Simplify Your Holidays: Part 2

Written with a mug of Hot Cocoa by Rose

I can remember the year my husband and I were engaged, and I was so excited to send out our first joint Christmas Card. We were still using disposibal cameras to capture our memories, but would pay to have a CD of digital files made each time we had the film developed. That fall there had been an advertisement stuck in some of our developed photos about creating a Christmas Card with a digital image. So I picked out one of us and created our picture card!

I didn't know what future h*ll I had just created for myself.

Years later, the pressure to create an Insta-Worthy Christmas Card of our family became too much. Something had to give. I knew I didn't want to give up sending cards entirely, but I did want to stop doing the parts of the process that drove me crazy.

Little did I know, I was conceptually using the process of Journey Mapping. Want to see how I applied this Design Thinking tool to simplify this holiday task? Click the image below to check out the video. Want to learn a little more? Keep scrolling to get a more textbook definition of journey mapping.

What is Journey Mapping?

Journey mapping is a design thinking tool that allows you to visually map out the entire user experience step-by-step. It enables you to understand the full context and emotional journey a person goes through when interacting with or executing a process.

In everyday life, we can apply journey mapping to better understand and improve all types of experiences. For example, mapping your weekly cooking routine could uncover ways to simplify meal planning and preparation.

To create a journey map, start by listing out every detailed step that it takes you to accomplish the goal. This includes actions, pain points, emotions, questions, etc. The map view allows you to see the whole experience end-to-end. Once you map the current journey, you can analyze it to identify areas of frustration and opportunities to simplify. Looking for patterns and themes will reveal key insights.

By visually mapping any complicated process from the your perspective, you can uncover insights that lead to simplification. Journey mapping is a powerful technique to improve experiences in our daily lives.