traditional customer journey maps, which focus on physical touchpoints, digital maps are tailored to the online world.

Why Are Digital Customer Journey Maps Important?

• Improved Customer Experience: By understanding how customers interact with your digital platforms, you can identify pain points and bottlenecks in their journey. This knowledge allows you to make targeted improvements, resulting in a smoother and more enjoyable customer experience.
• Personalization: Digital maps help in segmenting customers based on their behaviors, preferences, and needs. With this data, you can personalize content and offerings, creating a more meaningful connection with your audience.
• Efficient Marketing and Sales: Knowing where customers drop off or convert in their journey enables you to optimize marketing and sales strategies. You can allocate resources to the most effective channels and improve conversion rates.
• Customer Retention: A well-designed digital journey map helps identify opportunities for customer engagement and retention. It’s not just about acquiring new customers; it’s also about keeping them satisfied and loyal.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Digital journey maps are built on data and analytics. They provide a factual basis for decision-making, reducing guesswork and enhancing the ROI on marketing and sales efforts.

Learn more:  Experience Map vs. Customer Journey Map

Creating a Digital Customer Journey Map: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a Digital Customer Journey Map involves seven key steps:

Step 1: Define Your Customer Personas

Start by identifying your target audience and creating detailed customer personas. Comprehend their drivers, objectives, and areas of concern.

Step 2: Identify Touchpoints

List all the digital touchpoints where customers interact with your brand, including your website, social media, email campaigns, and more.

Step 3: Gather Data

Collect data from various sources, including web analytics, customer feedback, surveys, and social media insights. This data will be instrumental in understanding customer behavior.

Step 4: Map the Customer Journey

Create a visual representation of the customer journey, showing each touchpoint and the paths customers take. Note the emotions, pain points, and obstacles they encounter along the way.

Step 5: Analyze and Improve

Examine the map to identify areas for improvement. Are there bottlenecks? Are customers dropping off at a particular stage? Use this analysis to make informed decisions and enhancements.

Step 6: Implement Changes

Based on your analysis, make necessary changes to your digital assets and marketing strategies to address pain points and enhance the customer experience.

Step 7: Continuous Monitoring

The digital landscape is dynamic, so your Digital Customer Journey Map should be regularly updated and monitored to reflect changes in customer behavior and technology.

Tools for Creating Digital Customer Journey Maps

Several tools and software platforms can assist in creating and managing digital customer journey maps. Some popular options include:

• Customer Journey Mapping Software: Tools like Miro, Smaply, and UXPressia provide templates and features for creating visual journey maps.
• Analytics Tools: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Mixpanel help in collecting and analyzing customer data.
• CRM Systems: Customer Relationship Management systems like Salesforce and HubSpot can be used to manage customer data and track interactions.
• Survey and Feedback Tools: Tools like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics are helpful for gathering direct customer feedback.

Learn more:  What is a Customer Journey Map?

In the digital age, understanding and optimizing the customer journey is essential for businesses looking to thrive. A well-crafted Digital Customer Journey Map allows you to gain a comprehensive view of your customers’ interactions and experiences online, leading to improved customer satisfaction, higher retention rates, and more effective marketing strategies. By embracing this powerful tool, your business can navigate the digital landscape more effectively and build stronger, lasting relationships with your customers.

IdeaScale Whiteboard

Turn abstract ideas into visual and actionable plans

Enhance Your Ideas Visually With Your IdeaScale Whiteboard!

IdeaScale is an innovation management solution that inspires people to take action on their ideas. Your community’s ideas can change lives, your business and the world. Connect to the ideas that matter and start co-creating the future.

Copyright © 2023 IdeaScale.

Privacy Overview

Free web & app prototyping tool

Free online wireframing tool

Design tool for UX team

Prototyping offline software

A rapid desktop prototyping tool

Import Figma, Sketch, XD and PS files

Get all the assets, specs and code

Manage projects and product updates

Mockplus - Design Faster. Collaborate Better.

Prototype, design, collaborate, and design systems all in Mockplus

User Journey Vs User Flow – Differences & Similarities

User Journey and User Flow are two terms frequently mentioned in the product development process, they refer to two tools created to improve the product user experience. However, the differences between these two can easily mislead designers: some people think they are the same There is also opinion that the range covered by User Journey is wider than that of User Flow. Yes, they do have something in common, but they also differ from each other in many ways. In this article, I will make a comparison of “User Journey Vs User Flow "to help you understand better.

1. What is a User Journey? What is a User Flow?

First let's look at the definitions of the two terms:

a. User Journey: It can also be called Customer Journey, it refers to the scenarios in which the user interacts with the product, and normally the scenarios consist of between 4 and 12 steps. Its function is mainly to assume and demonstrate the current and possible way in which the user can interact with the product.

b. User Flow: Refers to the process in which the user takes advantage of the compound routes of the series of templates designed in a product to accomplish their goal. It is created to predict and show the possible routes with which the user interacts with the product.

Only with the definition, you may not able to distinguish them clearly. Next, let's make a more detailed comparison of their differences and similarities.

2. The similarities between User Journey and User Flow

A. the design axis
.

User Journey and User Flow take user requirements as the key point of work and assume what the target users want to achieve with the product (software, service or website);

b. The creation goal


The main goal of these two tools is to offer a UX design direction in the next stage, designers can create product with higher usability based on obtained data and conclusions understanding the real requirements of users;

c. The necessary data


Both tools are created after the persona design because of the necessity of finding the objective, the motivation and the pain point of users, in addition, the data and information of the goal that they want to fulfill. For more complete information, I recommend novices to learn how to create personas .

d. The main functions


User Journey and User Flow can help analyze the possible behavior of users taking advantage of the information of personas created with the real data of current users, such as the environment, the requirement, the custom of purchase, the state of social relations. These elements can influence the process of usage. Therefore, both tools can help designers to assume what users will do and insert information to direct them to the goal.

e. Creation requirements


When creating User Journey and User Flow, you need to consider following questions:
I. What is the users’ goal?
Ii. What is the essential information for users to progress to the next stage?
Iii. What are the possible doubts that users have at each stage?
Iv. What will be the obstacles?

So far, many people will think that these two tools are totally equal, from the purpose of using them to the process of use. Their differences are the essential target to do this “User Journey Vs User Flow”.

3. The differences between User Journey and User Flow

A. the biggest difference: the panorama and the partial
.

User Journey focuses on the user experience design of the entire process, while User Flow focuses on the process of using the product.

i. User Flow covers the process from when user begins to use product to the completion, the entire process occurs within the product. For example, a person wants to download a mobile app, and the stages can be divided into 4: find app, compare with others, buy, use. User Flow can be in the stage of thinking about buying an app and buying it, or starting to use an app until when the goal has been reached, they are relatively independent stages;

ii. User Journey requires consideration of all stages, from in what kind of way users can find the app? Until they reach your goal with it.

b. The status and route


The key point of User Journey is in what state does the user want to progress to realize his goal? While User Flow designs the possible routes with which the goal can be achieved.

i. User Flow also needs to consider the information necessary for users to move to the next stage, but for User Journey it’s necessary to consider their status (emotion) apart from this information.

ii. Normally the most important stage of the entire User Journey process is the last one: Users realize their goal with the product. That is why the mood of the user is very important for them to achieve their goal. If the user can find the desired app easily and pay fast? If he will be satisfied with the warranty? etc. Everything is essential.

c. The guide and tool functions


User Flow thinks how to lead users to their target? User Flow designs the path to the goal.

i. User Flow focuses on the situation where the user will use several possible routes within the product to achieve their goal, such as an online shopping application, there are users who directly search what they want and finish the process, there are also those who prefer to use Filter and read comments from others before making the decision. Therefore, different routes that lead to the same destination is the key point of User Flow.

ii. User Journey analyzes the possible ways that users interact with the product and what they will do after seeing something, then designs methods to direct users to their objective, thus their role as guide will be more remarkable; We can also say that as it focuses on the whole process, designing different routes is not that important to him.

4. What is a User Journey Map?


In many cases, it is required a better understanding behavior of users and a more complete prediction like that of User Journey, so it is worth learning how to build one.

It refers to a graphical way made from the users’ point of view to demonstrate the relationships and interactions between users and the product. As it is for a more concrete product compared to the User Journey in general, we must add more details in the Map such as the scenarios and more user actions. Although these scenarios are narrated from the user position, we also need to emphasize the interactions between the important parts of product and user.

5. How to create User Journey Map?


There are a few points that require us to pay attention to achieving a more realistic and usable User Journey Map.

a. Product and user target


Determine the purpose of the product or service and the problems that the product can solve for users.

b. Research


Collect more data of custom usage and user experience as you can and select the most indispensable goals.

c. Continuation Point


Continuation point can be understood as a button with which users can advance one more stage or finish their act. A "pay" button is a continuation point, and sometimes this point can be several to offer more options.

d. Usage Scenarios


After completing the above steps, it's time to brainstorm in which some keywords of the usage scenarios will be offered to each group member to create more scenarios.

e. The map of empathy


Each member of the design team should put themselves in the position of people created to examine whether continuation points can direct users to their goals. Also see if the use scenarios designed are reasonable.

f. Paradigm Refinement


It's time to discuss the points that do not suit the product and create a good outline of the outline. The most important thing is to reduce the possibility of mutations in the future.

With a visual way make a User Journey Map with more details possible to achieve a result closer to real life.

h. Final version


The process of making User Journey Map is not like the assembly line in the factories, it is possible that there are more ideas that did not come out; It is also good to invite real users to test the prototype product , as the prototypes of mobile applications generated by Mockplus can be tested directly on mobile phones to collect user ratings.

After reading this comparison of User Journey Vs User Flow, you may not be confused by the two terms and know when & where to use them in product design. Although they share many points in common, it’s easy to tell the differences and combine them with building personas to create a better product.

In- house content editor, specialize in SEO content writing. She is a fruit lover and visionary person.

Uploads design files from Sketch, Figma, Axure, Photoshop, and Adobe XD into our design handoff tool.

A free online prototyping tool that can create wireframes or highly interactive prototypes in just minutes.

A vector-based UI design tool enables you design in the way you want to.

Your single source of truth to build, maintain and evolve design assets in one place.

Design Faster. Collaborate Better.

Designing the best user experience. Mockplus does it all!

Interactive prototyping

Unified collaboration

Scalable design systems

© 2014-2023 Mockplus Technology Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synonyms of journey

• as in to travel
• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Thesaurus Definition of journey

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• peregrination
• commutation

Thesaurus Definition of journey  (Entry 2 of 2)

• peregrinate
• road - trip
• knock (about)
• perambulate

Articles Related to journey

8 Ways to Get Away From It All

Whether it's a jaunt or a junket, remember sunblock.

Thesaurus Entries Near journey

Cite this entry.

“Journey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/journey. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

More from Merriam-Webster on journey

Nglish: Translation of journey for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of journey for Arabic Speakers

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Games & Quizzes

Definition of 'journey'

Video: pronunciation of journey

journey in American English

Journey in british english, examples of 'journey' in a sentence journey, related word partners journey, trends of journey.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically journey

• journalistic objectivity
• journalling
• journey alone
• journey north
• journey of self-discovery
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'J'

Related terms of journey

• bus journey
• car journey
• sea journey
• bumpy journey
• coach journey
• View more related words

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Examples of journey

Word of the Day

poker-faced

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

not showing what you are thinking or feeling in your face

Reunions and housewarmings (Words for different parties)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists

{{message}}

There was a problem sending your report.

• Collocations

Embark On Your Life Journey

Meet journey®, your journaling companion.

Journey® is a journal and diary app that is available on multiple platforms; iOS, Mac OS, Web, Chrome OS, and Android.

Join millions of Journey users, from all walks of life, to embark on your unique life journey towards a deeper gratitude for life, better health, and a calmer mind through journaling.

Capture both moments & memories that you can look back on in the future, and remember the events that happened that day.

Record your thoughts and feelings as they come to you, without worrying about typing out long entries. Simply hit the record button and start talking.

Video journals allow you to share your stories in a way that words can't. With this feature, you can capture the emotion, the beauty, and the joy of your life’s most important moments.

Create Stunning Journal Entries

Stylize your writing using titles, bold, underline, and strikethrough, and adding block quotes and so on.

Explore different color options for your background and text to customize your journal interface to your liking.

Add tables in your journals to organize your thoughts and address your different needs.

Use either numbered or unnumbered bullets to organize your writing.

Add checklists to get your daily, weekly, or monthly affairs in order.

Include links to external sources in your journals to be able to reference them anytime, anywhere.

Your Life At A Glance

A wealth of memory can be stored within a single image. Look back on your fondest memories and experiences. Upload pictures, videos, gifs, and music into your journal entries with ease.

Throwback to Your Happiest Moments

Tend to your emotions with mood-tracking, shared journal, end-to-end encryption, private & secure space, automate your journal with zapier, power up your journal with plugins, start your journaling habit with journey coach, coach programs.

Explore Journey’s guided journaling coach programs to facilitate your reflection. Choose from a wide variety of self-care topics, ranging from topics such as body positivity and self-love.

Coach Templates

Pick from Journey’s wide array of journaling templates to guide your thoughts. Get started with templates on self-improvement, healthy living, and planning and organization.

Embark On Your Unique Journey

Put gratitude into practice in your life by enrolling in a coach program that helps you stop and smell the roses. Count the blessings in your life with Journey's Gratitude Template.

People Love Journey

Download journey today.

Take your journal wherever you go with our apps for Linux, Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, and Android phones & tablets.

Download on desktop

If you need assistance with Journey, please contact us at our  ⁠Help Desk or Forum .

• Pop culture
• Writing tips
• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day

Synonym of the Day

• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Grammar Coach ™
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips

synonyms for journey

• exploration
• constitutional
• peregrination
• transmigration
• vagabondage

See also synonyms for: journeyed journeyer journeying journeys

antonyms for journey

Most relevant

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

How to use journey in a sentence

If either is selected, it would not launch until 2026 at the earliest, and would take at least a few months to make the journey .

The job is a cherry on top, but the journey and the experience of being able to audition and leave your heart in the room and feel good about it, no matter what happens, that’s rare and that was amazing.

Cross-device measurement helps connect the dots of your customer’s journey and ensures you know how effective your campaigns are at driving user behavior.

You are somewhat of a new grandmother and you’ve been enjoying that journey .

Instead of having numerous articles addressing each of these particular questions, brands and publishers could consolidate this information as it is all pertinent to the same stage of the journey that the user is in.

The brokers then scout out potential “crew members” who can earn substantial discounts for working the journey .

The next day, after driving to Putney on the outskirts of London, we start the end of our journey .

The NYPD Emerald Society pipes and drums struck up a slow march and the procession began the journey to the cemetery.

We began a journey with Koenig in the first episode of Serial.

But the sunlight is threatening to fade and a three-and-a-half-hour river journey back to Kisangani looms.

With a hammer the boy knocked off some of the slats of the small box in which Squinty had made his journey .

Then summoning a smart young jemadar with whom he had talked a good deal during the journey , he asked him to read the chit.

But dismissing them from our thoughts for the time being, as we did then from our presence, let us continue our journey .

If the journey is now distasteful to her, she has but her own rashness to blame in having sought it herself.

It was past sundown when they left San Bernardino, but a full moon made the night as good as day for their journey .

Choose the synonym for steep

• precipitous

Words Related To journey

• subsistence
• circulation
• circumference
• circumnavigation
• circumscription
• circumvolution
• perambulation
• keep steady pace
• wander about
• accomplished
• be responsible for
• brought about
• did one's thing
• got with it
• looked after
• took care of business
• went for it
• pass through
• Synonyms For
• Antonyms For
• Related Words

Published on The Water Blog

Supporting viet nam's journey to water security: a transformative odyssey, this page in:.

Viet Nam’s quest for water security and the World Bank’s support for this effort have evolved significantly over the past three decades. As new and more complex challenges have emerged, the Government of Viet Nam and the World Bank’s partnership has adapted and evolved. From the early days of developing water resources to serve cities and towns, to the rehabilitation of irrigation systems to spur regional growth and investments in urban wastewater management, drainage, rural water supply, and dam restoration, the journey has been extensive. Today, the focus has shifted towards building resilience and mitigating the impacts of a changing climate.

Progress has been notable in urban areas where nearly all residents enjoy access to reliable water services. But the picture in rural areas is less rosy — only about 44% of the rural population , approximately 28.5 million people, can access water from centralized supply systems. Shockingly, 56% of rural dwellers (around 36.3 million individuals) are reliant on unsafe water from household supply structures.  The threat from pollution is serious, with only 15% of municipal wastewater treated. 

Climate change further exacerbates the situation, with risks from sea level rise, severe storms, flooding, and salination, according to the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership . Inefficient water management in agriculture also contributes to the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

Viet Nam’s water challenges can jeopardize future growth by approximately 6% annually by 2035. The major water-related challenges are:

● Too little : Water stress during the dry season in key river basins that support 80% of the country’s GDP is predicted to worsen in the next decade. 

● Too dirty : Pollution is one of the greatest threats to the national economy and human health, with an estimated GDP reduction of 3.5 % annually by 2035. 

● Too much : Viet Nam faces increasing risks and costs from climate hazards, especially storms and floods.  

Unless decisive steps are taken, water, which has been a driving force behind Viet Nam’s rapid growth, can become a hindrance.  Viet Nam’s ambition to become an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income economy by 2045 rests on its ability to grow not only faster, but better.  Ensuring water security – sustainably managing water resources; improving the delivery of water services for agriculture, energy, industry, domestic and other users; and building resilience and climate change mitigation – will be central to this process.

A World Bank governance study, Viet Nam: Toward a Safe, Clean, and Resilient Water System (2019), supported the Government of Viet Nam to develop and implement key recommendations on institutions, infrastructure, incentives and information. The study, backed by the Partnership, also provides a vehicle for leveraging and integrating innovation into operations and policy and offering flexibility to adapt to uncertainties, respond to new and emerging issues, and advance dialogue across Ministries on water security.

Specifically, the Partnership supports the development of the Integrated Mekong Delta Regional Master Plan and its implementation, the revision of the National Law on Water Resources, as well as technical assistance on Nature-based solutions for integrated urban flood management in Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc island. The Partnership promotes private sector participation in water pollution management and greenhouse gas emission reduction in agriculture.  As the sector accounts for a third of Viet Nam’s greenhouse gas emissions, this effort will be fundamental for the preparation of the country’s low carbon agricultural transformation.

The Partnership is actively involved in improving water use efficiency in agriculture, designing and implementing measures to enhance the resilience of rural water systems, and contributing to the design and sustainability of World Bank lending operations in the sector. These efforts are essential for addressing water-related challenges in the Viet Nam Mekong Delta Region. Analytical work and collaboration in these areas are already making positive impacts in the area.

For instance, the Results-based Scaling up Rural Water Supply and Sanitation project connected 1.2 million people to sustainable water systems, and delivered the construction of 288,000 new water supply connections. The project also enabled 4.2 million people in more than 700 communes to gain access to commune-wide sanitation and built improved sanitary latrines in 300,000 households and 1,600 schools. Similarly, the Dam Rehabilitation and Safety Improvement project improved the safety conditions of 436 irrigation dams which will equip them to cope with future threats from climate change and global warming. This effort is now protecting 4.3 million people from potential dam failures. On the other hand, the Vinh Phuc Flood Risk and Waste Management project aims to provide improved urban living conditions and protection from flood risks for more than 632,000 people and improved sanitation facilities for 121,000 people.

Transitioning towards a water secure Viet Nam

Achieving water security requires a transformational shift in Viet Nam’s water sector. In 2022, the Government of Viet Nam endorsed Conclusion 36 on “Ensuring Water Security and Safety of Dams and Reservoirs by 2030, with a vision to 2045,” with the focus on key elements for the transition to a clean, resilient and inclusive economy. 

The World Bank, through the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership, continues to support the Government of Viet Nam on this journey, with an emphasis on integrated water resources management to address multiple and inter-related water issues, and improvement to water services to both urban and rural areas. It also supports the Government in addressing the devastating effects of pollution, floods and droughts that are exacerbated by climate change, while at the same time contributing to climate change mitigation.  

The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership’s current support is framed around three main pillars, with climate adaptation and mitigation cutting across all. The first pillar is sustaining water resources and managing water pollution, the second pillar is increasing water productivity and efficiency, and the third is ensuring water security for urban and rural settlements.  Viet Nam has made progress against most of the Sustainable Development Goal 6.  Partnerships such as GWSP have played a critical role in supporting a water-secure Viet Nam. Leveraging new sources of finance, including from the private sector, can help address major challenges and support the role of water security in Viet Nam’s ambitions to become a clean, resilient and inclusive economy.

Related Links: 

Vietnam : Toward a Safe, Clean, and Resilient Water System

Water Advisor

A perilous journey for countless Palestinians trying to flee danger in northern Gaza

Intensified fighting has put pressure on civilians to move south.

Palestinians seek safety in southern Gaza after deadly hospital strike

Social sharing.

Day after day, thousands more people in northern Gaza are scrambling to get to a place of greater safety as intense fighting rages there between Israel and Hamas.

These civilians are streaming out of the northern part of the territory, making the journey south whatever way they can — many on foot, travelling with family in tow.

Akram Al Sabbagh described undertaking a "very dangerous" hours-long walk to get to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The 73-year-old Canadian  travelled to Gaza in September to visit his brother . He's already had to relocate several times as a result of the outbreak of the war.

There are clear dangers for people staying put in northern Gaza, but they also face risks in travelling south — not only during the journey itself, but also in finding shelter and staying out of harm's way once they get to their destination.

Adding to that, the greater the number of people who head south, the more acute the pressure is on authorities and aid agencies to provide enough food, water and other necessities for the growing number of civilians gathering there.

Ongoing danger

Conflict erupted in Gaza in the wake of a surprise cross-border attack Hamas launched across parts of southern Israel nearly five weeks ago.

In response, Israel declared war and has unleashed a campaign involving airstrikes and a ground offensive, with the goal of dismantling the Islamist militant group and its infrastructure.

The resulting death toll has been immense, with thousands of civilians killed and at least two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people internally displaced within the besieged enclave.

As of Friday, officials from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza say more than 11,000 people have died in the territory since Oct. 7. In Israel, the Foreign Affairs Ministry revised the government's figure that some 1,400 people had been killed — Canadians among them  — and now says the number stands at about 1,200. As well, some 240 people were taken hostage after the initial Hamas attack.

With Israeli forces pushing further into Gaza, the fighting does not seem likely to halt any time soon.

Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CBC News Network that Hamas is "scattered" across the territory but "has a lot of fighters in the north" — including the Gaza City area, according to reports.

"Israel expects that the fighting back will get more fierce as its forces move forward," Byman said.

Daily pauses

On Friday, Israel said it had granted a six-hour window of time, which would allow civilians to escape northern Gaza along Salah al-Din — a key artery people have been moving along for days to exit the north.

It also agreed to the opening of a second route, after a deal  announced by the White House a day earlier .

Israel agrees to 4-hour pauses in fighting in Gaza

The White House said Israel agreed to implement a brief humanitarian pause each day.

Israel estimates that more than 850,000 of the 1.1 million people in northern Gaza have left, according to military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus. He called the pauses "quick humanitarian windows" that allow southward movement "while we are fighting."

However, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, called the pauses "cynical and cruel," saying it was just enough "to let people breathe and remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again."

Mixed emotions

On Friday alone, tens of thousands of new refugees from the north had reached the central city of Deir al-Balah. 

With no fuel for vehicles, the crowds had walked for hours as explosions echoed a short distance away.

Among them were wounded and older people. They arrived hungry, exhausted and with a stew of emotions — relief, rage and despair.

Reem Asant, 50, described winding through the streets on the way out of Gaza City trying to avoid shelling.

For Canada's Al Sabbagh, his journey has brought him to the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah, where he and others with Canadian ties are still waiting for it to reopen.

His own proximity to the Rafah crossing left him with the hope that he will soon be able to leave the conflict behind.

Global Affairs Canada, however, said none of the Canadians on Friday's list of foreign nationals approved to leave the Gaza Strip were able to exit.

There were 266 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their family members on the list who hoped to cross into Egypt.

With files from The Associated Press, The Canadian Press and Reuters

A second chance: Bethany Notestine’s journey to law school

Before becoming a law student, Bethany Notestine (JD ‘25), dreamed of opening her own medical massage business. For most, starting a business from scratch can be an expensive and risky endeavor. But for Notestine, the biggest obstacle was her past.

Emerging from a 7.5 year sentence the year prior, Notestine had walked out of federal prison to be embraced by her parents, then flown back to their place to live while she got back on her feet. But that would prove to be no easy task. Finding work with a record would be difficult.

Swept up into the justice system at the young age of 22 for a nonviolent drug trafficking offense, Notestine had opted for a plea deal out of fear of getting a potential life sentence if she went to trial. The consequence of her choice was a sentence marred by the reverberations of trauma, anger, and still more lingering questions.

While in prison, she sought solace in the quiet corners of the prison Law Library, where she devoted her time each morning to studying criminal cases, trying to make sense of how the justice system works and what went wrong in her own case. 

After hours upon hours spent studying law materials, she began to make connections for her own case and understand how the legal system worked. At this point, she also realized she might have an actual knack for law. A calling even. 

Learn more about Notestine journey to law school and desire to make a difference in her profile story Redeeming Justice: Bethany Notestine’s Journey from Conviction to Law School .

Lead photo: Asa Featherstone

• College of Law

Related Stories

Wvxu: oki wanna know why does kentucky own the ohio river.

April 22, 2021

UC Law's Professor Brad Mank answers questions from OKI Wanna Know about the border between Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and what the Supreme Court says about it.

Law student named Best Oralist at international moot competition

March 30, 2021

Third-year law student Greg Magarian was named "Best Oralist" at international arbitration competition.

Key criminal justice reform bill supported by OIP now Ohio law

May 17, 2021

Criminal justice reform bill on interrogations supported by the OIP gains unanimous support in Ohio government and is sent to the Governor for signature.