Book Image

User Experience Mapping

By : Peter W. Szabo
Book Image

User Experience Mapping

By: Peter W. Szabo

Overview of this book

Do you want to create better products and innovative solutions? User experience maps will help you understand your users and improve communication with them. Maps can also champion user-centricity within the organization. This book is the first print resource covering two advanced mapping techniques—the behavioral change map and the 4D UX map. You’ll explore user story maps, task models, and journey maps, while also creating wireflows, mental model maps, ecosystem maps, and solution maps. You’ll learn how to use insights from real users to create and improve your maps and products. The book delves into each major user experience map type, ranging from simple techniques based on sticky notes to more complex map types, and guides you in solving real-world problems with maps. You’ll understand how to create maps using a variety of software products, including Adobe Illustrator, Balsamiq Mockups, Axure RP, and Microsoft Word. Besides, you can draw each map type with pen and paper too! The book also showcases communication techniques and workshop ideas. You’ll learn about the Kaizen-UX management framework, developed by the author, now used by many agencies and in-house UX teams in Europe and beyond. Buying this book will give you hundreds of hours worth of user experience knowledge, from one of the world’s leading UX consultants. It will change your users’ world for the better. If you are still not convinced, we have hidden some cat drawings in it, just in case.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Dedication
Preface
Free Chapter
1
How Will UX Mapping Change Your (Users) Life?
12
References

Creating hexagon maps


Probably the best example of an ecosystem map can be found in Service Design: From Insight to Implementation (Polaine, A. et al., 2013). That map is composed of hexagons, arranged on concentric circles. I also prefer to use hexagon-based maps for my ecosystem maps. They also remind me of board games and classic turn-based strategy games, most notably Sid Meier's Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic series. 

In this chapter, we will create hexagon-based maps, but not all ecosystem maps are hexagon based. The circle is the second most common shape, but you could use pretty much any shape to represent entities on an ecosystem map. 

Hexagon mapping with Inkscape

The easiest way to create hexagon maps is using the free and open source vector graphics editor, Inkscape (available from https://inkscape.org). There is a hexagon mapping extension for Inkscape, created by Pelle Nilsson, which you can download from GitHub, at https://github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension

Pelle...