The ecosystem
Our solution exists in a user experience ecosystem. This ecosystem is the sum of all discrete but interdependent components that function together from the perspective of the user interacting with our solution. Those components can be software, hardware, services, information, channels, or even people.
When I talk about ecosystem, I mean the part that we made visible by mapping it. It would be impossible to map the full complexity of an entire ecosystem. Our map will always be a simplification of the reality.
How to map an ecosystem
The centerpiece of the ecosystem map will be our solution. Each element of the map will be an entity. To map the ecosystem, we will start with six questions related to our solution to find the entities. Those six questions will create the slices or categories of the map:
- How?
- Who?
- When?
- Where?
- What?
- Why?
The distance from the centerpiece will indicate the scale. If an entity is closer to the centerpiece, it represents a smaller scale, while entities on the...