Experience Map vs. Customer Journey Map: Which to Use and How to Read It

What is the difference between the two?

NN/g summarizes the difference in its video on the topic: journey maps focus on specific personas interacting with a product or service, while experience maps highlight broader human behaviors that are not tied to a specific company (NN/g: Experience maps vs. journey maps).

In practice: the journey map asks “how does Marta buy car insurance through our app?”; the experience map asks “how does a person feel when they have to deal with paperwork across any insurer?” The first helps you improve a product. The second helps you understand a bigger problem, one that may include your competitors.

The two artifacts look alike and are easy to confuse. That is why it pays to fix the scope before you draw: one person with one product, or a human behavior regardless of the company.

What structure does a journey map have?

NN/g proposes a three-zone structure (NN/g: When and how to create customer journey maps, Kate Kaplan, 2016):

1. Zone A, the lens. It assigns a persona (“who”) and the scenario to be examined (“what”). NN/g recommends one point of view per map to keep the narrative clear.
2. Zone B, the experience. The heart of the map: the person’s actions over time, with their thoughts and emotions. It can be supplemented with quotes or videos from the research.
3. Zone C, the output. It gathers the opportunities to focus on and the internal owners of each part of the journey.

That structure changes the question from “what do I draw?” to “what do I know the person lives through in each phase, and what am I going to do about it?”

How do you build one?

NN/g gives five rules for creating a useful journey map:

1. Establish the why and the what. Start from a known business goal and the questions the map must answer, before beginning the process.
2. Base it on truth. Gather existing research and fill the gaps with qualitative, journey-based research. NN/g warns that quantitative data alone cannot build a story.
3. Collaborate. Invite stakeholders from different groups to help compile the data and build the map.
4. Do not jump to visualization. Finish and understand the synthesis of your data before creating the visual.
5. Make the map get used. NN/g frames it as a living, interactive document that people can take part in, and suggests assigning ownership of different parts of the journey where possible.

In practical terms, the work runs in this order: scope and goal, research, a timeline of actions, thoughts, and emotions, touchpoints and channels, and finally pain points with their opportunities. Include what happens off-screen, such as a phone call or a store visit, if it is part of the experience.

When is an experience map right, and when a journey map?

Use a journey map when you have a product, a segment of people, and a specific improvement question, for example reducing drop-off during sign-up. Use an experience map when you need to understand the context before deciding which product to build, for example how a family experiences moving house, with every company involved.

A common mistake is using a very broad map to decide on one screen. If the decision is small, a journey map focused on one step is enough.

When should you NOT make a map?

• If there is no business goal. The map becomes a piece of art nobody uses.
• If there is no research behind it. A map without real data is an opinion with nice formatting.
• If you already have a clear user flow and the problem is execution, a map adds little. A wireflow may be more useful.

Illustrative example

Illustrative example: a dental clinic wants to reduce missed appointments. The team builds a journey map around a typical person: a mother booking for her two children who has two jobs. In zone A, the lens is the person and the scenario is “rescheduling an appointment at short notice.” In zone B, the phases run from receiving the reminder to the day of the visit, with emotions such as guilt and rush at each step. In zone C, a clear pain point appears: the reminder arrives by email, which the person reads late. The opportunity is to send the reminder by message with a link to reschedule. The owner is the front desk. Two months later, the team reviews the map again with new data.

Before you draw, define the design brief so the goal is clear, and use the research synthesis to turn interview notes into phases and emotions you can defend.

Common mistakes

• Mixing several personas in one map, so nobody recognizes themselves in it.
• Drawing the ideal map instead of the real one, with the experience the company wishes it had.
• Forgetting touchpoints outside the product, such as an email or a phone call.
• Leaving findings without an owner, so the map leads to no action.
• Making a perfect map and never opening it again.

What you can do tomorrow

1. Write the lens of your map in one sentence: who the person is and which scenario you are looking at.
2. List five real touchpoints, including the ones that never go through your screens.
3. For each pain point, write who on your team could fix it.

Sources

• NN/g: When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps (Kate Kaplan, 2016)
• NN/g: Experience Maps vs. Journey Maps (video)