Here’s a list of NN/g’s most useful introductory articles and videos about customer journey design and related topics. Within each section, the resources are in recommended reading order.
Customer Journeys and Customer Experience: An Overview
UX work has traditionally focused on interface design and optimizing the experience for single digital interactions. However, not all experiences are so granular and targeted. When users interact with an organization’s products over time and across devices to achieve larger goals, these related interactions make up a customer journey. Customer journeys should also be researched and designed to result in enjoyable customer experiences.
If you’re new to customer-journey-level experience design, we recommend that you explore the following resources in order, from top to bottom.
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Number |
Link |
Format |
Description |
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1 |
Customer Journeys and Omnichannel User Experience |
Article |
What is a customer journey and what is meant by the word “omnichannel?” |
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2 |
Video |
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3 |
How Channels, Devices, and Touchpoints Impact the Customer Journey |
Article |
Various components come together to make customer journeys. |
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4 |
User Experience vs. Customer Experience: What’s The Difference? |
Article |
UX exists at various levels: interaction level, journey level, and relationship level. |
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5 |
Video |
Research and Mapping
Research is always a crucial early step in UX design, and journey-level experience design is no different. Because journeys are longitudinal and include many interactions, the methods and outputs we use to research, analyze, and document the omnichannel experience are different from those commonly used for the UX of single interactions. They often involve context-research methods such as field studies and diary studies and mapping methods that help distill the research into visuals such as journey maps, and service blueprints.
Journey maps and service blueprints are two common research outputs used to document findings from research activities. They also serve as strategic deliverables from which to begin ideating around solutions for the experience problems identified within them.
The articles and videos in this section introduce you to the methods and mapping practices commonly used to understand customer journeys.
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Number |
Link |
Format |
Description |
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1 |
When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps
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Article |
What are journey maps and how do you make one? |
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2 |
Article |
What type of information should a journey map contain? |
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3 |
Video |
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4 |
5 Steps for Effective Diary Studies in Customer Journey Research |
Article |
Running an effective longitudinal diary study includes 5 key steps. |
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5 |
Video |
What are the research methods used for understanding and mapping journeys? |
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6 |
Article |
Service blueprints visualize organizational processes in order to optimize how a business delivers a user experience. |
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7 |
Article |
Evaluate the consistency of your design by pulling together all the assets and interfaces users will encounter. |
Other study guides that synthesize resources related to the methods above:
Designing an Effective Omnichannel Experience
A great customer experience is the product of a well-designed omnichannel ecosystem. There are five components that together create a successful omnichannel user experience: Consistency, Optimization, Seamlessness, Orchestration, and Collaboration.
These components and other journey-design considerations are discussed in the following articles.
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Number |
Link |
Format |
Description |
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1 |
Article |
Good journeys have a consistent, cohesive, and familiar experience across all channels. |
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3 |
Article |
Channel experiences must be designed with the device and context of use in mind. |
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4 |
Article |
Channel transitions should be designed to be effortless as possible. |
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5 |
Article |
Mature teams proactively lead customers through the journeys with personalized interactions. |
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6 |
Article |
Use multiple channels together to resolve pain points or add value in the journey. |
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7 |
Video |
It may be necessary to strategically introduce friction during a customer journey. |
Journey Management and Other Operational Considerations
Organizational structures and operational business practices were created before internet-connected devices existed. Companies have adapted to include digital product teams and UX practices so they can create and maintain the tools needed to serve modern customers. However, in most organizations, UX work stops there — at designing individual interactions.
The experience customers have with organizations during a customer journey impacts their ongoing relationship with that company. For this reason, it’s become increasingly important for businesses to prioritize experience design at the journey level. Customers touch many different products and channels as their journeys progress, and the experience on each of these is often designed and owned by different groups within the organization. These groups must work together to design a cohesive experience across touchpoints. That is why adopting a journey-centric design approach requires organizational and operational change.
Use the resources in this section to explore the organizational components that affect the quality of the journey experience.
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Number |
Link |
Format |
Description |
|
1 |
Successful Omnichannel Experiences Begin with Cross-Functional Teams |
Video |
Traditionally disparate teams must work together to design effective journeys. |
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2 |
Article |
In order to adopt a journey-centric design approach, organizations must make operational adjustments. |
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3 |
Video |
Journey management seeks to design journeys like products. |
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4 |
Article |
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5 |
A Framework for CX Transformation: How to Operationalize CX at Scale
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Article |
What changes must take place for an organization to become fully user-centered? |
|
5 |
The 3 Competencies of Journey Management
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Video |
Managing journeys requires a continuous practice of 3 interdependent competencies: collecting insights, analyzing them to drive design strategy, and orchestrating journey experiences for users. |
Additional Resources
Service design is the activity of planning and organizing business resources to improve the employees’ experience and the customers’ experience.
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