Journey Mapping My Commute to Work

An Authentically Torontonian Example of Journey Mapping

Last week, I participated in ‘Experience Mapping’, a course offered in Akendi’s UX Training and Certification program.

The course covered the theory, principles, and research methodologies behind experience mapping – an innovation technique used to understand a user’s overall experience better and identify areas needing improvement.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course, so much so that I’ve been unable to go about my day without analyzing each moment of everything I am experiencing since taking it. From grocery shopping to getting my hair cut to my commute to work.

A Journey Map Defined

What is a journey map, you might be wondering? It is a snapshot of the overall user experience, including the stages of the experience and the emotions a particular user feels during those stages.

With my new sense of hyper-awareness, I thought it would be interesting to re-do one of the exercises from the experience mapping course – creating a journey map – on my own and in more detail.

To create my journey map, I biked to work for an entire week while actively thinking of the steps I go through and my emotions and feelings while going through each step.

I stopped along the way, took notes, and made little doodles that captured my experience and emotions.

After the week was up, I compiled all of my notes and doodles and sketched out the whole sequence of stages, emotions, and quotes from my notes of things I was thinking about at the time/thoughts that were running through my mind. To finish, I drew my final map in Illustrator and brought in some of my doodles to help enhance the story.

As you can tell from the map above, I absolutely love biking to work! It is (in my opinion) the best way to travel through a city of neighbourhoods like Toronto.

I love the sights, smells and sounds I experience while on my way to and from work as I pass through different city areas – something I would completely miss if I took the TTC everyday.

Biking allows me to experience the city at a slower pace and take it all in. It enhances my experience of travelling from point A to point B, it gives me a greater appreciation for the fabric that makes up this great city I live in, and most importantly, it makes me a happier and healthier person.

I hope you enjoy my journey map and can comprehend my full experience of commuting to work by bike!

Coming soon I will be repeating the process and creating a journey map that captures my commute by TTC. It should make for a very interesting comparison!

How do you commute to work and what is your experience? Let us know in the comments below…