“A journey map is a visualisation of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.”

I want to use these to identify gaps in the product and discover opportunities of how I can make it better. I created these for different situations and different users. I used both parent and child personas to understand their different perspectives, needs and challenges. This will help me empathise with my users and see things from their eyes.

Discovering the product

This first set of user journey’s is when the user first comes into contact with the product. The journey covers how they discovered it, their first explorations of it, their thoughts when they buy it go through onboarding and lastly, when they begin using it.

User 1

User journey 1.png

Expectations not met

Benjamin saw the product advertised with certain prices which gave him expectations before he visited the website. When he entered the site, most of the subscriptions available were more expensive. This is a common scenario when it comes to buying services online. Therefore, with my product, I want to be very clear with the pricing from the beginning. False advertising should be avoided.

Unnecessary steps

In the explore stage, he asks if they can tailor book recommendations to people with dyslexia. Therefore, the website should clearly state this. For example, have a section which describes how they personalise the subscriptions. He can then click into this and sample some books which aid children with dyslexia.

Benjamin is also unsure if the product delivers to where he lives. This is a common concern for users as they don’t want to waste time researching a product which doesn’t even deliver to them. Therefore, there should be a map or dropdown showing all the places they deliver to. If we deliver worldwide, this should be made clear early as it is a selling point.

Once he purchases his subscription, he is unsure of when he will receive his first parcel. When you pay for something, you want the delivery to be fast and you want to know when to expect it. In the app, there could be a tracking section. It is likely that books will be delivered around the same date each month so this should be made clear. There should also be the option to alter this date if it doesn’t suit.

Low points

When he purchases the product, he realises that he doesn’t know his daughters reading ability. This makes him concerned that the books they receive won’t be suitable for her. Therefore, there should be a short reading test for his daughter to complete to get an idea of what level she is sitting at. After they receive the first book, they can review it’s difficulty and the recommendations will become more accurate. Perhaps, the child could take an updated test every few months to see how much they are improving.

User 2

User journey 2.png

Expectations not met

When he first opens the website, it feels very much aimed at parents. All of the selling points including the price, for example, aren’t enticing to him. Most of the supporting websites I have seen for children’s products are aimed at parents. This is important of course, however, I want mine to be appealing to children too. I want to come up with selling points for them. Maybe there is a separate section for the children to look at which has selling points they are interested in. This part of the website would also have fun interactions.

As stated in the “use” section, he was slightly disappointed with the first book he received. This could possibly be a common issue if not executed properly. Recommendations will get better and more accurate each month as the children review the books they are given. However, to make sure the first book is one of interest, the onboarding process should go into detail about what the child likes. I also want to remind them during onboarding that the recommendations will get better the more we get to know them.