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App User Journey

Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite app so delightfully captivating, so enrapturing, and so fun to use that it keeps you coming back for more every day? Is it the slick and elegant design, the innovative concept, its ingenious features, or its impressive functionalities? While these are most certainly important and will go a long way in making your app great, the unsung hero behind the triumph of any mobile app is often its user journey.

Every step a user takes within your app can either make or break their experience. A meticulously planned app user journey will keep your users hooked and coming back for more, transforming a one-time download into a cherished daily ritual. For app developers, mobile marketers, and product managers alike, fully comprehending and optimizing this journey is the key to crafting an app that people simply can’t resist.

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So today, let’s talk about the app user journey. In this guide, we’ll explore all the facets of the mobile app user journey. We will talk about what it is, discuss its benefits and challenges, and learn how to map the app user journey as well as how to analyze and optimize it; we will also be delving into a plethora of examples, case studies, and templates to ensure you’ve got everything you need to ace the mobile app user journey. Prepare to embark on an illuminating journey through this watershed moment of the app experience. From the initial download to becoming a staple of your user’s daily routines, we’ve got your app user journey covered! Let’s dive in.

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But first, the basics. What is an app user journey?

What is an app user journey?

In a nutshell, the app user journey refers to the series of steps that users take within an app as well as the ways they interact with it—from the moment of discovery and app install to the point when they achieve the goals they set out to achieve when they first downloaded your app.

In the context of app user journeys, the goal can take many different forms—for a dating app, it would be finding potential dates/partners; in the case of a gaming app, it would be beating the final game level; the goal for an eCommerce app is most certainly going to be making a purchase; whereas for a health and fitness app, the goal will likely be regular sessions within the app and daily engagement, and so on.

App user journey

Click on image for full size

Source: Medium

Simple enough, right? As with so many other things in life, it’s easier said than done—developing a killer user journey takes countless hours of app development and meticulous analysis. It involves dissecting user behavior to identify and mend any weak points that hinder users on their path to success, i.e. achieving their goals.

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When we speak of weak points, we refer to any stumbling blocks, UX and UI inconsistencies as well as any other sources of hesitation and confusion for users that might prevent them from exploring further and diving deeper into your app. To avoid losing any users and tanking your engagement and retention rates along the way, it’s paramount that you identify and eliminate any and all pain points.

Mapping your app’s user journey empowers you to effectively address these pain points. It will also enable you to efficiently streamline and optimize your app’s UX and UI, which, in turn, will have a positive effect on your app’s engagement and retention and ultimately your users’ lifetime value (LTV) .

App user journey FAQs

Before we dive any deeper, let’s address a few elephants in the room to ensure we are all on the same page.

User journey vs. customer journey vs. user flow vs. user funnel

User journeys focus only on user interactions within your app, i.e. download, use of features and functionalities, etc. As such, user journeys only pertain to digital touchpoints within an app. In contrast, the customer journey extends to all touchpoints—both digital and physical—with your brand. In other words, user journeys are a subset of customer journeys.

User journey vs. customer journey

Source: CleverTap

User flows, crafted by UX designers, detail the micro-steps needed to achieve specific actions within your app’s interface. User journeys may reference these steps but primarily aim to extract insights about user experiences. A user journey evaluates user sentiments, desires, and broader perspectives, while a user flow focuses on optimizing a single, specific step within the app, e.g. sign-up or log-in flow. User journeys generally encompass multiple user flows.

User journey vs. user flow (I)

Source: AppsFlyer

Another way of thinking about it is to consider user flows as purpose-driven, i.e. the goal is to get users to complete an action—register, log in, complete a purchase, etc. The goal of a user journey is optimization to ensure smooth navigation and overall experience and increase an app’s engagement and retention rates.

User journey vs. user flow (II)

User funnels, on the other hand, track users through a series of steps and serve lead generation and customer conversion purposes. Funnel steps can be part of a user journey, but funnels are generally way broader and more abstract. While user journeys provide granular insights into user interactions and experiences within the app, tailored to specific user segments, funnels focus on the overall steps completed by all users.

User journey vs. user funnel (Top, middle, and bottom of funnel)

Why does the app user journey matter?

For mobile marketers, it’s crucial to showcase an app’s functionality and benefits, i.e. its value, to users. Understanding why users install your app allows you to optimize their experiences, shorten the time from install to purchase / subscription , and fix UX and UI issues that cause users to churn . As your app’s user base grows and new in-app features and functionalities are introduced, mapping the user journey becomes increasingly important for marketers and product managers.

What is the purpose of an app user journey?

Instead of considering your users as an abstract mass, a user journey map helps you visualize your app from the user’s perspective, enabling you to focus on their unique experiences and interactions within the app. A user journey map can highlight areas in need of improvement but also areas where user expectations align with your business objectives and the direction your app is already going in, allowing you to conciliate your users’ varying expectations of your app.

Why is it important to understand your app’s user journey?

App user journeys unlock your app’s potential by helping you understand user behaviour and revealing pain points and user desires. Using insights gained from mapping your user journey, you can uncover critical issues before they turn into major problems and optimize your app’s design and functionality to cultivate long-lasting engagement with your users.

How can mapping the user journey help improve app performance?

Visualizing and mapping the user journey provides crucial insights for streamlining and optimizing the user experience, reducing friction points, and driving conversions and retention. It’s possibly the best strategy to increase engagement and enhance your app’s performance.

When to build a user journey map?

Start mapping your user journey once your app starts gathering steam and you have collected enough users, but before your user base grows into the thousands or your app experiences viral success. It’s best to start mapping the user journey in the early days of growth; this allows you to understand your crucial touchpoints, ensure high levels of user satisfaction before your app gets too big, and discover untapped opportunities before scaling up.

Benefits of an app user journey

Understanding the journey users take within your app can yield a plethora of benefits for your brand and business. When you dissect a user’s journey step-by-step, it not only helps you understand user behavior and enhances your app’s design but also boosts user retention and engagement.

Here’s how a user journey map proves invaluable:

Improved user experience

Delving into how users interact with your app provides vital insights for enhancing their experience. By tracking the user journey, you gain a profound understanding of how your app addresses users’ problems and facilitates them in achieving their goals. It allows you to pinpoint the features that users find most valuable and useful as well as to identify friction points that need to be addressed in order to make the user experience as seamless as possible. These insights empower you to craft an easy-to-use app that users genuinely love and value.

Increased user retention, boosted user engagement

Mapping your app’s user journey reveals areas where improvements are needed. For instance, if users tend to churn shortly after downloading your app, it may indicate issues with your onboarding process . Armed with these insights, you can optimize specific areas of your app to make them as user-centric as possible, which, in turn, enhances the overall user experience and boosts your app’s stickiness . When users find your app instrumental in achieving their goals, they’re more likely to stick around , aka not churn.

User journey maps can also be shared across various teams within your organization, including marketing, product development, and sales. This sharing of insights allows each team to align with a user-centric approach. It equips teams with a clear vision of the users they’re targeting, empowering them to craft an app that resonates with the intended audience.

Targeting the right users

Understanding your target audience is paramount for app success. Trying to appeal to a broad range of users without a clear understanding of what they want or need can be and, to be fair, often is counterproductive.

Researching the goals users want to achieve when using your app as well as the challenges they face along the user journey they take within your app helps you gain deep insights into your users.

This clarity enables you to identify who your users really are and how your app can solve their problems effectively, which, in turn, allows you to target potential new users more efficiently and augments your user acquisition (UA) efforts.

App user journey stages

App user journeys are often dynamic and can vary depending on factors like your app’s category and monetization model. A gaming app, for instance, will inevitably have a very different user journey compared to a health and fitness app, which, for its part, will differ vastly from an eCommerce app, and so on.

While each user journey is unique, there are common stages shared by most apps.

Here’s an overview of the core stages that outline an effective user journey, from initial discovery to ongoing loyalty:

App discovery and awareness stage

When users download an app, they usually do so with a purpose—they have a “problem” that needs solving. The problem can take many different forms—they need to relax and unwind, they want to buy items online, they want to have fun, they want to exercise and/or lose weight, you get the gist.

The thing is, however, the app stores are crowded places and are saturated with millions of apps across a single category. In the app discovery stage, users search the Internet and the app stores to find the app that will best fulfil their needs and solve their problem .

So, to stand out in a crowded app market, make sure to prioritize App Store Optimization (ASO) and referral marketing campaigns. These strategies will help you boost the visibility of your app and encourage users to choose it over all the other options available.

App download (user acquisition) stage

The download stage is the most pivotal for your app’s growth and overall success. It’s a watershed moment, the making or breaking of your app—the download stage represents the first conversion point where users take action and install your app.

Optimizing your app store listing is essential here—from app name, icon, and description to subtitle, screenshots, and preview video , don’t leave anything to chance.

Also, don’t forget to consider factors like positive reviews on the app stores that build trust and convince potential new users to download.

App onboarding and exploration stage

App onboarding is yet another watershed moment in the app user journey. Your users might have downloaded your app, but now you have limited time to show them how it works and why they should stick around and keep using it (i.e. show them your app’s value), otherwise, they are churning faster than you can say ‘retention’ and likely never coming back.

A well-designed onboarding experience is, thus, a must and a cornerstone of user engagement . Users need to understand your app’s value proposition, learn its key features and functionalities, and grant necessary permissions. This guided introduction reduces confusion and user friction, familiarizes users with the app’s interface, and encourages effective further exploration, setting users on a path to subscription or in-app purchases (depending on your app’s monetization model).

In-app engagement (app reuse) stage

To combat early churn and foster user loyalty, maintaining user engagement is crucial. Many users tend to leave after the initial onboarding stage, making ongoing engagement vital for long-term growth, success, and profitability.

Focus on getting users to explore on their own after initial onboarding and promoting the adoption of key features to increase active users on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis (DAU, WAU, or MAU).

Use in-app messaging to offer helpful tips, pointers, and rewards, ensuring users keep coming back for more. The overall goal here is to get users hooked and nurture app loyalty.

In-app purchases/subscription (monetization) stage

In-app purchases , or IAPs for short, and subscriptions , depending on an app’s main monetization model, represent a significant milestone and primary objective for most apps.

The user journey from awareness to purchase

Source: Sendbird

The key to success here is not just targeting all your users at once but nurturing the most lucrative users (the ones most likely to upgrade to a paid plan or make a purchase). So, knowing your target user segment is essential for planning the user journey and messaging around it in order to get the highest number of users possible to convert, i.e. make a purchase and/or subscribe.

Re-purchase stage

After an initial in-app purchase, it’s time to start encouraging repeat conversions and re-purchases from existing users. It’s an incredibly cost-effective strategy compared to acquiring new users . Use messaging channels such as email, push notifications , and in-app messaging  for follow-up communication and recommendations. This is also a great way of personalizing the app experience .

Remember though that not all apps rely on IAPs (see above). Some rely on subscriptions or in-app advertising . In such cases, user loyalty and retention become essentially indispensable if you want to succeed in the app world.

User loyalty and retention stage

As users progress through the app’s user journey, their needs and expectations evolve. Personalization becomes crucial—it’s vital to tailor purchase recommendations, app experiences, and promotions based on individual user preferences. Also, refine your messaging strategy with targeted approaches and leverage advanced segmentation . The end goal is to create a supportive community where users can showcase their achievements, which, in turn, fosters loyalty and keeps users hooked and engaged.

Each stage of the user journey presents an opportunity to enhance the user experience, increase retention, and drive user satisfaction. Understanding these stages and employing effective messaging strategies can help your app thrive in a competitive market.

How to map your user journey

Mapping the user journey: steps, best practices, and pro tips.

Mapping the user journey for your app is a strategic process that involves understanding user goals, motivations, expectations, and concerns in order to deliver an experience that best addresses their problems, needs, and wants.

8 Steps to map the app user journey

Follow these eight easy steps to create an effective user journey map that enhances your app experience:

Define your goals and objectives

Begin by clearly defining your objectives for mapping the user journey. Decide whether you want to focus on the entire user journey or a specific aspect of your app’s experience. This sets the direction for your research, which will help you identify what metrics to track and what strategies to employ to improve your app.

Also, consider involving different teams, such as product development and marketing, in this process. Leveraging their expertise can prove invaluable in defining your goals and objectives.

Build user personas

After you’ve defined your user journey objectives, it’s time to create detailed user personas. User personas are fictional representations of your target users and they will go a long way in helping you understand your real users as well as what they want and need.

Gather insights from current users about their app experience, including discovery, touchpoints, goals, challenges, and decision-making factors. This data can then be used to create your user personas, each getting its own name, detailed description, and a visual representation for clarity.

After your personas are ready, share them with all relevant teams to ensure a unified understanding of your user base.

Identify key interaction touchpoints and channels

Next, map all the touchpoints where users interact with your app. Make sure to include as many touchpoints as possible to gain a comprehensive understanding—this can include push notifications, websites, search engines, other mobile apps, email marketing, social media, ad impressions, post-purchase events, etc. The more interaction touchpoints you include, the clearer the picture you’ll get.

Utilize mind-mapping techniques, brainstorming sessions with your team, direct communication with your audience to collect feedback, online surveys, and competitor analysis to identify all your touchpoints and channels effectively.

Pro tip : When conducting surveys and gathering feedback, consider where users are in the customer lifecycle. The timing of user feedback can significantly impact the results. Analyzing feedback based on the user’s stage in the lifecycle helps identify trends and insights that can inform optimizations.

Visualize the user’s journey

Visualize, aka map out , how users engage with your app, starting from their initial encounter to conversion. Then, capture their thoughts, emotions, and actions throughout this journey.

The goal is to gain a deep understanding of how your app fits into your users’ daily lives and how it helps them address challenges and solve problems.

It’s important to keep in mind that each user persona may have and, truth be told, likely has a unique journey, so tailor the user journey map accordingly to address their specific needs and challenges.

For instance, let’s consider onboarding. Not all users will need an in-depth onboarding, some, usually the tech-savvy ones with lots of experience using similar apps, might prefer to explore on their own without any guidance. So, remember not to generalize and use one-size-fits-all approaches when crafting your user journey.

Identify and overcome obstacles

The next step is to pinpoint obstacles and critical points that may hinder users as they progress through the journey, causing them to churn/drop out.

For example, identify situations where users may abandon the app due to user friction or unclear calls to action. To take the onboarding example further, unclear, overly complicated, and confusing onboarding processes tend to annoy users—a surefire way to make them churn.

Learn more about creating killer onboarding journeys here .

List all the obstacles you can identify and brainstorm solutions to eliminate them, streamlining the UX of your app along the way. If implementing changes alters the user journey, create a new map to assess the impact of said changes.

Design and test the final user journey firsthand

Next, compile all collected data into a comprehensive user journey map. Don’t forget to include user steps, success criteria, retention rates, conversion rates, interaction points, obstacles, and solutions (basically, everything we’ve just talked about).

What a user journey map looks like

After that, test the user journey yourself to gain a deep understanding of the user experience firsthand and make necessary improvements based on your findings. This hands-on approach allows you to identify both positive and negative aspects of your app’s user experience. You can also test the app from the perspective of different user personas to determine what works best for each group.

Create several user journeys

Recognize that users engage with your app in various ways, and their goals may differ. To avoid generalizing your audience and misinterpreting data, create multiple user journeys tailored to your different user personas. This approach enables you to better understand how different user groups interact with your app and deliver a more personalized and customized experience.

Develop and monitor essential KPIs

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate your user journey map’s (preferably maps’) performance. Monitor mobile app metrics like active users, cost per acquisition, conversion rate, retention rate, lifetime value, etc.

By analyzing these metrics, you can then gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and user personas. This will also help you identify specific areas that require further improvements in your user journey map.

Pro tip : Here’s a list of all KPIs to consider when deciding what you need to monitor and track. Remember that not all KPIs listed here may apply to your app: Revenue, a ctive users (DAU, WAU, MAU), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per install (CPI), click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, retention rate, churn rate, uninstall tracking, lifetime value (LTV), return on investment (ROI), return on ad spend (ROAS), average revenue per user (ARPU), average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU), average revenue per paying user (ARPPU), re-engagement rate.

Continuously optimization

Finally, remember that mapping and optimizing your app’s user journey is an ongoing effort. Continuously seek ways to improve the user experience and meet the needs of all your users.

This may involve eliminating unnecessary steps in the user journey as a way of streamlining it or developing new strategies to keep users engaged. A/B testing should be a regular practice to refine and enhance your app’s performance based on fresh data.

Remember that optimization is an iterative process, so keep regularly gathering insights, analysing data, and refining your app to create an even better user experience.

By following these steps and best practices, you can create a user journey map that not only enhances your app but also contributes to long-term user satisfaction and engagement.

User journey template: Core elements of the app user journey

Creating an effective user journey map for your app involves considering several core elements to provide a comprehensive view of the user experience.

Here’s a breakdown of these elements:

Personas : Start by defining user personas, which represent different groups of users with unique characteristics and needs. Understanding your target audience helps tailor the user journey to their preferences. See above for more information on creating user personas.

Timeline : The user journey map should have a clear timeline with a beginning, middle, and end. The end goal is typically a conversion, purchase, or app installation. Map out the interactions a user has with your app throughout this timeline.

User journey timeline

Actions : Identify the actions users take at each interaction point with your app. This can include activities like watching an onboarding video, clicking a push notification, making a purchase, or completing a specific task within the app.

Feelings, expectations, and questions : Chart the emotional states of users at different points in the user journey. Analyze user feedback and behavioral data to understand your users better and the emotions they experience at each stage. Additionally, consider the expectations and questions that users may have during each interaction.

Channels and touchpoints : Determine the channels through which users interact with your app and brand. This can include desktop, mobile devices, in-app notifications, email, social media, and more. Understanding the channel preferences of your users will help you tailor your app’s communications and messaging.

User journey template

User experience (UX) : Evaluate the overall user experience of your app, including factors like usability, design, reliability, and overall functionality. A positive UX is essential for a good user journey as well as user satisfaction and retention.

Transactions and payments : If your app involves in-app transactions (IAPs or subscriptions), ensure that the payment process is seamless, trustworthy, and accommodating to various payment methods. Also, clear communication regarding pricing and order confirmations is crucial.

Personalization : Personalization is the best way to deliver in-app experiences that charm users and gain their loyalty long-term. Consider implementing personalization strategies based on user data. Remember to take into account factors like user personas, engagement style, messaging, location, etc. to deliver a personalized user experience that meets individual needs.

By incorporating these core elements into your user journey map, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the user experience and identify areas for improvement. This information allows you to optimize your app to better meet user expectations, increase engagement, and drive conversions.

How do you analyze the user journey and overcome major roadblocks and challenges?

Analyzing the user journey and making sure you don’t fall prey to common pitfalls and misconceptions regarding the user journey are critical steps in optimizing your app’s performance and user experience.

Here’s how you can effectively analyze the user journey to make it as smooth and pleasant for users as possible:

Identify unnecessary interactions : Review the user journey to identify any unnecessary touchpoints or steps that may cause friction. Simplify the journey by eliminating or streamlining these interactions to make the user experience smoother.

Address negative experiences : Pay close attention to the low points in the user journey where expectations are not met, or users have negative experiences. These pain points are opportunities for improvement. Prioritize these areas and work on reversing the negative experiences to enhance user satisfaction.

Recognize successes : Identify areas in the user journey where your app has successfully met or exceeded user expectations. Analyze what worked well in these instances and consider replicating these success factors in other parts of the user journey.

Omnichannel friction : Given that user journeys often span multiple devices and channels, look for instances where transitioning to a new channel disrupts the user’s flow. Ensure that users can seamlessly move from one channel to another without encountering friction or inconsistency.

Time spent at each stage : Analyze how much time users spend at each stage of the journey. Evaluate whether the timing aligns with your goals and whether any stage takes longer than necessary. Adjustments can be made to optimize the pacing of the user journey.

Avoid overgeneralization : There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so a single app user journey map simply won’t make the cut. Each user is unique. Broad strokes are easy and convenient, but it’s the small details and nuances that set a great app apart from an average one.

Segmentation : Recognize that not all users follow the same journey. Segment users based on behavior, demographics, or other relevant criteria. (Learn how to segment your user base here .) Analyze the unique journeys of different user segments to tailor experiences to their specific needs and preferences.

Outliers and micro-moments : Don’t overlook outliers or the significance of micro-moments in the user journey. Sometimes, exceptional user experiences or minor tweaks in micro-interactions can have a substantial impact on overall satisfaction.

In short, to overcome challenges in mapping the app user journey, avoid overgeneralization, pay attention to the small details and nuances, focus on micro-moments and outliers, celebrate successes and remove negative and/or unnecessary experiences and interactions as quickly as possible. Additionally, leverage analytics and user feedback:

• Analytics : Utilize analytics tools to gather data on user behavior, preferences, and patterns. Look for tools that offer both quantitative and qualitative insights, such as heatmaps, to understand where users engage the most and where they drop off.
• User feedback : Collect direct user feedback through surveys, reviews, and direct interactions. Analyze indirect feedback by studying session replays to uncover the reasons behind user behavior. This qualitative feedback provides valuable insights into user emotions, motivations, and frustrations.

By combining quantitative data from analytics with qualitative insights from user feedback, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the user journey and make informed decisions to enhance the user experience and drive app improvements.

App user journey useful resources: Case studies, examples, user journey map templates

• User journey map guide with examples and free templates ( UXCam )
• User journey map examples ( UXtweak )
• 6 User journey map examples to enhance your UX ( Appcues )
• An introduction to the user journey for mobile apps ( Medium )
• The user journey: Onboarding ( Medium )
• The user journey: Activation and commitment ( Medium )
• The user journey: Disengagement and reactivation ( Medium )

Well, we did it—we just covered almost everything there is to cover about app user journeys. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey and will forgive me for the cheekiness. Before we go, here’s your TL;DR.

Importance of user journey : The app user journey is a critical concept and an important step in app development. It involves mapping out the steps users take to interact with your app and achieve their goals. The idea behind mapping out the user journey is to create better user experiences and increase user satisfaction, which ultimately leads to greater app success.

Benefits of the app user journey : User journeys offer several advantages, including enhanced understanding of your user base, valuable analytics insights, improved user experiences, precise targeting of the right users, and increased user retention and engagement. The value of a well-thought-out user journey map cannot be overstated—it’s the difference between a successful app and a failed one.

Key stages in a user journey : While user journeys vary depending on the app itself and its target audience, they typically encompass seven key stages: app discovery and awareness, app download/UA, app onboarding and exploration, in-app engagement and reuse, monetization, re-purchase, and retention and user loyalty. Each stage comes with its own specificities and should be carefully optimized for maximum success.

Mapping out the user journey : To optimize your app experience, you should start by defining clear goals and then create detailed user personas based on thorough research and user feedback. After that, you should identify all touchpoints and channels where users interact with your app. Having done all of this, it’s time to finally create your user journey map, or should I say maps . There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to user journeys, and each user persona will need a dedicated user journey map. Mapping out the journey and testing it yourself helps highlight and eliminate potential roadblocks and obstacles.

Ongoing optimization : App user journeys are an ongoing effort, you can’t simply create your user journey maps and stop at that. Continuously seek ways to enhance the user experience and cater to different types of users. A/B testing, data collection, and analysis are essential components of this ongoing improvement effort.

By understanding and effectively utilizing the app user journey, you can create a more user-centric and successful app that resonates with your target audience.

About the author

Nayden Tafradzhiyski

Nayden is an Editor and Content Manager at Business of Apps.

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How to map a successful app user journey in 8 easy steps

How do you ensure users are using your app in the best possible way?

Your approach to this burning question can be the game-changer between a stellar app with a massive and engaged user base and an impractical one that’s left collecting digital dust.

When users first lay eyes on your app, it needs to leave a lasting impression. It should offer a perfect blend of impact and simplicity, enabling users to effortlessly navigate through the app while accomplishing the desired actions.

But achieving this doesn’t happen on a whim. The key is to eliminate those pesky pain points that make users want to throw their devices out the window. That’s where the magic of mobile app user experience (UX ) comes into play, as you strategically optimize your app in various ways. 

And guess what? It becomes a whole lot easier when you map out the app user journey.

What is a user journey?

The user journey is a series of carefully planned steps outlining how you intend users to interact with your app.

This crucial concept in the realm of app development involves closely examining user behavior to identify any weak points along the path to achieving your desired goals. For example, for a meditation app, the end goal is typically daily engagement, while for an eCommerce app, the end goal might be to complete a purchase.

When we talk about weak points, we mean issues that may cause users to stumble, hesitate, or lose their way. For instance, they may hesitate to explore new features or struggle to grasp certain functionalities.

Mapping out the user journey helps you effectively address these pain points, ultimately enhancing user experiences.

Why is it important to understand your app’s user journey?

App user journeys can unlock the full potential of your app by helping you understand user behavior, pain points, and desires. Based on these insights, you can optimize your app’s design and functionality to create valuable user experiences that cultivate long-lasting engagement with your target audience.

In fact, it’s fair to say that launching an app without user journeys is a blind gamble.

You may get occasional insights from interviews or product analytics, but you’re likely to miss out on important revelations. User journeys give you a comprehensive collection of user experiences that you can intentionally explore through analytics experiments and interviews. This makes it easier to uncover crucial issues before they turn into big problems.

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6 benefits of user journeys in app development.

Here’s a quick rundown of the main benefits of app user journeys:

1 — Empathy and understanding

User journeys allow marketers and developers to dive deep into their target users’ hearts and minds. 

By mapping out the user journey, you can deeply empathize with users, gaining a comprehensive understanding of their problems, needs, feelings, and desires at different stages of app interaction. This understanding empowers intentional changes that address pain points and provide irresistible value, resulting in a more user-centric and engaging app.

2 — Insightful analytics

User journeys guide data collection and analysis, enabling you to observe users’ paths in detail. You get to observe the intricate paths users take, uncover patterns, stumble upon pain points, and spot golden opportunities for improvement. 

Armed with this data, you can run intentional experiments and interviews to reveal valuable insights and prevent issues from escalating. 

3 — Elevating user experience

Understanding how users interact with your app enhances their overall experience. 

Tracking the user journey helps you determine whether your app effectively solves users’ problems, meets their goals, and provides a seamless experience. This knowledge drives continuous improvements, allowing you to optimize features, usability, and design to create a truly valuable and enjoyable app.

4 — Targeting the right users

App user journeys also help you define and target the app’s ideal audience. 

By researching goals, challenges, and user journeys, you can gain clarity about your target users and how your app addresses their specific problems. With this knowledge, you can then craft effective marketing strategies, tailor captivating messaging, and better align your app’s value proposition with the target users’ needs.

5 — Increasing user retention

When an app aligns with users’ goals and consistently delivers value, users are more likely to remain engaged and loyal.

Analyzing the user journey helps you identify potential friction points or gaps in the onboarding process that may lead to user abandonment.  You can use the insights you gain to create a smoother onboarding process and an improved user experience, ultimately boosting retention rates. 

6 — Collaboration and alignment

User journey maps foster collaboration across different teams, ensuring a user-centric approach. In fact, product development, sales, and marketing teams all benefit from understanding the user journey. The insights help teams align their efforts and vision, synchronize their talents, and build an app that resonates deeply with the target users. 

User journey vs. user flow vs. user funnel

App user journeys focus specifically on a user’s interactions within your app, from downloads to use of features and functionalities. 

This differs from the customer journey, which encompasses the broader experience that includes all touchpoints — digital and physical — with your brand, going beyond app usage. With customer journeys, you’re considering solutions to pre-app interactions, app usage, and potential post-app engagements.

The user journey is a part of the customer journey — and so are the user flow and user funnel. However, they’re each distinct terms that cannot be used interchangeably. 

Let’s discuss them in more detail below.

User flow vs. user journey 

Crafted by UX designers, user flows include the intricate micro steps required to achieve specific actions within your app’s user interface. Take, for instance, a simplified login flow: 

Opening the app ➡️  Tapping login ➡️ Entering email address and password ➡️ Tapping login again ➡️ Responding to error messages (if necessary) ➡️ Seeing the display of login success message and app home screen

While user journeys may reference these steps, their purpose lies in extracting valuable insights regarding user experiences at each point of the login. Did they find the process easy? Or did they tap the wrong button, take multiple attempts, or give up altogether? These insights, in turn, fuel improvements in future flows.

Consider a high-level user journey, such as making a purchase. This may combine the entire login flow as a single step: Login. Your goal here is to evaluate user sentiments, desires, and other perspectives, ultimately driving enhancements in encouraging purchases at a broader level, including potential tweaks to the login flow.

On the other hand, a more detailed user journey, such as one focused exclusively on login, will deeply analyze each step of the user flow to optimize the login process. It goes beyond a mere flow chart, encompassing all the previous user details. This comprehensive approach helps create an improved login experience, ensuring a smoother journey for users going forward.

User funnel vs. user journey 

User funnels serve as a distinct tool for tracking users through a series of steps, but they have different purposes compared to flows and journeys.

For example:

• Marketing funnels guide potential customers through steps to generate leads and foster interest in making a purchase. They capture and nurture prospects, aiming to convert them into customers. 
• Sales funnels focus on converting leads into paying customers through a series of steps employed by sales teams. They aim to drive prospective customers toward the point of purchase.

While user flows and user journeys share similarities with funnels, the distinction lies in their focus and level of abstraction. 

Sales and marketing funnels can be considered as steps in a user journey, depending on the level of detail in mapping. In addition, funnels generally represent the overall steps completed by all users, from lead generation to customer conversion. That’s why we talk about ‘top of funnel’ (awareness) and ‘bottom of funnel’ (conversion) activity. 

On the other hand, user journeys focus on the specific steps and user reactions of a particular user segment or persona, whether it’s their journey towards a purchase or sharing the app with others.

In a nutshell, funnels serve lead generation and conversion purposes, whereas user journeys provide a more granular understanding of user interactions and experiences within the app, tailored to specific user segments or personas.

What are the different app user journey stages?

User journey stages may differ depending on your app monetization model and category. For example, a free gaming app with multiple levels will have a different user journey than a meditation app that offers in-app yoga classes for purchase.

While each user journey is unique, apps share certain common stages. Here are the core steps outlining an effective user journey, as the user progresses from discovery to purchase:

App discovery

The app discovery stage has users exploring various app options before deciding to download. With countless apps available in app stores every day, you must prioritize app store optimization (ASO) and referral marketing campaigns to increase visibility and encourage users to choose your app and share it with their networks.

App download

This stage is crucial for your app’s growth and success. It marks the first conversion point in the user journey, where users take action and download the app.

In addition to optimizing your app store listing, identify the main factors that can build trust and convince new users to download your app. These can include limited alternatives, positive reviews, and unique features. Then optimize your user acquisition strategies and personalize marketing campaigns to improve conversion rates.

App onboarding 

A well-designed app onboarding experience makes it more likely that users will keep using your app for a long time. Users understand your app’s value proposition, learn key features, and grant the necessary permissions. It reduces any difficulties or confusion they may face and familiarizes them with the app’s interface. 

This guided assistance allows them to explore and use all of your app’s features effectively.

In-app engagement

This stage is crucial for keeping users engaged and loyal. Many users tend to churn after the initial onboarding stage, so boosting engagement becomes vital for long-term app growth and profitability, especially considering the high costs of acquiring new users. It also drives in-app purchases (more on these below).

To achieve this, focus on promoting the adoption of key features and increasing the number of active users on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. You can also use in-app messaging channels to help users with useful tips, reward engagement, and continuously deliver value that keeps them coming back for more.

In-app purchase

Following the initial app download, in-app purchases become a significant milestone and primary objective in many user journeys.

The importance of in-app purchases varies based on your monetization model. Freemium apps, for instance, rely on a small portion of users for revenue. So, instead of targeting all users, focus on nurturing the most lucrative ones. Knowing the user segment to reach this goal will help you better plan your app’s user journey and messaging.

Once an in-app purchase has been made, your next step should be to encourage repeat conversions. Use email, push notifications , and in-app notifications to follow up, provide recommendations, and personalize the experience. Be sure to choose the right communication channel and timing for each case to optimize your messaging.

Note that not all apps rely on in-app purchases. Some generate revenue through ads or data collection. In such cases, user loyalty and retention become the end goal. By enhancing engagement and retention, you can expand the ad audience and increase revenue for free apps that feature in-app advertisements.

User loyalty

As users progress through your app’s user journey, their needs, goals, and expectations evolve. This makes personalization even more crucial. 

Tailor purchase recommendations, app experiences, and promotions based on each user’s preferences. Refine your messaging strategy with targeted approaches. Leverage advanced segmentation and personalization features to ensure the app evolves at the right pace for each user.

You can also create a supportive community where users can showcase their achievements to make them feel valued and keep them engaged as loyal users .

How to map your user journey: 8 key steps

An app user journey map reflects the entire path of interaction between the user and the app. Follow the steps below to better understand user goals, motives, expectations, and fears and optimize your app experience accordingly . 

Step 1 — Define your objectives

Before diving into mapping your user journey, it’s crucial to define your objectives. 

Decide if you want to focus on the entire user journey or just one aspect of your app experience. This will give you a clear direction for your research — what to track and how to enhance your app. You can also involve different teams like product development and marketing to define objectives, leveraging their knowledge about various aspects of the app. 

Step 2 — Build your user personas

Create fictional representations of your target users, including their unique characteristics and attributes, based on in-depth research. Collect feedback from current customers and ask them about their experience with your app. This includes how they discovered your app, their touchpoints, goals, challenges, and decision-making influences.

Understanding your audience is key to building a valuable app. Once you’ve gathered insights, develop user personas with names and even visual representations for clarity. Share these personas with all teams involved in building a successful app.

Step 3 — Identify interaction touch points and channels

Next, map all the touchpoints where users come into contact with your app. The more touchpoints you include in your journey map, the clearer the picture becomes. Examples of communication channels are push notifications, websites, search engines, other mobile apps, email marketing, and social media. 

To cover all possible touchpoints and channels:

• Use mind-mapping techniques and tools to organize your thoughts
• Arrange a brainstorming session with your team 
• Communicate directly with your target audience
• Conduct online surveys
• Carry out competitor analysis

Step 4 —  Visualize the user’s journey

Visualize how users engage with your app, from their initial encounter to conversion. Capture their thoughts, emotions, and actions throughout this journey. You want to understand how your app fits into their daily life and how it helps them solve problems. 

Keep in mind that each user persona requires its own specific user journey, so don’t rely on a generic one. Different personas have unique needs and challenges, so tailoring the user journey to each persona is essential.

Step 5 —  Identify and overcome obstacles

Now that you have an idea of what a user’s journey looks like for your app, pinpoint the challenges and critical points that may hinder users from transitioning between journey stages. For example, a user wants to make an in-app purchase but is asked to sign up, which frustrates them and leads to abandonment. Inconvenient registration processes and unclear calls to action are also potential obstacles.

List all obstacles and brainstorm ways to remove them. And if the user journey changes after implementing new solutions, create a new journey to evaluate the results.

Step 6 — Design and test the final user journey

Consolidate all the data you’ve collected into a comprehensive map that includes the list of user steps, success criteria for each step, retention rates, conversion rates, interaction points, obstacles, and ways to overcome them. 

But don’t stop there: after mapping the user journey, you need to test it firsthand to fully understand your users’ experience — and make necessary improvements based on your findings.

Step 7 — Develop KPIs and measure success

To move forward with your goals, it’s essential to measure the success of your user journey. 

Develop clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the performance of each user journey. Track mobile app metrics such as active users, cost per acquisition, conversion rate, retention rate, and lifetime value. By analyzing these metrics, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and user personas, and identify specific areas that require improvements in your user journey.

Step 8 — Continuously optimize your mobile app with fresh data

App optimization is a constant effort. Always look for ways to make the user experience better and meet the needs of every user persona. This could involve removing unnecessary steps in the user journey or finding ways to keep users engaged for longer. 

Consider conducting A/B tests to help you fine-tune and enhance your app’s performance . Remember, there is no final destination when it comes to optimization. You have to keep collecting insights, analyzing data, and refining your app to create an even better user experience.

Key takeaways

• The app user journey is a crucial concept in app development that involves mapping out the steps users take to interact with the app and achieve desired goals. It allows marketers and developers to enhance user experiences and ensure app success.
• User journeys are different from user flows and user funnels, although they are related terms in the context of a customer’s overall journey. User journeys focus specifically on a user’s interactions with the app.
• User journeys provide several benefits, including empathy and understanding of users, insightful analytics, elevating user experience, targeting the right users, increasing user retention, and fostering collaboration and alignment among teams.
• Precise app user journeys differ depending on the app and target user. However, they typically include six key stages: app discovery, app download, app onboarding, in-app engagement, in-app purchase, and user loyalty.
• To optimize your app experience, define your objectives, build user personas based on in-depth research and feedback, and identify all the touchpoints and channels where users interact with your app. Then you can map out and test the journey yourself to highlight any obstacles. 
• App optimization is an ongoing effort, and you have to continually seek ways to improve the user experience and meet the needs of different user personas. Conduct A/B tests, collect insights, and analyze data to create better user experiences over time.

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Winning Results

Understanding the user journey for mobile apps: Everything marketers need to know

Tiahn Wetzler, Director, Content & Insights, Adjust, Jul 29, 2020.

Mapping user journeys provides app marketers with critical insights into how to optimize the customer experience and eliminate pain points throughout their app’s UX. This makes it easier for users to complete a purchase and helps improve other critical aspects of your app’s performance. In this guide we cover everything you need to know about mapping, monitoring and optimizing the user journey.

What is the user journey?

Also known as a customer journey or the path to purchase, the user journey maps the ways in which users complete a desired action, most often completing a purchase. This typically includes a visual timeline of user actions that show how a user will go from download to conversion, including every interaction they have with your app. User journeys can also be presented as an infographic to help you and your team gain a visual impression of the steps users take to complete a desired action.

Why is the user journey important?

It’s a marketer’s job to show consumers why a product is valuable and worth purchasing. For mobile apps, that means highlighting an app’s functionality and why users will benefit from installing the app onto their device.

As a marketer, you also need to know why a user has installed your app in order to better facilitate their needs. From there, you can learn more about the user experience and how it can be optimized – for example, shortening the usual timeframe between install and purchase, or fixing elements of the user experience that causes users to churn.

Tracking the user journey is a complicated process to master, but with the right data, marketers can observe the path users take with granularity.

Depending on the nature of your app, a user might also access your services via mobile web and in-app, as well as across different devices. And as the number of channels increases, mapping a customer’s journey will become ever more relevant to marketers.

User journey vs. user funnel: what’s the difference?

It’s important to note that the user journey and the user funnel are not interchangeable terms. When developing the marketing funnel, marketers are focusing on a broad audience from the company’s viewpoint. The basic concept is that your potential customers start at the top and move further down the funnel as they get closer to purchase. The user journey is from the perspective of the user, while the user funnel is from the point of view of your company. Because of this, user journeys will account for users’ more complicated path to purchase than the marketing funnel. For example, you can create several user journeys based on different user personas, acknowledging that not all customers will share the same experience or even share the same use for your app.

How to map the mobile app user journey

To start, decide whether you want to focus on the entire journey or one aspect of your app’s experience. For example, in addition to a user’s path to purchase, you can also map the user journey for your app’s onboarding. Once you know the journey you want to map, you can divide your audience into groups that can be identified by different personas.

Creating user personas

This is a user profile that represents a segment of your entire audience. By learning common user behavior, you can create several user personas to understand how different types of users interact with your app. In turn, this enables you to learn what users want from your app, how to build features and which changes will optimize the user experience. User personas should be created with a combination of market research and data analytics. You can also learn about your users by conducting surveys and inviting them to submit feedback.

Gathering data

When trying to identify the ways in which users interact with your app, your research should cover pain points, a user’s primary reason for installing your app and your unique selling point. Answering these questions by gathering data will help you successfully create user personas and begin mapping their different journeys.

Testing results

Your research should reveal how different users interact with your app, which steps they take, and their satisfaction or pain points at every step. Once you have this information and use it to create a map of the user journey, you can begin the optimization process. This includes A/B testing results to learn which changes have positive results and can be implemented to your entire audience. Read our complete guide for more information about A/B testing .

Mapping the user journey: seven best practices for mobile app marketers

1. identify every touchpoint in the user journey.

A touchpoint is any point at which a user interacts with your app, including ad impressions and interactions taking place after a purchase event. Without identifying every touchpoint, you’re missing out on ways to optimize the mobile app user journey and identify areas for improvement.

2. Use user journeys to increase your app’s retention rate

It’s important to find critical problems – for example where customers might churn – in your user journey so you can retain users for longer. For example, if there are fundamental issues with your app’s onboarding, you have an important step in your user journey that is preventing you from generating revenue and causing churn.

3. Create several user journeys for best results

Users will use your app in many different ways and not everyone will share the same goal. To avoid generalizing your audience and misinterpreting data, create several user journeys for your persona groups. Understanding the complexities of how users interact with your app is the best way to offer a better service and impact the performance metrics most important to your company goals.

4. Develop KPIs and measure success

Without measuring the success of the user journey, you won’t be able to move forward with your targets. To understand the performance of each user journey and where to improve, you should develop KPIs. In addition to revenue, here are some of the most important KPIs to consider:

• Active Users (DAU, WAU, MAU) tracks the total active users returning to your app in a given period.
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA) measures how much it costs to acquire a user.
• Cost per Install (CPI) tracks the price of generating an install for your app.
• Click-through Rate (CTR) measures if audiences clicked on your ad.
• Conversion Rate is the percentage of users who complete a desired action.
• Retention Rate shows the percentage of users who still use an app after a certain number of days after install.
• Churn Rate tells you the rate at which your users stop returning to your app.
• Uninstall Tracking shows how many users uninstall your app and when it happens.
• Lifetime Value (LTV) provides a running estimate on how much a particular consumer is likely to spend on that app.
• Return on Investment (ROI) measures the effectiveness of your spend
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) tracks the return made on your campaign spend
• Average Revenue per User (ARPU) shows the average revenue generated for each user.
• Average Revenue per Daily Active User (ARPDAU) measures the performance of your monetization models
• Re-engagement Rate tracks the rate of re-engagement your app generates from retargeting campaigns.

These KPIs help marketers understand the performance of their marketing campaigns and the value of their users. You can use them in conjunction with your user personas to learn which types of users need to be retained and which users are generating the most revenue. They can also be used to understand different points in the user journey and where your attention is needed.

With so many metrics at your disposal, it’s also important to be selective. Only measure what matters to your goals to avoid wasting time and money on less impactful optimizations. To learn more about KPIs and how they work, read our Back to Basics guide.

5. Test the customer journey first-hand

When mapping the touchpoints in your user journey, you can also test this yourself for a clear view of the process. By enacting your users’ journey, you gain first-hand experience of your app and have an opportunity to note down the positives and negatives. You can also test out your app as different user personas and see what works best.

6. Continually optimize your mobile app using fresh data

There is no end point to your app’s optimization. You should always be looking for new ways to improve the user experience and satisfy every user persona. Whether you are eliminating unnecessary steps in the user journey or looking for ways to retain users for longer, your app’s performance can always be improved by gathering more data and acting according to your findings. This is why it is important to A/B test as much as possible..

7. Consider the customer lifecycle

When conducting surveys that will inform your user journeys, be sure to consider the customer lifecycle when analyzing the results. Where in the user lifecycle the user is when submitting feedback is an important factor in their results. Without this information you won’t be able to identify trends that could be used to optimize your app’s performance. To learn more about the user lifecycle, watch our webinar with Kara Dake, VP of Growth and Partnerships at CleverTap.

For more mobile marketing insights, read everything you need to know about in-app messaging . You may also be interested in why you need fraud protection .

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How to Design a Perfect App User Journey (+Template)

Are you looking to create a seamless mobile app user journey that keeps your users engaged and satisfied? You're in the right place! 

In this post, we'll walk you through the process of designing a perfect app user journey, complete with a handy template. We'll also explore how surveys can be a valuable tool to optimize your mobile app user journey. Let's get started!

What is an app user journey?

An app user journey represents the path a user takes while interacting with your app, from the moment they download it to achieving their desired goals. It's like a roadmap that guides users through the app's features, functions, and content.

To design a perfect user journey for your app, you need to take a walk in your users' shoes and map out their experience step by step. This process ensures that users can seamlessly navigate your app and have a positive experience, which, in turn, boosts engagement and retention rates.

The mobile app user journey template

To make the user journey design process more manageable, we've created a handy template for you to use. This template consists of six crucial stages that help structure your mobile app user journey effectively.

1. Onboarding

The user's journey starts with the onboarding process. This is where you introduce your app to the user, showcasing its value and features. 

It's crucial to provide a smooth onboarding experience, making users feel welcome and eager to explore further.

Key elements:

• Welcome screen
• User registration
• Tutorial or walkthrough

2. Discovering features

Once users are acquainted with your app, they start discovering its features and functionalities. This stage should be engaging and intuitive, encouraging users to explore and learn more.

• App navigation
• Feature introductions
• Interactive tips

3. Achieving goals

This is the heart of the user journey. Users come to your app with specific goals in mind, such as making a purchase, completing a task, or accessing information. Ensure that this stage is effortless and rewarding.

• Completing actions
• Making transactions
• Receiving notifications

4. Staying engaged

User engagement is essential for long-term success. Keep users coming back to your app by providing valuable content, personalized recommendations, and incentives.

• Personalized content
• Push notifications
• Gamification

5. Handling issues

No app is perfect, and users may encounter problems or have questions. Make sure there's a clear path for users to get support and resolve any issues.

• Customer support
• Troubleshooting guides

6. Leaving feedback

Feedback is invaluable for app improvement. Encourage users to share their thoughts and suggestions, creating a feedback loop that aids in constant refinement.

• In-app feedback
• Ratings and reviews

Leveraging surveys in app user journeys

Now that you have a user journey template at your disposal, let's talk about how surveys can enhance your mobile app user journey.

Surveys are a fantastic tool for collecting valuable insights from your users. They allow you to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points, all of which can significantly influence your app's design and performance. 

Here's how surveys fit into the various stages of the user journey:

After users complete the onboarding process, you can use a quick survey to gauge their initial impressions and any issues they encountered during setup.

During this stage, you can ask users about their experience with the app's features and how easy it was to discover and understand them.

After users complete significant tasks or transactions, a survey can help you understand their satisfaction level and identify any roadblocks they encountered.

To improve user engagement, you can periodically send surveys to assess the relevance of your content and features.

When users seek assistance, you can send a survey to assess their experience with customer support or troubleshooting resources.

Encourage users to leave feedback and suggestions through an in-app survey, ratings, or reviews. This feedback is invaluable for continuous improvement.

Surveys can be strategically integrated into each stage of the user journey to capture insights and feedback in real-time. Analyzing survey responses allows you to identify pain points, areas for improvement, and opportunities to enhance the user experience.

Crafting effective surveys

To ensure your surveys are effective, keep the following best practices in mind:

• Keep it concise
• Users are more likely to participate in short and straightforward surveys.
• Use a mix of question types 
• Include multiple-choice questions, rating scales, and open-ended questions to gather diverse feedback.
• Timing matters
• Send surveys at appropriate moments within the user journey, so the context is fresh in users' minds.
• Act on feedback
• Let users know that their input is valuable by implementing improvements based on their suggestions.
• Incentivize participation
• Offer small rewards or discounts as incentives to encourage survey completion.

Start improving your app user journey with surveys

Designing the perfect app user journey is an ongoing process that requires constant refinement. The mobile app user journey template we provided is a solid starting point, and surveys are the icing on the cake to optimize and enhance the experience .

If you want to start harnessing the power of surveys in your mobile app user journey, we recommend using a comprehensive survey tool like Survicate. It allows you to easily create, distribute, and analyze surveys within your app.

Don't wait; take the next step in creating a better user journey for your app. Sign up for a free account with Survicate today and unlock the full potential of surveys in improving your app's performance!

Designing a perfect app user journey may seem like a complex task, but with the right template and the assistance of surveys, you can create a smooth and enjoyable experience for your users. Start optimizing your app user journey today and watch your user engagement and retention rates soar.

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How to create an effective user journey map

No matter what you’re working on, the key to customer satisfaction and business growth is understanding your users. A user journey map helps you uncover pain points, explore the touchpoints from their perspective, and learn how to improve your product.

Imagine you just launched a new ecommerce platform. Shoppers fill their carts with products, but they abandon their carts before checkout. With a user journey map, you can pinpoint where the customer experience is going wrong, and how to enable more successful checkouts.

Read on to find out:

• What is a user journey map, and how it captures user flows and customer touchpoints
• Benefits of user journey mapping to refine UX design and reach business goals
• How to make user journey maps in five steps, using FigJam’s user journey map template

What is a user journey map?

Think about the path a user takes to explore your product or website. How would you design the best way to get there? User journey maps (or user experience maps) help team members and stakeholders align on user needs throughout the design process, starting with user research. As you trace users' steps through your user flows, notice: Where do users get lost, backtrack, or drop off?

User journey maps help you flag pain points and churn, so your team can see where the user experience may be confusing or frustrating for your audience. Then you can use your map to identify key customer touchpoints and find opportunities for optimization.

How to read a user journey map

Most user journey maps are flowcharts or grids showing the user experience from end to end. Consider this real-life journey map example of a freelancing app from Figma's design community. The journey starts with a buyer persona needing freelance services, and a freelancer looking for a gig. Ideally, the journey ends with service delivery and payment—but customer pain points could interrupt the flow.

Start your user journey map with FigJam

5 key user journey map phases.

Take a look at another Figma community user journey template , which uses a simple grid. Columns capture the five key stages of the user journey: awareness, consideration, decision, purchase, and retention (see below). Rows show customer experiences across these stages—their thoughts, feelings, and pain points. These experiences are rated as good, neutral, and bad.

To see how this works, consider a practical example. Suppose a new pet parent wants to learn how to train their puppy and discovers your dog-training app. Here's how you might map out the five key user journey stages:

• Awareness. The user sees a puppy-training video on social media with a link to your product website. They're intrigued—a positive experience.
• Consideration. The user visits your product website to preview your app. If they can't find a video preview easily, this could be a neutral or negative experience.
• Decision. The user clicks on a link to the app store and reads reviews of your app and compares it to others. They might think your app reviews are good, but your price is high—a negative or neutral experience.
• Purchase. The user buys your app and completes the onboarding process. If this process is smooth, it's a positive experience. If not, the customer experience could turn negative at this point.
• Retention. The user receives follow-up emails featuring premium puppy-training services or special offers. Depending on their perception of these emails, the experience can range from good (helpful support) to bad (too much spam).

2 types of user journey maps—and when to use them

User journey maps are helpful across the product design and development process, especially at two crucial moments: during product development and for UX troubleshooting. These scenarios call for different user journey maps: current-state and future-state.

Current-state user journey maps

A current-state user journey map shows existing customer interactions with your product. It gives you a snapshot of what's happening, and pinpoints how to enhance the user experience.

Take the puppy training app, for example. A current-state customer journey map might reveal that users are abandoning their shopping carts before making in-app purchases. Look at it from your customers' point of view: Maybe they aren't convinced their credit cards will be secure or the shipping address workflow takes too long. These pain points show where you might tweak functionality to boost user experience and build customer loyalty.

Future-state user journey maps

A future-state user journey map is like a vision board : it shows the ideal customer journey, supported by exceptional customer experiences. Sketch out your best guesses about user behavior on an ideal journey, then put them to the test with usability testing. Once you've identified your north star, you can explore new product or site features that will optimize user experience.

How to make a user journey map in 5 steps

To start user journey mapping, follow this step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Define user personas and goals.

Gather user research and data like demographics, psychographics, and shopping behavior to create detailed customer personas representing your target audience.  In your dog-training app example, one key demographic may be parents. What’s their goal? It isn't necessarily "hire a puppy trainer"—it could be "teach kids how to interact with a puppy."

Step 2: Identify customer touch points.

Locate the points along the user journey where the user encounters or interacts with your product. In the dog training app example, touchpoints might include social media videos, app website, app store category search (e.g., pets), app reviews, app store checkout, in-app onboarding, and app customer support.

Step 3: Visualize journey phases.

Create a visual representation of user journey phases across key touchpoints with user flow diagrams , flowcharts , or storyboards .

Step 4: Capture user actions and responses.

For each journey stage, capture the user story: at this juncture, what are they doing, thinking, and feeling ? This could be simple, such as: "Potential customer feels frustrated when the product image takes too long to load."

Step 5: Validate and iterate.

Finally, show your map to real users. Get honest feedback about what works and what doesn’t with user testing , website metrics , or surveys . To use the dog-training app example, you might ask users: Are they interested in subscribing to premium how-to video content by a professional dog trainer? Apply user feedback to refine your map and ensure it reflects customer needs.

Jumpstart your user journey map with FigJam

Lead your team's user journey mapping effort with FigJam, the online collaborative whiteboard for brainstorming, designing, and idea-sharing. Choose a user journey map template from Figma's design community as your guide. With Figma's drag-and-drop design features, you can quickly produce your own professional, presentation-ready user journey map.

Pro tip: Use a service blueprint template to capture behind-the-scenes processes that support the user journey, bridging the gap between user experience and service delivery.

Ready to improve UX with user journey mapping?

Mobile app user journeys: Definitions, analysis, and best practices

User journeys are one of the most powerful tools for building great mobile apps. And when employed with thoughtfulness and rigor, they can be your golden ticket to first-class rates of conversion, retention, and engagement.

The problem is user journeys are often misunderstood and conflated with other industry concepts like user flows and funnels , leading them to be poorly applied or overlooked entirely.

In this article, we’ll explore what user journeys are with nuance, why they’re crucial for successful mobile apps, as well as provide best practices for getting investment-worthy results.

What is a user journey?

A user journey (or mapping a user journey) is a technique for gleaning insights about your users by putting yourself in their shoes. And the key to understanding how it works to produce these insights is right in its namesake: journey.

The word “journey” triggers an array of associations. We think adventure, obstacles, and a variety of experiences. We think about a spectrum of emotions complete with highs and lows. And we often think about a journey being framed around something specific such as a career journey or fitness journey or personal growth journey. Regardless of whether an explicit goal is involved, the emphasis when talking about a journey is always about what the person on the journey did and experienced at various stages along the way, whether they achieved the goal or not.

Likewise, a user journey is an attempt to document a holistic account of the journey a user takes as they attempt to do something with your app. And that includes not just what happens when they use the app’s features, but also what happens before they know your app exists, as well as what happens between and after uses. 

Why do we need user journeys?

If you want people to download your app and do something (e.g., convert), then you need to understand what they’re going through before they even realize they need to do something. You need to understand the problem driving this need, why they are encountering it, the steps that led up to them encountering it, and what they’re feeling and thinking in response to encountering it. Furthermore, you need to be aware of how they might become aware of your app as a solution to the problem, whether that involves ads, advice from friends, or another channel. With this data in mind, you can then take intentional steps to increase the likelihood that they will seek out and download your app as the solution to their problem.

User journeys provide you a comprehensive list of experiences about which you can intentionally conduct interviews and run analytics experiments so you force these insights to the surface before they become serious issues.

Similarly, if you want people to continue using your app once they’ve downloaded it (e.g., engage and retain), you need to understand their thoughts and feelings as they encounter each step in your app’s UX. You need to know if they’re closing the app out of frustration or using your app plus an additional third-party tool because they don’t realize your app can do it all. And if they do abandon the app, you want to know what they do and why so you can prevent future users from making the same choice.

By mapping out a user journey, you force yourself to empathize with your users with a whole new level of rigor. First, you do work to identify all the ways in which they may encounter your app, brand, or the problems your app solves. Then, for each of these “touch points,” you create holistic accounts of problems, needs, feelings, and potential wants that you can then use to make changes that either resolve pain points or introduce new and irresistible value. The user journey map forces you to cover all your bases, and it forces you to get so specific that you can’t help but notice high-value next steps.

Trying to launch a successful app without user journeys is like playing a guessing game. Sure, you might get lucky and discover an important pain point during a routine user interview or notice some patterns in your product analytics data, b ut critical insights may never come up. User journeys provide you a comprehensive list of experiences about which you can intentionally conduct interviews and run analytics experiments so you force these insights to the surface before they become serious issues. It’s like having a heat map of where to look before problems really become problems, not to mention where to look to create new and lasting value!

Who needs user journeys?

Since user journey’s are essentially a tool to empathize with your users, their value transcends a variety of roles:

UX designers

Understanding pain points, wants, and needs at different stages helps UX designers refine existing features and introduce new experiences that positively impact key metrics.

Understanding what happens before conversion helps marketers drive conversion. But understanding what happens after also drives conversion, engagement, and retention by allowing marketers to frame value and more effectively set expectations.

Product managers

The high-level product insights that come from understanding actual feelings and behavior, and the opportunities for value creation around them, can drive important roadmap decisions.

Founders and solo developers

As an app founder or solo developer, you often perform all of these roles, so user journeys are essential for making your life easier by adding structure to all the noise.

What’s the difference between journeys, flows, and funnels?

User journeys are often conflated with user flows, sales funnels, and marketing funnels because they all involve a user moving through a process with various steps or stages. However, that’s where the similarities end, since each of these tools exist for very different purposes.

Flows vs. journeys

User flows are defined by user experience (UX) designers and are comprised of every little micro step needed to make something happen in the context of your app’s user interface. For example, the following steps might constitute a simplified login flow:

• Open the app
• Enter email address
• Enter password
• Respond to error messages if necessary and repeat steps 3 through 5
• Display login success message
• Display app home screen

While a user journey may reference these steps in some way, the flow exists to define how a UI is to be built and the journey exists to glean insights on what the user is experiencing at each step of the journey so future flows can be improved.

For example, a high-level user journey, perhaps one focused on making a purchase, might represent this entire login flow as a single step: login. Next, one would assess details about user feelings, wants, and other perspectives in order to glean insights for how we can better encourage purchases at a high level, including but not limited to tweaking the login flow.

On the other hand, a more granular user journey, say one focused on login, might include every step in this user flow as a step in the journey for the sole purpose of optimizing the login flow. Each step in the flow wouldn’t just appear as a flow chart, but include all the aforementioned user details for the purpose of creating a better login flow going forward.

Funnels vs. journeys

Funnels are another tool to track users through a series of steps, but again, exist for different purposes than both flows and journeys.

A marketing funnel is a tool used to generate leads. That is, it’s a series of steps a potential customer goes through, resulting in a conscious interest in purchasing a product. A sales funnel is a tool used to turn leads into customers. It’s yet another series of steps that sales teams push prospective customers through in order to convert them into customers who’ve made a purchase.

Like user flows, the steps in a sales or marketing funnel may be represented as one or more steps in a user journey, depending on the focus of the user journey and level of abstraction. Moreover, a marketing or sales funnel may represent steps completed by all of your users in order to become leads and subsequently customers, while user journeys are the nuanced steps (and reactions to those steps) a specific class of user (as represented by a persona) is taking in order to do something in your app, whether that’s making a purchase or simply sharing the app with a friend.

Finally, there’s one more type of funnel worth mentioning: the Funnel tool in Mixpanel. This is a product analytics tool used to track which users complete any arbitrary series of steps, whether those steps are part of a user journey, user flow, or something else attempting to be measured. Once you define a user journey, the funnel tool in Mixpanel can be used to run experiments to test the degree to which your assumptions align with the reality of your user behavior.

How does one create strong user journeys for mobile apps?

There’s a variety of ways you might approach crafting your user journeys, including opting for a different ordering as needed, but I find this series of steps to be particularly helpful in creating high-quality journeys:

1. Clarify your goals and choose your framing

User journeys do not exist in a void. They are created with the explicit purpose of gleaning insight about something specific. Do you want to drive more purchases? Then you want a user journey that focuses on making a purchase. Are you exclusively interested in downloads? Then purchase activity may or may not be relevant. Do you want to test a specific feature of your app to the exclusion of others?

The answers to questions like these are essential to framing your user journey so you can decide which steps and details are relevant to your mapping. You might even decide to prioritize multiple goals and framings, each requiring one or more user journeys of their own to provide sufficient insight.

2. Research your users and define personas

Creating user journeys is both an art and a science. In part, you’ll combine anecdotes and your experiences to intuit your users perspectives, but that can only take you so far. Your user journeys should reflect real perspectives, steps, thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs of real users, so you’ll need to do the legwork to collect real data in all of these areas by running experiments and conducting user interviews.

Once you have sufficient data to start, synthesize your research into personas. A persona is a concrete way of documenting a class of real users with real characteristics—complete with a name, specific demographics like age, location, and income, as well as roles in life, attitudes, needs, and the like. Without this defining this all well, a user journey is largely meaningless because it’s too abstract to serve any actual category of user.

Luckily there’s tons of articles on defining user personas out there, and defining the full set of personas that are relevant to your app is a step that should be taken as early as possible in the product development process.

3. Brainstorm touch points and channels

A touch point is any point at which a user interacts with your app or your brand, before, during, or after installing and using the app itself. For example, a user might see an ad for your app on Facebook, notice it in the App Store search results, or hear it mentioned in a podcast episode. Once they start using the app, different screens or functions could serve as touch points through which the app might communicate with the user. For example, a user might submit a form in your app for review and then receive an email when the form has been processed. That email is as much a touch point as the form itself, along with the website, customer support chats, or any other way the user might interact with you or your company.

When brainstorming touch points for a user journey, it’s important to consider only those that are relevant to the focus of the journey. Does the user have the ability to contact support before making a purchase? If not, then it’s likely not a touchpoint to list out in this step if you’re defining a user journey around purchases.

Additionally, touch points can be further organized by splitting them into different channels. For example, you might classify a touch point as “submit loan application” but provide the user multiple channels to submit the application: via the mobile app and via the website. This simply provides an additional level of granularity that can help you cut through the noise.

4. Pick your steps

Now that you’ve brainstormed your touch points, you have more of a concrete sense of the steps the user is going through in order to complete the action you’re trying to measure with the user journey. You can now use these touch points as a basis for revealing the high-level steps that are relevant in going from the start of the journey to achieving the result.

There is no standard set of steps for mobile app user journeys because they can be created for so many different levels of abstraction. As we already established, a user journey about your login process might include all the steps of your current user flow with maybe a few others leading up to and preceding the user flow.

That said, if you’re trying to map something high-level like a journey to making a purchase (also referred to as a customer journey), chances are others have attempted to do this, as well, and have come up with some clever ways of organizing touch points into journey steps for their mobile apps.

If your steps are a comprehensive account of the user’s path toward doing the action you’re trying to measure, you’re good to go.

5. Prioritize details for analysis

Now that you have your steps, it’s time to decide what data you want to collect for each step. For mobile app journeys, I recommend collecting the following:

• The touch points for the step (see above)
• The user’s goals and wants at this step
• Expected user behavior vs. actual user behavior (to the best of your knowledge)
• The user’s emotional state, miscellaneous thoughts, and reactions at this step
• Causes of user friction (related to emotional state)
• The opportunities and ideas for providing additional value at each step

The above are a great starting points for most mobile apps. However, depending on your app’s niche, you may track additional details for each step in their own right:

• A fitness app may track the user’s perceived fitness progress at each step
• A to-do list app may track the user’s sense of productivity at each step
• A meditation app may track the degree to which a user feels peace at each step

6. Lay out your journey into columns and swim lanes

Now that you have the ingredients for your journey, we want to see it laid out in a way that’s easy for us to reason through and digest. That’s why user journeys are most often laid out with one column per step and one row or swim lane for each detail being analyzed.

7. Experiment and iterate

Finally, it’s time to apply what you’ve learned! Refer to your journey regularly. Systematically walk through each step and create a backlog of experiments and user interviews about specific topics to test whether the assumptions you’ve laid out are correct. Where they are, use that validation to update your feature backlog and marketing strategy. Where they are not, run experiments to find out what’s really happening and adjust your journey accordingly as you craft a deeper understanding.

About Joseph Pacheco

Joseph is the founder of  App Boss , a knowledge source for idea people (with little or no tech background) to turn their apps into viable businesses. He’s been developing apps for almost as long as the App Store has existed—wearing every hat from full-time engineer to product manager, UX designer, founder, content creator, and technical co-founder. He’s also given technical interviews to 1,400 software engineers who have gone on to accept roles at Apple, Dropbox, Yelp, and other major Bay Area firms.

Gain insights into how best to convert, engage, and retain your users with Mixpanel’s powerful product analytics.  Try it free .

• mobile apps
• product analytics
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Building a Mobile App: A Guide to Planning Your User Journey

An awesome app always starts with an awesome idea, but not all awesome ideas turn into awesome apps. What comes after the idea? The process of bringing that great idea to life often involves a bunch of things that you didn’t consider – UI/UX research, marketing, development, hiring people, prototyping, wireframes… there’s more to it than meets the eye!

The thinking, planning, and execution that goes into planning your mobile app design is well worth the effort. It’s what sets your app apart from the millions of other apps on the market. Today we’ll explore wireframes and user journey planning.

It’s an essential part of your user experience, which is something we’ve discussed on our blog before. Let’s dive in!

What are Wireframes?

Like the floorplan of a building, a wireframe is a simple sketch that acts like a floorplan of a mobile app, explaining how different screens are connected to one another. Designers will often provide a complete wireframe diagram to a developer so they can build it out. It’s a great meeting point for developers and designers to work on the app idea together before the execution phase.

Wireframes generally include the following aspects of the user journey and experience:

• Possible app user actions
• Space distribution
• Positioning of elements
• App features
• Content hierarchy
• Transition between pages

Visualizing Your User Journey

Wireframes are one of the most commonly used ways to visualize your user journey, but there are other options too! We’ll cover the differences between the three main ways to help you visualize and refine your user journey, listed in order of the amount of detail in each: Wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.

This is usually the first stage of planning your user journey. We covered the basics of wireframes earlier on. The purpose is to clarify and communicate features and tie them together in a cohesive journey between screens. Wireframes do not incorporate the apps look and feel.

A mockup is a version of a wireframe that is more detailed. It’s static, like a wireframe, but it contains more visual aspects like the branding colors, buttons, graphics, icons, and typography. Mockups help designers add in aspects of the user interface into the user journey.

Prototypes differ from wireframes and mockups for the main reason that they aren’t static. They include UI elements and animations, with buttons that are clickable. The idea of a prototype is to get the complete experience of using the app. It lets you test and discover any user journey issues before moving on to the development stage.

How Does Wireframing Improve the App Development Process?

It seems like a lot of work, sketching out the ideas, drawing up possible linkages between screens. So why is wireframing important? Let’s say you have a great app idea, maybe your local gym could benefit from a virtual training platform. You decide to build an app that includes training plans, a food diary, a calendar, and a community feed. But how do these features interact with each other? How do they provide a cohesive experience for people that attend the gym? An app wireframe helps bridge the gap between your initial idea and the final product that’s in someone’s hands.

1. Refine Your App Idea

When your app idea is just an idea, a lot flies under the radar. You may not see some glaring gaps in the execution or design. There may be some features that simply won’t make sense but you won’t know until it’s built out. An easier way is to wireframe your app idea so you can virtually interact with all the features and clarify your app idea.

2. Streamline Design and Dev Work

Wireframes are much easier to make than actually building out features on an app. You get to track and analyze the user experience and make the journey as easy and intuitive as possible before starting the process of design and development.

3. Helps You Focus on The End Users

Different people may engage with your app in different ways – and that’s a good thing. Doing simple persona-building helps you define the types of users you may have so that you can carve out specific user journeys for them. Wireframes help you visualize those journeys so that you can make them as seamless and effective as possible.

Steps to Visualize and Plan Your Mobile App User Journey

STEP 1: Sketch Out Your User Flow

Think of the different journeys your user may take if they’re given your app – how they’ll behave, what they’ll be drawn to, when they might leave. User flow is a chart that draws out the specific steps a user can take to complete a task. This chart will help you figure out how many screens you need to complete each task and interact with features.

This diagram typically just has rectangle frames and arrows connecting them. It doesn’t necessarily have to be linear, since users can take different paths to complete the same task. The objective is to provide clarity as you move to the following steps.

STEP 2: Design Your App Screen

Now it’s time to roughly piece together what the app screen may look like. This will give your user flow some structure and will be one step closer to a mockup. You can sketch out where particular elements, buttons, and graphics will be.

Generally, boxes are used to represent content in a clear visual hierarchy. These boxes represent how you want your user to process the information on each screen, and their sizes are sketched out accordingly.

This means the important information is placed in bigger boxes from the top to bottom, and left to right in order of priority.

STEP 3: Add Your Copy

No more dummy text! Goodbye, ‘Lorem Ipsum’! Now it’s time to add the actual copy to your screen sketches. It may seem a bit early to do this, but as you start adding copy, you may realize that some UI elements don’t fit the way you thought. Or it might make more sense to rework some parts of the user flow entirely. If you need a simple guide to writing copy for your mobile app, check out this guide.

STEP 4: Link Up Your Screens

Now comes the fun part. Up until now, you’ve only sketched out individual app screens, and now it’s time to connect the screens. This helps your dev team understand how the app will function and how it’s to be built out. To make it easier, assign a reference number to each app screen so you can collaborate with other teams to work on the design and development.

STEP 5: Build Your Prototype

Now it’s time to transform your wireframe into a working prototype. This involves adding more details to your wireframe to end with a version that looks and feels like the final version of your app.

A clickable prototype is an even better option because it gives you a more comprehensive insight into what the final user experience will be like.

Our Top Tools To Visualize Your Mobile App User Journey

User journey planning and wireframing may feel like an intimidating process, especially if you’re new to building an app. But don’t worry! There are some awesome, powerful tools that make the process much, much easier. A good wireframing tool should ideally have templates, make collaboration easy, and have smooth vector editing. Here are a few great options to consider.

Sketch is a popular wireframing tool, available on Mac only. According to their website, “Sketch gives you all the tools you need for a truly collaborative design process. From early ideas to pixel-perfect artwork, playable prototypes and developer handoff.” Key features of Sketch include vector editing, pixel-perfect precision, ability to sync with hundreds of plugins, ability to export presets and code, prototyping, and tools for collaboration.

AdobeXD is one of the most widely-used tools for wireframing and prototyping. Adobe calls it the “fastest and most reliable UX design solution on the market for companies of 10 or 10,000. Break through bottlenecks, iterate rapidly, and scale for the future.” It’s made for design and backed by a solid infrastructure. You can design with reusable elements (and edit), responsively resize groups and objects, and create universal assets, styles, or a repeat grid.

Zeplin is a collaboration and handoff solution, which enables enterprises to share ideas, organize projects and create products using a digital workspace. The platform assists users with generating global style guides, enabling designers and developers to organize, update and share design system colors, text styles, codes, and other components in a centralized repository with drag-and-drop capabilities. It integrates well with software like Adobe XD and Sketch.

Figma is an online, cloud-based, collaborative, vector design tool. On your browser, you can create your wireframe and prototype it in one place. Because of its real-time collaboration capabilities, Figma makes it possible for multiple designers and stakeholders to work on the same project at the same time.

Let’s Wrap It Up

While wireframing may sound tedious and painstaking, it’s well worth the effort. Good user journey planning helps you understand your app’s purpose and its target users better. And while it may not seem that way, it also optimizes the amount of time and money you spend on design and development because it minimizes the likelihood of wasted effort.

Happy building!

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• UX research

User Journey Map Guide with Examples & FREE Templates

18 April, 2024

Senior UX Researcher

Customer journey mapping is also a popular workshop task to align user understanding within teams. If backed up by user data and research, they can be a high-level inventory that helps discover strategic oversights, knowledge gaps, and future opportunities.

Yet, if you ask two different people, you will likely get at least three different opinions as to what a user journey looks like and whether it is worth the hassle. Read on if you want to understand whether a UX journey map is what you currently need and how to create one.

You can get the templates here:

Click here to download a high-resolution PDF of this template.

What is user journey mapping?

Imagine your product is a supermarket and your user is the person wanting to refill their fridge. They need to: 

Decide what to buy, and in what supermarket will they be able to find and afford it

Remember to bring their coupons

Park there 

Find everything

Save the new coupons for the next shopping trip

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3 ways to understand user journey maps

Now, there are at least three ways to look at the customer journey.

1. Workflow maps for usability optimization 

Some imagine a user journey map as a wireframe or detailed analysis of  specific flows in their app . This could be, for example, a sign-up flow or the flow for inviting others to a document. In our supermarket example, it’s a closer look at what they do inside your supermarket, maybe even only in the frozen section. Or you could define what you want them to do in the frozen aisle.

.css-61w915{margin-right:8px;margin-top:8px;max-height:30px;}@media screen and (min-width: 768px){.css-61w915{margin-right:38px;max-height:unset;}} The focus here is on getting the details of the execution right, not how it fits into the bigger picture of what the user needs.

It is more or less a wireframe from a user perspective. Such a product-focused understanding is not what we want to discuss in this article, though many examples for the best user journey maps you might come across are exactly this. There are good reasons to do such an analysis as well, since it helps you smooth out usability for the people who have already found their way into your supermarket because of your excellent ice cream selection. Workflow maps won’t help you notice that your lack of parking spots is one of the reasons why you are missing out on potential customers in the first place. By only looking at what they do inside the supermarket, you might also miss out on an opportunity for user retention: You could help them get their ice cream home before it melts.

2. Holistic user journey maps for strategic insights

With a more holistic view of what people experience when trying to achieve a goal, product makers gain strategic insights on how their product fits into the big picture and what could be in the future. Because this journey document covers so much ground, it is usually a linear simplification of what all the steps would look like if they were completed. Going back to our supermarket example, it would start from the moment the person starts planning to fill the fridge and ends when the fridge is full again — even if the supermarket building is only relevant in a few phases of this journey. Creating this version of a user journey map requires quite some time and research effort. But it can be an invaluable tool for product and business strategy. It is an inventory of user needs that can help you discover knowledge gaps and future opportunities.  Service blueprints   are the most comprehensive version of a user journey map  since they also lay out the behind-the-scenes of a service, usually called backstage. In our supermarket example, that could be:

the advertising efforts

logistics required to keep all shelves stocked

protocols the staffers follow when communicating with customers

3. Journey mapping workshops as an alignment method

In a user journey mapping workshop, stakeholders and team members share their knowledge and assumptions about the users. Some of these assumptions might need to be challenged — which is part of the process. The goal is not the perfect output, but rather to get everyone into one room and work out a common understanding of the users they are building products for. It forces everyone to organize their thoughts, spell out what they know and assumed was common knowledge — and ideally meet real users as part of the workshop. If done right, this establishes a more comprehensive understanding of what users go through and helps overcome the very superficial ideas one might have about the lives and needs of people outside their own social bubble.

Hence, such a workshop helps create aha moments and gives the consequences of great and poor product decisions a face. So at the end of the day, it is one of many methods to evangelize user-centricity in an organization.

What are the benefits of user experience (UX) mapping?

We already discussed the benefits and shortcomings of workflow maps, but what are the reasons you should consider a UX journey map and/or a journey mapping workshop ?

1. Switching perspectives

Empathy:  Like any other UX method and user research output, user journey maps are supposed to foster empathy and help product makers put themselves into the shoes of a user. Awareness:  It creates awareness of why users do all the things they do. And it challenges product makers to resist the temptation of building something because it’s feasible, not because it’s needed that way.

2. Aligned understanding

Given the team is involved in creating the user experience map (either as a workshop, in expert interviews, observing the user research, or at least as a results presentation), it forces a conversation and offers a shared mental model and terminology — the foundation for a shared vision. 

3. Seeing the big picture

Imagine the vastly different perceptions Sales reps, Customer Support teams, C-level, and backend engineers might have since they all meet very different segments at very different stages of their journey. Day-to-day, it makes sense to be an expert in the stages of a user journey you are responsible for. A journey map helps to step back from this and see the bigger picture, where your work fits in, and where assumptions about the majority of users were wrong. It might even help define KPIs across teams that don’t cancel each other out.

4. Uncovering blind spots and opportunities

A user journey map gives you a structured and comprehensive overview of which user needs are already tackled by your product and which ones are either underserved or solved with other tools and touchpoints. Which moments of truth do not get enough attention yet? These are the opportunities and blind spots you can work on in the future.

When is customer journey mapping just a waste of time?

In all honesty, there are also moments when creating a user journey map or running a journey mapping workshop is destined to fail and should better be put on hold. It’s a lot of work, so don’t let this energy go to waste.  User journey maps only make sense when there is an intention to collaboratively work on and with them.  Here are some of the scenarios and indicators that it’s the wrong moment for a journey map:

No buy-in for the workshop: The requirements of a successful journey workshop are not met, e.g., there is not enough time (60 minutes over lunch won’t do the trick), only a few team members are willing to attend, and/or key stakeholders refuse to have their assumptions challenged.

Isolated creation: The whole creation process of the user journey map happens isolated from the team, e.g., it is outsourced to an agency or an intern. Nobody from the team observes or runs the user research, or is consulted for input or feedback on the first drafts. There is no event or presentation planned that walks the team through the output. Finally, a very detailed, 10-foot-long poster appears in a hallway, and none of the team members ever find time to read, process, or discuss it with each other.

UX theater: For one reason or another, there is no time/resources allocated to user research or reviewing existing insights whilst creating the map (usability tests with non-users do not count in this case, though). Such an approach, also known as, can do more harm than good since the resulting user journey may only reinforce wrong assumptions and wishful thinking about your users.

Unclear objectives: The user journey map is only created because it is on your UX design checklist, but the purpose is unclear. If you are unsure what you or your stakeholders want to achieve with this journey map, clarify expectations and desired output before investing more energy into this. E.g., there is a chance you were only meant to do a usability review of a bumpy app workflow.

Lack of follow-through: Creating a user journey map is just the start. Without a plan to implement changes based on insights gathered, the map is merely a paper exercise. This lack of action can result from limited resources, lack of authority, or inertia. It's vital to establish a process for turning insights from the map into design improvements or strategy adjustments. This includes assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and defining success metrics to ensure the map drives real change and doesn't end up forgotten.

Overcomplication: Sometimes, to capture every nuance and detail of the user experience, teams can create an overly complex user journey map. This can make the map difficult to understand and use, particularly for team members who weren't involved in its creation. A good user journey map should balance detail and clarity, providing insightful and actionable information without overwhelming its users.

Failure to update: User expectations, behaviors, and the digital landscape constantly evolve. A user journey map that remains static will quickly become outdated. Regular reviews and updates are necessary to ensure that the map reflects the current state of user experiences. This requires a commitment to ongoing user research and a willingness to adjust your understanding of the user's path as new information becomes available.

The good news is: UX maturity in an organization can change rapidly, so even if you run into one of the obstacles above, it is worth revisiting the idea in the future. Once you’re good to go, you can get started with the user journey map examples and templates below.

User journey mapping: examples, templates & tools

There is more than one way to do it right and design a great user journey map. Every organization and industry has its own templates, tools and approaches to what elements are most important to them. The following examples and template will give you an idea of what a user journey map can look like if you decide to create one yourself. Make it your own, and change up the sections and design so they make sense for your product and use cases.

User journey map template and checklist

To give you a first orientation, you can use this user journey template and check the two fictional examples below to see how you could adapt it for two very different industries: instant meal delivery and healthcare.

Click here to download a high-resolution PDF of the user journey map template. 

While there is no official standard, most other user journey maps contain the following elements or variations of them:

Key phases (or ‘stages’) start when users become aware of a problem they need to solve or a goal they want to achieve and may end when they evaluate whether they achieved their goal or enter a maintenance phase. E.g., user journeys for e-commerce could be structured along the classic funnel of:

Consideration

Delivery & use

Loyalty & advocacy

2. Jobs to be done

Whilst some other user journey templates might call this section ‘steps’ or ‘tasks’, it can be very beneficial to structure the stages into ‘jobs to be done’ (JTBD) instead. This framework helps you distinguish better between the actual goal of a user vs. the tasks required to get there . For example, safe online payments are never a goal of a user, this is just one of many jobs on the long way to get new sneakers on their feet. Ideally, users ‘hire’ your product/service to assist them with some of the JTBD on their journey. Phrase your JTBD as verb + object + context . Examples:

Install app on phone

Tip delivery driver

Buy new shoes

Naturally, the stages closest to your current (and future) solution require a more detailed understanding, so you might want to investigate and document deeper what JTBDs happen there.

3. Needs and pains

Users have needs and pains every step along the journey. Use this section to collect the most important needs and potential pains, even if not all apply in all cases. Ask:

What are the repeating themes, even the ones you are (currently) not able to solve with your product?

Phrase pains and needs as I- or me-statements from the user perspective, e.g., ‘I forgot my login details, ‘I am afraid to embarrass myself’ or ‘My day is too busy to wait for a delivery.’ 

Which are the pains and needs that are so severe that, if not solved, they can become real deal-breakers for your product or service?

On the last point, such deal-breaker and dealmaker situations, or ‘ moments of truth ’, require particular attention in your product decisions and could be visually highlighted in your journey. In a meal delivery, the taste and temperature of the food are such a moment of truth that can spoil the whole experience with your otherwise fantastic service.

4. Emotional curve

An emotional curve visualizes how happy or frustrated users are at certain stages of their journey. Emojis are commonly used to make it easy to understand and empathize with the emotional state of the user across the whole journey. It can be a surprising realization that users are not delighted with your witty microcopy, but you already did a great job by not annoying them. It is also a good reminder that what might personally excite you is perceived as stressful or overwhelming by most other users. Strong user quotes can be used for illustration.

5. Brand and product touchpoints

Here, you can list current and planned touchpoints with your brand and product, as well as. Whilst the touchpoints when using your product might be obvious, others early and late in the journey are probably less obvious to you but critical for the user experience and decision to use or return to your product. This is why it is worthwhile to include them in your map. Make sure your journey does not get outdated too soon, and don’t list one-off marketing campaigns or very detailed aspects of current workflows — just what you got in general so there is no major revision needed for a couple of years.

6. Opportunities for improvement

As you map out your user journey, it is important to not only identify the current touchpoints and experiences but also opportunities for improvement. This could include potential areas where users may become frustrated or confused, as well as areas where they may be delighted or pleasantly surprised.

By identifying these opportunities, you can prioritize making meaningful improvements to the user experience and ultimately creating a more positive, long-lasting relationship with your users.

7. Other tools and touchpoints

This may seem the least interesting aspect of your journey or a user interview, but it can tell you a lot about blind spots in your service or potential partnerships or APIs to extend your service. E.g., Google Maps or WhatsApp are common workaround tools for missing or poor in-app solutions.

User journey map example 1: health industry

The following example is for a fictional platform listing therapists for people in need of mental health support, helping them find, contact, schedule, and pay for therapy sessions. As you can see, the very long journey with recurring steps (repeated therapy sessions) is cut short to avoid repetition. 

At the same time, it generalizes very individual mental health experiences into a tangible summary. While it is fair to assume that the key phases happen in this chronological order, JTBD, timing, and the number of sessions are kept open so that it works for different types of patients.

You can also see how the journey covers several phases when the platform is not in active use. Yet, these phases are milestones in the patient’s road to recovery. Looking at a journey like this, you could, for example, realize that a ‘graduation’ feature could be beneficial for your users, even if it means they will stop using your platform because they are feeling better.

This user journey map is fictional but oriented on Johanne Miller’s UX case study  Designing a mental healthcare platform . 

User journey map example 2: delivery services

What the example above does not cover is the role of the therapist on the platform — most likely they are a second user type that has very different needs for the way they use the platform. This is why the second example shows the two parallel journeys of two different user roles and how they interact with each other. 

Nowadays, internal staff such as delivery drivers have dedicated apps and ideally have a designated UX team looking out for their needs, too. Creating a frictionless and respectful user experience for ‘internal users’ is just as critical for the success of a business as it is to please customers.

User journey map example: meal delivery. Please note that this fictional journey map is just an example for illustrative purposes and has not been backed up with user research.

For more inspiration, you can find collections with more real-life user journey examples and customer journey maps on  UXeria ,  eleken.co  &  userinterviews.com , or check out free templates provided by the design tools listed below.

Free UX journey mapping tools with templates

No matter whether you’re a design buff or feel more comfortable in spreadsheets, there are many templates available for free(mium) tools you might be already using. 

For example, there are good templates and tutorials available for  Canva ,  Miro  and even  Google Sheets . If you are more comfortable with regular design software, you can use the templates available for  Sketch  or one of these two from the  Figma (template 1 ,  template 2 ) community. There are also several dedicated journey map tools with free licenses or free trials, e.g.,  FlowMapp ,  Lucidchart  and  UXPressia , just to name a few.

Be aware that the first draft will require a lot of rearrangement and fiddling until you get to the final version. So it might help to pick where this feels easy for you. 

How do I collect data for my app user journey?

User journey maps need to be rooted in reality and based on what users really need and do (not what we wish they did) to add value to the product and business strategy. Hence, user insights are an inevitable step in the creation process.

However, it’s a huge pile of information that needs to be puzzled together and usually, one source of information is not enough to cover the whole experience — every research method has its own blind spots. But if you combine at least two or three of the approaches below, you can create a solid app user journey .

1. In-house expertise

The people working for and with your users are an incredible source of knowledge to start and finalize the journey. Whilst there might be a few overly optimistic or biased assumptions you need to set straight with your additional research, a user journey mapping workshop and/or  expert interviews  involving colleagues from very different (user-facing) teams such as:

customer service

business intelligence

customer insights

will help you collect a lot of insights and feedback. You can use these methods to build a preliminary skeleton for your journey but also to finalize the journey with their input and feedback.

2. Desk research

Next to this, it is fair to assume there is already a ton of preexisting documented knowledge about the users simply floating around in your company. Your  UX research repository  and even  industry reports  you can buy or find with a bit of googling will help. Go through them and pick the cherries that are relevant for your user journey. Almost anything can be interesting:

Old research reports and not-yet-analyzed context interviews from earlier user interviews

NPS scores & user satisfaction surveys

App store feedback

Customer support tickets

Product reviews written by journalists

Competitor user journeys in publicly available UX case studies

Ask your in-house experts if they know of additional resources you could check. And find out if there’s already a  long-forgotten old journey map  from a few years ago that you can use as a starting point (most organizations have those somewhere).

3. Qualitative user research

Qualitative research methods are your best shot to learn about all the things users experience, think, and desire before and after they touch your product.  In-depth interviews  and  focus groups  explore who they are and what drives them. You could show them a skeleton user journey for feedback or  co-creation . 

This could also be embedded into your user journey mapping workshop with the team. Alternatively, you can follow their actual journey in  diary studies ,  in-home visits  or  shadowing . However, in all these cases it is important that you talk to real users of your product or competitors to learn more about the real scenarios. This is why usability testing with non-users or fictional scenarios won’t help much for the user journey map.

4. Quantitative research

Once you know the rough cornerstones of your user journey map,  surveys  could be used to let users rate what needs and pains really matter to them. And what their mood is at certain phases of the journey. You can learn how they became aware of your product and ask them which of the motives you identified are common or exotic edge cases. Implementing micro-surveys such as  NPS surveys , CES , and  CSAT  embedded into your product experience can give additional insights.

5. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey

Customer satisfaction surveys (or CSATs for short) are important tools that measure your customers' satisfaction with your product or service. It is usually measured through surveys or feedback forms, asking customers to rate their experience on a scale from 1 to 5. This metric can give valuable insights into the overall satisfaction of your customers and can help identify areas of improvement for your product.

CSAT surveys can be conducted at different customer journey stages, such as after purchase or using a specific feature. This allows you to gather feedback on different aspects of your product and make necessary changes to improve overall satisfaction.

The benefit of CSAT lies in understanding how satisfied customers are with your product and why. By including open-ended questions in the surveys, you can gather qualitative insights into what aspects of your product work well and what needs improvement.

5. User analytics

User analytics is a beautiful source of information, even if it has its limits. Depending on what tools you are using (e.g., Google Analytics, Firebase, Hubspot, UXCam), you can follow the digital footprints of your users before and when they were using the product. This may include  acquisition channels  (input for brand touchpoints and early journey phases),  search terms  that brought them to your product (input for needs and pains), and how they navigate your product. 

Unlike a usability test, you can use  screen flows  and  heatmaps  to understand how your users behave naturally when they follow their own agenda at their own pace — and how often they are so frustrated that they just quit. Knowing this gives you pointers to negative user emotions at certain journey steps and even helps identify your product’s moments of truth. Whilst you cannot ask the users if your interpretations are correct, checking analytics already helps you prepare good questions and talking points for user interviews or surveys.

Curious to know how heatmaps will look in your app?  Try UXCam for free — with 100,000 monthly sessions and unlimited features.

How can I utilize UXCam to collect App User Journey data?

If you have UXCam set up in your mobile app, you can use it to support your user journey research. You can find many of the previously mentioned  user analytics  features ( screen flows  and  heatmaps , including  rage taps ) here as well. 

UXCam can also be an  invaluable asset for your qualitative research . Especially for niche products and B2B apps that normally have a lot of trouble  recruiting real users  via the usual user testing platforms. 

UXCam’s detailed segmentation options allow you to  identify exactly the users you want to interview  about their journey — and  reach out to them via either email or UXCam push notifications , which can include invitation links for your study, a survey or an additional screener.

Additionally, UXCam's session replay feature allows you to watch recordings of user sessions, providing valuable insights into how users interact with your app and where they may face challenges.

Where can I learn more about user journey map?

Don’t feel ready to get started? Here are a few additional resources that can help you dive deeper into user journey mapping and create the version that is best for your project.

Creating user journey maps & service blueprints:

Mapping Experiences by Jim Kalbach

Journey Mapping 101

How to create customer journey maps

Customer Journey Stages for Product Managers

The Perfect Customer Journey Map

Planning and running user journey mapping workshops:

Journey mapping workshop

Jobs to be done:

The Theory of Jobs To Be Done

Moments of truth in customer journeys:

Journey mapping MoTs

What is a user journey map?

A user journey map is a visual representation of the process that a user goes through to accomplish a goal with your product, service, or app.

What is a user journey?

A user journey refers to the series of steps a user takes to accomplish a specific goal within a product, service, or website. It represents the user's experience from their point of view as they interact with the product or service, starting from the initial contact or discovery, moving through various touchpoints, and leading to a final outcome or goal.

How do I use a user journey map in UX?

User journey maps are an essential tool in the UX design process, used to understand and address the user's needs and pain points.

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• Introduction

What does your mobile app customer journey look like?

How can mapping the user journey help improve app performance.

• The 5 stages of the mobile app user journey

Core elements of the app user journey

Mobile app user journey example, empower your mobile customer journey with sendbird.

Drive growth and reduce costs with omnichannel business messaging

Understanding the mobile app customer journey

Understanding every user’s experience at each step of the mobile app user journey is critical to driving engagement , retention , and conversion. Knowing why users have installed your app and how they will benefit means you can better meet their needs.

In this blog, we’ll cover all things related to the mobile app journey; including how to map the user journey, core journey elements every marketer should consider, an example of a customer journey from a mobile game to help you bring it all together.

The user journey generally outlines how users complete a desired action, which usually includes making a purchase or reaching a goal.

Your mobile app customer journey looks like the path everyone takes on the way to that goal. For dating apps, the action could be purchasing unlimited swipes. Food delivery apps, purchasing a subscription to bring delivery costs down. Gaming apps, upgrading your gameplay with an in-app purchase.

The app user journey includes a flow chart of touchpoints and the user's actions, from downloading to conversion. You can also present your specific journey as an infographic to visualize the steps users take to complete each action (find an example of this below).

By visualizing and building out your user journey, you can gain valuable insights into optimizing the customer experience and eliminating pain points wherever they exist. This exercise allows everyone to put themselves in the customer’s shoes to increase engagement and conversion.

For example, if users are churning too early on in the journey, take steps to shorten it. Make sure there aren’t any friction points, and add personalized messaging to help shortcut any search time on your customer’s end.

Boosting conversion and driving retention is the name of the game. Mapping your journey helps everyone in your org understand the critical aspects of your app and how customers navigate there.

Mapping your user journey also helps develop your UX, for apparent reasons. Here are some relevant UX resources from our team to yours:

Top 15 must-know mobile app UX best practices

Evaluating developers’ onboarding experience

The five stages of the mobile app user journey

The tricky part about mastering the mobile app user journey is that if you want people to download and engage with your app, you need to know what they need before realizing they need to do something.

That means you need to understand the problem driving their need, how they feel, and how they learn about your app as a solution. With this information in mind, you can then increase the chance they will download your app to meet their needs.

User engagement depends on what users think and feel as they encounter each step in the user journey. You need to know if your UX design and messaging encourage them to stay engaged with your app or if some element of the user experience frustrates them. It’s crucial for users to feel engaged and positive about your app at every touchpoint so they continue to the next stage of their journey.

The stages can vary depending on your app’s purpose and monetization goals. For example, the user journey for an ad-supported free game might focus on engaging users in the game to show them ads. In contrast, a trial version of a photo editing app might focus on engaging users so they buy a full version or subscription.

While every user's journey may differ, most apps share these common stages in their user journey:

1. App discovery and awareness

To start, your app must stand out among the millions of other apps on the Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

App store optimization, i.e., investing in early marketing funnel activities like app story copy and advertising, can help raise awareness around who you are, what you do, and where to find you.

2. App download

The first conversion point is when a user downloads and opens your app after finding it. If they like the app, they may continue on to create an account.

Competition is fierce, and the stakes for failure are high. The day one retention rate for new apps is 25.3%. Your app needs to make an excellent first impression so users stay engaged and continue to use it after downloading it. That means optimization: Ensuring the app is targeted to the right users, meets their needs immediately, and provides a seamless and engaging experience.

Get it right; users will sign up and enter your onboarding process.

3. App onboarding

The onboarding process must be intuitive enough to show users what to do and how to complete actions without adding friction.

A smooth and seamless onboarding experience will introduce the UX, explain features, build trust (and get necessary permissions like location sharing and permission to send push notifications), and make users familiar with and comfortable using your app.

When done right, onboarding should show users everything they can do with the app and build long-term retention and engagement.

4. Engagement and re-engagement

In this stage, user adoption and retention are crucial for your app’s success. This involves encouraging users to use key features , increasing active users daily, weekly, and monthly, and fostering app loyalty.

Since the 30-day retention rate for mobile apps is only 5.7%, building user engagement and reducing churn is essential. One effective way to achieve this is by using in-app messaging solutions . These can boost user engagement, provide instant customer support, and create a vibrant community for your app.

5. Purchase, action, and monetization

In-app purchases are the second key conversion point in the mobile app customer journey. For example, for a ride-sharing app, this point occurs when a user requests a pickup, or in a mobile game, it’s when a player buys a loot box or subscription.

In-app purchases can also take other forms depending on the app monetization model. Freemium games may focus on revenue from in-app advertising, so their end goal is long-term user loyalty and retention to increase the ad audience and earned revenue.

This stage can be challenging, as users may churn when faced with a purchasing decision. For example, users may search for an app offering the same features for free or become frustrated by too many in-app ads and delete their app. Building user engagement can help offset churn – highly engaged users are likelier to make in-app purchases.

Whatever the steps of your unique user journey may be, there are a handful of elements that every builder and marketer needs to consider when creating an app with the perfect user flow:

Sign-up and login

The sign-up includes creating a user account in your app and successfully logging in.

Because it often requires providing personal information, it can also cause users to abandon the app. Make the sign-up process simple, transparent, and easy to understand to minimize the chance of users getting frustrated.

User experience is fundamental to how people interact and react to your app. In general, providing a good UX means creating an intuitive, easy-to-use, and understandable app.

Ensure that elements such as in-app chat , overall look and feel, usability, and reliability are well-designed and let users do what they set out to achieve with your app. Functional bugs and glitches, a clunky interface, or an outdated design can result in users leaving the app.

Transaction and payment

Few things frustrate users more than a negative payment experience. Transactions within your app should be seamless and flexible. For example, users may want to use different payment methods or channels to make a transaction. If the payment process has friction points or doesn’t inspire trust, users may abandon the transaction (and the app) without purchasing.

Your user journey map must understand and consider the various handoffs and possible hiccups affecting the payment process to ensure a seamless user experience. Ensure that your payment methods are clear and straightforward and that essential communications such as order confirmations, pricing , and in-app messaging are informative and timely so users feel comfortable purchasing.

Personalization

Users increasingly demand personalized experiences, and smart mobile app marketers are taking notice. According to research by Google , 89% of marketers reported that app personalization increased their revenue.

To create user journeys that accurately reflect the experiences of real users, it is essential to gather data on user behaviors, perspectives, steps, thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs. This data lets you build features and design your app to provide the personalization users want. That means focusing on several key areas:

Create user personas based on common behavior to understand how different users interact with your app so you can optimize the user experience. Use research, analytics, and surveys to gather feedback and synthesize it into personas, including demographics, attitudes, and interests. Interest-based targeting is also important to tailor content and UX to user preferences.

Engagement style

How users engage with your app should inform the in-app messaging and UX experience to guide them along the user journey.

For example, understanding when users last engaged with the app and for how long lets you respond with special offers or messages to encourage them to re-engage. The more data you can collect on user engagement styles, the more you can refine your app to increase long-term engagement and reduce churn.

Personalized and relevant in-app messaging creates a more positive user experience, which builds loyalty and retention. Use personas and user data to transform customer communication into ongoing, focused messaging conversations to inspire confidence and trust.

Using location data can significantly enhance the functionality and personalization of your app. For example, you can provide localized and personalized content like recommendations and relevant updates to engage with users at any time and place.

Let's look at how all this comes together in a sample user journey for the mobile RPG/strategy game Heroes of Neverdale:

Discovery and installation: Users find the game on the app store or via ads and install it on their device.

Initial launch:  Users are greeted with an animated splash screen on the first launch.

Onboarding: An automatic tutorial guides users through game mechanics like character movement, combat, and story progression.

Gameplay introduction: After the tutorial, users are introduced to different game modes, like PvE campaign and PvP arena.

Character customization: Users can create and customize their characters with unique appearances, skills, and weapons.

PvE campaign: Users engage in story-based missions and strategic challenges.

Social interaction: Users can join guilds, collaborate with other players, trade items, and communicate via chats.

PvP arena: Users can participate in PvP battles and compare their skills with players worldwide in a competitive ranking system.

In-game store: Users can buy in-game currency to enhance gameplay, with premium currency also available for purchase with real money.

Engagement mechanics: Daily missions, weekly challenges, and surprise content maintain user engagement and excitement.

Game updates: Regular content and feature enhancements are based on user feedback.

Community support: An in-game reporting mechanism is provided along with a dedicated community section with forums and developer logs.

With Sendbird, effective, easy-to-integrate, and customizable mobile user engagement is at your fingertips with our in-app user communications solutions .

Sign up to try Sendbird’s customer service software for free, or request a demo . Sendbird is ready to supercharge your app so you can deploy customer journeys that generate better engagement, conversions, and retention.

Take customer relationships to the next level.

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Understanding Mobile App’s User Journey and Why It Matters to App Developers

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Table of Contents

Making your app users complete an action that adds to your end goal is becoming increasingly difficult. The reason being, if they don’t associate with it, they would rather switch apps than do what you expect of them. In this post, we’re going to share how you should analyze the entire user journey to improve the user experience and get more conversions.

“How do you get your users to do what you want them to on your app?”  

This is one question that has been haunting app marketers forever, and we totally relate. You ask users to sign up after a download and they leave the app. You recommend a purchase to them and they abandon the app to look for an alternative. Basically, if there’s anything you want them to do – it’s rarely going to happen.

That’s where the importance of a user journey comes in.

What Is a User Journey?

A user journey is defined as a series of steps that represent how you want users to interact with your app. It involves the analysis of how users are interacting with the app to identify the weakest points in the path to conversion.

It could be hesitance in making an in-app purchase, trying out a new feature, or simply not being able to understand how to use one. Mapping the user journey from the time of download and their first session is important for your app’s growth.

What Are the Stages of App User Journey?

Here are the core steps of an effective user journey that maps the user activity from discovery to purchase.

App discovery / App awareness

Hundreds of apps appear in the app stores on Android and iOS every day. App developers need to focus on app store optimization on priority and create referral marketing campaigns that encourage the users to share the app in their circles.

App download / User acquisition

This stage in a user journey looks into what made a user download the app after discovery. Is it because there were no other options available to them, the reviews of the app, what the app had to offer, or any other reason?

Knowing the motive and the source behind an app download is important for marketers to optimize their  user acquisition strategies . When you know what people are looking for, why, and how you can offer the same to them, you can personalize your marketing campaigns better. The higher the level of your personalization, the greater the conversion rates.

App developers also need to establish their brand names in the target market. They must maximize their online presence across social and other digital channels, get their apps featured on media sites popular with their users, and make sure that their potential users see the app’s value.

App onboarding / App exploration

Let’s face it, you and we don’t have to think the same way. While you might want us to write an article only in pointers, we may be the kinds who prefer in-depth posts or vice versa. The same holds true with your app users.

When a user downloads your app, they have the freedom to explore it on their own, at their own pace. Now, this may lead them to explore the features that are a unique selling point of your app or they may miss them. Giving the user entirely free reign and absolutely no  in-app guidance  can also result in them getting a little too overwhelmed or confused with what the app has to offer.

This is where the user onboarding flow steps in.

Onboarding is like giving your users a quick walkthrough of your app. From the features, it offers to how they can make the most of them, in a step by step manner. It makes exploration of the entire app a breeze for the user and assures the developers that none of the features are ignored.

For example, here’s how Slack introduces its users to the app’s features:

App reuse and purchases

According to Localytics , the average mobile app retention across all industries is 25% after 90 days. Yes, most apps have a large churn of 75% – irrespective of how good the app is or what it has to offer. Getting your users to the app after their first session is a challenge that app marketers still face. Yes, user retention problems are for real!

The primary reasons for a churn being the users found another app that seemed better to them, the app was unsuccessful at becoming their break time companion, or it could simply engage the user at the right time while they were away.

We have spoken about how in-app and outside the app communication as well as engagement are important to keep the users hooked. Be it using in-app chats, activity feeds, or  push notifications , app developers need to ensure they remain at the top of their user’s mind amidst all the market competition.

App monetization

While there are apps like Candy Crush and Game of War making millions out of their users, most apps face a challenge when it comes to converting their users into paying users. The first way out that a lot of users see is to look for another app that offers similar features for free – and that’s where the first app experiences a churn.

Now one way of monetizing your app is running multiple in-app ads – but then that puts your app at the risk of not being able to deliver a great experience. Another tactic that apps take to monetize from their users is blocking out a few features from the freemium model – this doesn’t interrupt the user’s experience and if implemented properly, converts higher.

In a previous post, we discussed 10 in-app tactics that can help you monetize from your users:

• Keeps your users engaged constantly
• Work on a lite freemium model
• Personalize in-app purchase recommendations
• Use the power of social to drive conversions
• Create customer loyalty programs
• Create a dynamic pricing model to suit all users
• Cross-promote your in-app purchases
• Incorporate a subscription-based model
• Offer multiple payment modes 

Re-purchase

Okay, so you’ve successfully nudged a user to complete an in-app purchase. But that’s just once, and the same user will need the same or higher amount of persuasion to be reconverted. It means that they need to see more value coming from the app and their first purchase to be encouraged enough to make another.

About 38% of users make an in-app purchase based on personal recommendations and 30% when offered a special discount on the next purchase.

So if you want to reconvert a user to monetize higher from them, we recommend implementing multiple personalized campaigns in your app. Some of them being retargeting, user behavior based purchase recommendations, socially driven purchases, referral campaigns, and user loyalty discounts.

The trick to higher monetization is to create a loyal community of your users. Keep them engaged and improve the experience your app has to offer to them, and you’ll be able to monetize higher from each of them.

User loyalty

Continuing on the last point above, user loyalty is also hard to achieve. Imagine yourself as your perfect user. You download an app that helps you edit pictures beautifully, but then you stumble upon an ad for another app that seems to offer better editing features. What do you do?

You instantly head to the app store to see if it’s available for free or the features it offers are worth paying for. You are no longer a loyal user of the first app. Now if you download the new app, there is a high chance you become inactive on the previous one and delete it altogether.

A great way to boost your app’s user loyalty is to create a community where users keep each other driven to get the most out of what your app has to offer. For that matter, you could use the opportunity to even keep feeding your users with relevant content that encourages another session.

For instance, Snapseed, a photo editing app by Google regularly interacts with its users through Instagram. They also reshare some of their work, making them feel special and at the same time showcasing to other users the possibilities of the app.

How to Create an App User Journey Map?

An app user journey map is a detailed infographic that reflects the entire path of interaction between the user and the app. The map helps to look at the app through the eyes of the user, to understand their goals, motives, expectations, and fears. Journey mapping helps make communication with the user more efficient and seamless. 

Having drawn up a map, you can find out the following: 

• Where the audience interacts with the product. This can be a company website, ads on third-party resources, social media, etc. 
• How various audience segments interact with your app. 
• What stages does the user go through before buying and what goals they have. 

The user journey map data should not be based on guesswork. For correct journey mapping, you need to do research and work with analytics systems. The process consists of several steps. 

Step #1: Research the target audience 

Begin with creating user personas that have clear goals, interests, and needs. You need to analyze the target audience and form a generalized image of a potential client based on this data. 

Often completely different people buy the same product, which means there will be several characters for the path map. An 18-year-old student and a 35-year-old real estate agent may go to the same fitness club, but their goals, pricing, and service experience differ. 

You need to collect detailed data on each of the characters: how they find out about the app, which competitors they turn to, why they decide to cooperate with you or refuse the service, etc. Studying the interests and values ​​of each group in detail makes it much easier to attract and retain users. 

Step #2: Create a list of interaction points and channels 

At this stage, you should map all points at which the user comes into contact with your app. The more points appear on the journey map, the more detailed picture you’ll get. Examples of communication channels are push notifications, websites, search engines, other mobile apps, email marketing, social media, etc. To include all possible channels, you can do the following: 

• arrange a brainstorming session within the team; use the mind mapping technique in your brainstorming session and a  mind map maker  to create a mind map for organizing your thoughts and ideas;
• communicate with the target audience directly; 
• run online surveys; 
• perform competitor analysis.

Step #3: Identify obstacles and remove them 

Next, you need to move on to the difficulties and list the critical points that prevent the user from moving between the journey stages. For example, a user wants to make an in-app purchase. They are ready to enter the card number, but then they are asked to sign up. The user gets angry at the sudden difficulty, drops the purchase, leaves, and never returns to the app. An inconvenient registration process is an obstacle. 

Having drawn up the list of obstacles, you need to find ways to remove them. If the user journey has changed after the implementation of new solutions, create a new journey to evaluate the result.

Step #4: Design the final user journey map

Now it’s time to combine the collected data into a single map, which may look like a table with the following data: 

• a list of steps that the user takes; 
• success criteria – what counts as reaching each user step; 
• retention rate, i.e. the rate of returns provided that a specific step is achieved; 
• conversion when moving between the steps; 
• interaction point – mobile app, website, email, push notification; 
• audience size at each step; 
• description of the emotional state (“I seem to be confused”, “Is it possible to give up everything?”, “I am close to the goal”, etc.); 
• obstacles; 
• ways to remove obstacles for different interaction points.

User Journey vs Sales Funnel vs User Flow

A user journey may look similar to a sales funnel but there are significant differences.

The marketing funnel scheme depends on a specific sales business model and can have a different number of stages. In the classic version, the sales funnel corresponds to the AIDA model, which combines the four key elements: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. According to the AIDA funnel, you need to attract the attention of a potential consumer, arouse interest in the offer, awaken the desire to own the product, and motivate to buy. 

Sometimes the AIDA formula is supplemented with one more stage: S – Permanent Satisfaction. This means that the user was satisfied with the purchase, became a regular customer, and/or shared their experience with friends. In practice, the number of stages in the sales funnel can be either up or down. However, in any case of transition to the next stage, the consumer must go through the previous one.

The user journey is not that linear. A potential client can skip certain stages and repeatedly return to previous stages. The app user journey does not end with the conclusion of a deal – it also encompasses post-sales interaction with the brand. At the same time, the goals of the consumer and their emotions are important throughout the journey. 

The user journey can be illustrated by the example of a person interested in a particular product. They have done the following: 

• Asked friends who have already purchased this product. 
• Based on the survey, identified a suitable brand and model. 
• Found an online product description and analyzed the specifications. 
• Visited the forum and asked for the opinion of users. 
• Found the product at the lowest price in the search results. 
• Went to the online store, but did not understand how to purchase the product. 
• Contacted customer support and clarified the details. 
• Made a purchase and got a discount. 
• Was satisfied with the product and can recommend it. 

At any of the above stages, the user journey may be interrupted – the friends will express their dissatisfaction with the product, the online description will not be complete enough, the online store will not open, the customer support will not answer, etc. The user can also repeat the previous steps over and over again. When building a user journey, the brand’s task is to identify the weak points of the sales cycle and strengthen them.

User flow is another term that is similar to user journey but there are also differences. A user flow is rather a part of the user journey. It describes certain user actions taken to achieve specific goals at specific journey stages. Unlike the user journey, which considers the user’s emotions, user flow would focus on technical details. For example, at the installation stage, the user flow will refer to the sequence of the app screens, the information they contain, and the UI element that the user has to tap to proceed further.

Examples of User Journeys

We have collected some examples that can illustrate the journey maps for famous brands.

 Amazon Customer Journey Map – from the login to the customer feedback:

Starbucks customer journey map showing the main communication points and psychological markets that are a priority in a given situation:

First Uber ride experience from the point of view of a user persona – Jen Ashburn, a 32-year old full-time student with a part-time job:

No matter what stage your user is on, it is important to note here that just the app’s design and offering are no longer in the first place. It is about the experience your app can offer to its users and how consistently you can improve those over time.

The next market battleground is user experience. Is your app ready?

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How to Map User Journey for Mobile App?

User journey or customer journey, maps how the users interact with the app and take a desired action. Find out how to map user journeys for mobile apps.

Knowing your customers is an important part of creating a successful mobile app . With your potential customers in mind, you can build an app that is relevant and useful to them. 

You may spend a lot of your resources and time making an app with great features, but if it’s not personalized for your users, you may not see any positive results. If you want the users to care about your app, then you need to build it keeping your user personas in mind.

The mass usage of mobile phones has amped up the use of apps worldwide and has become a major source of revenue for IT companies. It was reported in 2022, that 89% of Americans check their phones within 10 minutes of waking up in the morning.

When you map your user’s journey , you gain valuable insights that can help you create a better experience for your users. 

User journey shows you how the users interact with your app and convert. It shows all the touchpoints that helped users reach the final decision. This post will discuss how to map user journeys for mobile apps .

What is a User Journey?

User journey, also known as customer journey, maps how the users interact with the app and take a desired action. It tracks the user’s journey from when they first discover the app up until they download it and get converted. 

It shows every interaction the user has with the app . User journeys show a visual timeline of customer interactions and are presented as infographics. This helps teams better understand all the phases a user goes through while engaging with their app.

Stages of the Mobile App User Journey

1. discovery and awareness.

This is the initial phase where users become aware of the mobile app's existence. They might discover it through various channels such as organic search, social media referrals, or app store browsing. 

It is a crucial stage as it creates a positive first impression and sets the foundation for user engagement. Effective app store optimization and targeted marketing campaigns can capture user attention efficiently. 

The usage of clear and compelling app descriptions, screenshots, and reviews can help captivate users during this stage and ensure that they proceed to the next phase.

2. Consideration and Engagement

Once users have discovered the app, they move into the consideration phase where they evaluate whether the app aligns with their needs and preferences . They might compare the features of the app with similar apps and read user reviews for better insights.

Thus it is crucial to ensure that your app has an intuitive and user-friendly interface to make navigation easier. Moreover, personalized push notifications can re-engage users who have shown initial interest which can help them actively engage with the app.

3. Conversion and Onboarding

This is a critical stage where users decide to download and install the app . It is best to optimize the onboarding process to ensure a user-friendly experience. This includes providing clear instructions, guidance for key features, and a smooth sign-up or account creation. 

Furthermore, you could use in-app messaging to guide users through the onboarding process to help them realize the app's value quickly. A well-executed conversion and onboarding experience sets the stage for long-term user retention.

4. Retention and Loyalty

It is essential to retain users for the long-term success of a mobile app. You can maintain ongoing engagement through regular updates, relevant content, and personalized experiences to encourage user loyalty.

The best way to continuously look for areas for improvement is to regularly monitor key retention metrics like Daily Active Users (DAU) and user behavior to identify pain points. 

Delivery value and addressing user needs can build a loyal user base that not only continues to use the app but also recommends it within their networks.

Why Do You Need a User Journey?

User journey can help business teams understand user behavior . When you break down a customer’s journey step by step, it can help you improve your overall app design, strategy, and retention.

Here are some ways in which a user journey is useful.

Improved User Experience

Getting to know how users interact with your app can help you improve their experience. You can track the user journey to understand how your app is solving user’s problems or helping them achieve their goals. 

You can see if certain features of your app are valuable to them. Are your users finding the app easy to use and seamless? These things matter to help you create a better app for your users that they find valuable .

Targetting the Right Users

Sometimes businesses fail to understand their target users. This can be a major setback for your app's success. Trying to target a wide range of audience without clearly understanding them is a waste of time. 

Researching the goals, and challenges along with the user journey is a good way to better know your customers. This gives you clarity about who your customers are and how your app can help solve their problems .

Increased User Retention

User journey shows you areas where you need to make improvements . If customers are leaving more often after downloading an app, then maybe the onboarding process is not smooth enough. 

Based on these analyses you can optimize specific areas to improve user experience. Pay close attention to your users and make your app user-centric to increase user retention . When customers find your app useful in achieving their goals, they are going to stick to it

Journey maps can be shared with different teams in the organization to allow them to create a user-centric app. It is useful for all teams such as product development, sales, and marketing. 

Teams can have a clear vision about the type of users they are targeting and use these insights to build an app that resonates with the targetted users.

How to Create a User Journey Map?

1. define objectives.

Before getting started with mapping your user journey, first define your objectives. Figure out what you need to track and how you want to improve your app . This can give your research a good direction. 

When you research a customer to create a user persona , you need to be asking the right questions. Along with their demographics and psychographics, what else do you need to know about them? 

Defining your objectives can help you get started in the right direction and find the answers you are looking for.

• Demographic Information

You can effectively segment your user base by understanding their demographics such as age, gender, location, and income level. You can tailor marketing messages , features, and content to specific groups through the analysis of this data. 

This can help your app resonate with the intended audience and can increase the likelihood of user engagement and retention. 

For instance, 

If your app targets a younger audience then incorporating trends and visuals popular among that demographic can enhance its appeal .

• Behavioral Patterns

User behavior provides valuable insights for segmentation. Analyzing actions within the app, such as frequency of use, in-app purchases, and interaction with specific features can help identify distinct user groups . 

• User Goals and Pain Points

You can create meaningful segments by conducting surveys or gathering feedback to uncover what users aim to achieve with your app and where they encounter challenges. You can address specific needs within each segment by tailoring features accordingly.

2. Create User Personas

User personas are fictional representations of your target users. These personas reflect the characteristics and attributes of your target customers. To create user personas, you first must research your target audience in-depth. 

You can ask for feedback from your customers about their experience with your app through surveys or questionnaires. You can ask how they came across your app, various touchpoints, goals, challenges, and what influences their decisions.

After collecting all insights, create a user persona . Give it a name and even a face for more clarity. User personas should be shared with all the different teams to build a successful app.

• Persona Name and Description

When crafting user personas, it's essential to give each persona a distinct identity . This includes assigning a name and creating a detailed description that consists of their demographic information, preferences, and behavior. 

• Goals and Objectives

An effective way to tailor the app experience is to understand the goals and objectives of each user persona. Identify what specific outcomes or achievements users within a persona aim for when using the app. 

You can enhance user satisfaction and increase the likelihood of achieving positive outcomes if you align your app features and functionalities with these objectives.

• Pain Points and Frustrations

Identifying pain points by pinpointing the challenges and obstacles users may encounter while using the app can help address user frustration through intuitive design, clear communication, and user-friendly features.

This user-centric approach fosters satisfaction and loyalty , ultimately contributing to the app's success. It can significantly improve the overall user experience for that segment. 

3. Key Touch Points

Touch points are all the places your customers interact with your business . Based on the research of your target market you need to find out all the touch points that your customers use. 

This is important to map user journeys because it gives you insights into all the actions your users take . There could be more, or fewer touchpoints involved that can include your website, social media channels, paid ads, email marketing, and more.

You can also run a Google search about your business or app to see all the places they have been mentioned on the search results page.

Some common touchpoints where your customers find entry points into your app include:

• Organic Search: It is the process of users finding a website or app through a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo without any paid promotion. It is based on the user’s search query.
• Paid Advertising: It involves investing finances to promote a website or app. This can be done through various channels such as search engines, social media, or display advertising. It provides immediate search results to the targeted audience in exchange for a cost-per-click or cost-per-impression fee.
• Social Media Referrals: These occur when users discover and visit an app through links shared on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. This traffic is generated organically as users engage with content shared by people within their social networks.

Touchpoints within the app include:

• Home Screen: This is the main interface of a mobile app or website that users see at the very beginning when they first open the app. It usually consists of important information, featured content, and access to key features or sections.
• Search Functionality: Users can find particular content, products, or information within an app or website by searching for specific keywords or queries. It helps users easily navigate and quickly locate what they are looking for.
• Product Listings: These are the organized displays of items or services available for purchase within an app or website. They often include details like product names, images, descriptions, prices, and options for customization or selection.
• Checkout Process: The checkout process is a series of steps a user follows to complete a purchase or transaction within an app or website. A smooth checkout process is crucial for reducing cart abandonment rates.

4. Visualize the User's Journey

After the analysis of your target user, take into consideration how these users engage with your app . This is important for mapping user journeys. You can visualize the thoughts, emotions, and actions the user experiences when they come across your app, engage with it, and convert. 

This helps you estimate if the users have any troubles effectively engaging with your app. You can create customer journey map templates to carefully consider each element in the journey.

To start, visually represent each touchpoint where users interact with the app. You can include the user’s initial discovery, onboarding, in-app interactions, and potential touchpoints beyond the app.

An important aspect of mapping the user journey is to first understand the emotions and motivations driving user actions at each touchpoint. This involves empathizing with their needs, concerns, and objectives to design experiences that resonate.

Moreover, incorporate relevant data points and metrics to the journey map such as user engagement metrics, conversion rates, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). It will allow the journey map to provide helpful insights that refine the user experience for optimal results.

• Measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To monitor user engagement, you can measure the following KPIs for your app’s success:

• Daily Active Users (DAU): This metric measures the number of users who engage with your app in a single day. It indicates the app's popularity and its ability to retain a steady user base.
• Session Length and Frequency: This KPI will show you how long users have spent in each session and how often they return. Users who had longer sessions and made frequent visits showcased higher user engagement and satisfaction.
• In-App Actions and Events: You can gain insights into user behavior and preferences by tracking specific actions users take within the app, such as clicks, purchases, or content interactions.
• Identifying Drop-off Points: These points demonstrate the areas of friction or dissatisfaction where users usually exit the app or abandon certain processes. You can analyze these areas for targeted improvements.
• Implementing Re-Engagement Tactics: To recapture user interest and bring users back to your app, you study user behavior and use certain re-engagement strategies such as personalized notifications, special offers, or reminders.

5. Put Together Your User Journey

After gathering all the information, put together your user journey. Use visual elements to create journey maps. Infographics can also be used to make these maps more visually appealing and interesting. 

There are also various templates available that you can use to create journey maps. Each business will have journey maps that look different based on your app. Customize these templates based on your needs and share them with the different teams in your organization.

6. Continuous Improvement Strategies

Simply mapping the user journey based on research is not enough. You need to test this for yourself to get a first-hand experience. When you enact the user journey , you have more clarity about what your users go through. 

You can test different strategies by following these steps to find areas for improvement:

• Track User Behavior Trends : Monitor how user behavior trends change by observing how users interact with the app over time. It helps identify popular features, pain points, and usage patterns. 
• A/B Testing: This process compares two versions of a feature to determine which performs better in terms of user engagement or conversion. Experimenting with different versions helps make data-driven decisions.
• Responding to Market Shifts: The app market dynamic changes constantly in terms of trends, technologies, and user preferences. Quickly adapting to these shifts allows app developers to adapt their strategies to remain competitive in the changing landscape.
• Optimizing for Long-Term Success: Adopting a continuous optimization approach can help developers gradually refine the app based on user feedback, changing market conditions, and evolving technology to ensure sustained user satisfaction and engagement.

User journeys help you understand you’re the actions, needs, emotions, challenges, etc. your users go through when interacting with your app. 

To create user-centric apps you will need to map user journeys. The steps discussed above can help you get started to create a successful user journey for mobile apps. 

Focus on your target users to gain valuable insights that can help you make improvements to your app.

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A Guide to Seamless User Journeys for Mobile Apps

Sonia Green

• November 29, 2019
• No Comments

The average smartphone user has over 80 apps on their phone, yet only launches 9 per day . With millions of apps already existing in the app space and many more in the process of being developed, it is essential that each app has intentional design and purpose, as well as being easy to navigate, in order to be in with a chance of app success. The ideal customer experience is a set of interactions that consistently exceed the needs and expectations of a customer. Providing the optimal user journey can even result in customers becoming advocates for the app, increasing retention and creating profitable growth. 

What makes a user journey seamless?

Whilst users do find an attractive UI appealing, real success lies in combining appealing visuals with a functional and convenient user experience. The success of an app is largely dependent on retention. An intuitive navigation system, for example, will outperform a futuristic design with a confusing user journey. The factors that are most integral to a seamless app user experience are:

• Intuitive design
• Clear onboarding
• Focusing on engagement and retention elements

Gamification

Case studies.

Duolingo, Kitchen Stories and Elevate are just three examples of mobile apps that we believe to display seamless user journeys. This post will cover what makes the app experience in these three case studies successful, providing insight into how you can ensure that your mobile app also provides a seamless user experience.

When developing an app, the layout of content and design should be such that users can be quickly educated on how to use the app. In fact, one of the main factors behind users commonly abandoning an app shortly after having downloaded it is poor user onboarding.

The Duolingo app has had immense success as a free tool to learn new languages. Its effective onboarding strategy enables you to choose the language you want to learn and determine your proficiency level before experiencing a short taster session. All the while, the app provides an introduction on how to use the app.

This strategy allows the user to get a feel for the app and how it works before having created a profile. The key to gaining active users is ensuring they understand the functionality of the whole app through an effective onboarding process. The creation of a Duolingo profile is also limited to providing a username and email address during registration, speeding up the onboarding process and preventing drop-offs. 

Once a user is active, Duolingo provides further instructions on how to use its leaderboard, where you can compete with your network, concurrently promoting app-sharing amongst friends. In order to be a part of the leaderboard you need to have completed a lesson that week – persuading users to regularly interact with the app. The more you use the app, the more benefits you are able to gain, such as increasing levels and gaining extra in-app currency or additional lives.

Duolingo clearly understands the importance of user activation as it provides in-app benefits for those who successfully complete lessons for 7 days in a row, incentivizing users to interact with the app for a full week. Gamification of the Duolingo app helps to increase engagement and retain loyal users, enhancing the overall learning experience and enabling the user to absorb a greater amount of information.

User Retention

Duolingo additionally sends regular push notifications and emails to remind users to complete their daily tasks, bringing users back to the app. Engaging with your users by adding elements of personalisation or encouraging the language of choice in push notifications and emails will help to build a meaningful relationship between the app and the user.

Kitchen Stories Recipes

Kitchen Stories Recipes’ success hasn’t gone unnoticed, with the app being selected as editors choice as well as being featured on the App Store. Upon opening the app, the background consists of a compilation of cooking videos, providing enticing visuals and highlighting the purpose of the app. As with Duolingo, users are able to explore the app prior to signing up, providing them with a clear onboarding experience at the same time.

After providing a username and email address users are then able to get full access to the app; creating cookbooks, favouriting recipes and adding items to their shopping list. Top tips will pop up throughout the user journey, where appropriate, to reveal how to make full use of the app and its features, giving the user a deeper understanding of the app’s full functionality. This is called progressive onboarding, it is an intuitive way of giving users information when they most need it rather than inundating them with information when they first enter the app.

In-app Features

The purpose of the app is to simplify every step of the cooking process. This is evident in the videos that are provided for almost every recipe to help visualise the instructions as well as a step-by-step written recipe. This also includes ‘how-to videos’ for cooking techniques that may be foreign to the audience. Additionally, the app allows you to set timers within the app, whilst continuing with the recipe, making the whole process seamless because it is intuitive to the user’s needs – offering multi-functional features to ensure the user journey doesn’t break. 

After using the app for a little while Kitchen Stories Recipes sends an in-app notification recommending that ‘good food is best shared, so spread the word’. This incentivizes people to share the app with others with the expectation that they will then be able to share recipes and cook together, simultaneously encouraging organic acquisition.

Customer feedback

Using app store reviews Kitchen Stories Recipes have been able to gain in-depth customer feedback. This immediately reveals the needs and wishes of the app’s users as well as monitoring for potential problems such as bugs or missing information in the customer journey. Responding to user feedback will also increase retention rates as users are more likely to continue using the app if they feel that their feedback was valued and their complaint has been resolved. 

Elevate has been recognised by Apple as the Best App of the Year in the United States, granting it instantaneous status. It can be assumed that Apple has deemed the user experience to be highly progressive, but this analysis delves further into why this is the case. To start off, upon opening the app, you are taken through a step-by-step process with clear explanations for every action, consequently providing a progressive onboarding experience. 

In-app Functionality

Prior to starting any challenges the user is required to partake in an initial EPQ test to establish their intelligence in each field, consequently optimising the user experience moving forward as each challenge is adjusted according to the users abilities. The app also provides clear instructions with imagery before every round to ensure the user understands the challenge prior to starting. A clear user journey enables the user to understand the full value of the app.

Once the user has completed their tasks for the day they can track their achievements and progress in each subsection, as well as measure themselves against other users of their age. This helps users analyse their progression, visualise their achievements in comparison to the norm and want to compete to be better – all of which encourages greater interaction with the app. Gamification in this example provides users the opportunity to see the real world, providing them with a first-hand look at how their choices within the game result in consequences or rewards.

Where to start

Duolingo, Kitchen Stories Recipes and Elevate all reveal that the foundations of a seamless user journey start with the ability for a user to pick up where they left off, providing a transparent technology-human interaction. Users need to be placed at the centre of the app journey, focussing on what they want as opposed to an internally-focused agenda.

Furthermore, the challenge of a seamless user experience is not only complicated due to the multiple design and technology components, but also due to the numerous people involved in developing it. These individuals need to have mutual values and objectives when it comes to the app and they must all be aware of the experience that the user should have throughout. The key factors to focus on in order to ensure success are:

• Creating a clear customer vision
• Ensuring an effective onboarding strategy
• Creating simple and intuitive user navigation
• Capturing customer feedback in real time

How Yodel Mobile can help 

Yodel Mobile is an Agile and holistic consultancy, aligning the views of the marketing and product teams into an app growth strategy. We work across the whole app user journey, understanding the wider business needs throughout. This methodology enables long-term sustainable growth and success, and we’ve done so for over 200 apps since our launch in 2007. Want to find out more? Get in touch here .

Make sure to  sign up to our newsletter  to get notified when we release a new blog post. Want to find out more about optimising your app and keeping up with the latest OS capabilities? Make sure to subscribe to  our Mastering Mobile Marketing video series . You can also get in touch by visiting the  Contact Us  page. Follow us on  LinkedIn , chat with us on Twitter  @yodelmobile , and join our  #AppMarketingUK LinkedIn group .

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User Journeys for Mobile Apps

Review the step-by-step actions taken by individual users. Drill down into each user’s sessions to see the time spent per session and every event logged per session. You’ll understand how individual users move through your app, whether they discover key features, and how they get from one section to another.

Filter your user journeys by segments , such as new or high value users, to analyze varying usage behavior. This can help improve things like onboarding, happy path conversions and feature discovery—all of which can dramatically improve engagement and retention .

Getting Started is Simple and Free!

Easily set up the Flurry SDK for your app.

We often make product decisions based on experiments and data analyses. Flurry allows us to measure and improve the app by providing fast and useful data and results.

Flurry’s Funnel Analysis really helped me understand how my users behave and identify specific parts of my apps to improve. In one particular app, Funnels helped me decrease the drop-out rate from 60% to 10%! ...It is all FREE. Can't beat that!

One of Flurry’s most useful features is the approximate demographic information. Since we’re not collecting PII, having some estimation for age, gender and geo is very helpful. Also, we like Flurry’s ability to compare Retention day with each other. It’s been helpful when looking at Retention-boosting features to see where the most drastic drop-offs occur. In addition, Flurry service seems to be more stable and reliable than others. And it’s free!

Flurry Analytics provides major insights about our games and helps us optimize our game design. The Reporting API and raw data export features allows us to feed data directly to our custom dashboards and make even more powerful decisions. It's one of the best analytics products for independent game developers like us.

Working with Flurry has allowed us to perform regular sanity checks against our in-house data, quickly generate complex visual funnels for new features, and measure retention and session data using highly-reliable filtering to exclude suspicious usage. In particular, Flurry’s new explorer feature has made this even easier by removing the need for pre-computing segmented user groups. We can now do on-the-fly analysis without any computational delays whatsoever.

Flurry was a turning point in how we understand our user's experience. Flurry's analytics tools were perfect to answer any questions we had.

Flurry is one of the most trusted and continuously evolving analytics platforms. It’s latest addition of Flurry Explorer and real-time data has helped us to boost game performance from day 1.

Flurry is a valuable day-to-day tool in our business and easy to use! We rely on Flurry to gain valuable insights into our app's users as well as to monetize various ad placements.

20 Customer Journey Touchpoints Examples + How to Optimize Them

Looking for examples of customer journey touchpoints?

If yes, you’re in the right place.

The article explores 20 major touchpoints in a SaaS product journey. And shows you how to optimize them for better conversions and higher customer satisfaction.

Let’s dive in.

• Customer journey touchpoints are moments or points of contact where customers interact with the product or brand.
• To identify the key touchpoints, first research customer expectations and needs. Then, study their interaction patterns at different journey stages using analytics and surveys.
• The purpose of the touchpoints at the pre-purchase stage is to capture the attention of potential customers and showcase product benefits .
• Examples of touchpoints at this stage include paid ads, blog articles, social media posts, marketing emails, webinars , customer reviews, and referrals.
• During the purchase phase, the touchpoints need to be optimized to enable customers to make informed decisions and to convince them to buy it.
• The purchase-stage touchpoints include free trials, demos , pricing and comparison pages, and customer testimonials.
• After the customers buy the product, the role of the touchpoints is to support customers and provide a positive experience . They are responsible for customer satisfaction, retention, and account expansion .
• Examples of post-purchase touchpoints include thank you and welcome emails, upsell and cross-sell messages, onboarding flows , self-service resources, and new feature announcements .
• Looking to optimize your customer journey touchpoints? Book Userpilot demo!

Try Userpilot and Take Your Customer Journey to the Next Level

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What are customer touchpoints?

Customer touchpoints are all the points of contact between the customer and the brand or the product along the customer journey .

By ensuring a positive customer experience across all touchpoints, SaaS companies can increase customer satisfaction , boost conversions, and strengthen relationships with their customer.

How do you identify customer touchpoints?

First, research your customers to find out what their needs and expectations are.

Next, analyze customer interactions using analytics tools and collect feedback about their background.

Finally, create a customer journey map with all touchpoints and associated actions, challenges, opportunities, and user feelings.

Important customer touchpoints before the purchase

The touchpoints at this stage get your product on the potential customer’s radar. They showcase its value and encourage them to explore what it has to offer in more depth.

1. Advertising

Advertising isn’t the most organic way to promote your product, but it’s very effective.

That’s because you can get it in front of your audience immediately and target very specific customer segments. This is particularly the case with PPC ads, like those on Google or social media. And retargeting enables you to keep them engaged with your brand.

Targeting and retargeting have one more benefit: they allow you to personalize the messages. That’s how you can highlight specific use cases and product benefits to relevant audiences.

To optimize your ads, track the performance of your campaigns with tools like Google Analytics and run A/B tests to identify those that best convert into landing page visits.

2. Content marketing

Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content. Like blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, or video tutorials .

Product-led content , which presents your product as a solution to customer problems, can be particularly effective at attracting new customers and converting them into free-trial or demo bookings .

To get a good ROI on your content, ensure it addresses genuine user pain points and offers actionable insights.

To help your users find it, optimize it for search engines and distribute it across other channels , like social media. And track its performance to identify content that best resonates with your target audiences.

3. Social media platforms

Social media platforms are the most popular marketing channel at the moment. Platforms like LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok are spaces where you can engage with potential customers, share your content, and build brand awareness.

To get the most out of this touchpoint, choose the platforms where your target audience hangs out. Post regularly to keep your audience engaged and respond to their comments and messages to build a community around your brand.

Visual content resonates best with social media users, so invest in videos , high-quality images, infographics, and carousels.

4. Email marketing

Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to potential customers to nurture leads and drive conversions. These could be newsletters, promotional offers, or drip campaigns.

Just like with other types of touchpoints, personalization is the key to email marketing success. Segment your email lists to send relevant messages to different audience groups, for example, based on their interests.

To increase open rates, craft engaging subject lines. Questions and subject lines with numbers tend to perform particularly well.

Finally, include strong CTAs in your emails to drive desired actions.

5. Webinars and events

Webinars and life events are an excellent way to attract new customers. They also keep your existing customers engaged and help them maximize the product value .

The idea is to run events that address common customer problems. For example, our July webinar focuses on converting free trials into paid accounts , which is one of the cornerstones of product-led growth .

Here’s the kicker:

In the webinars, we show the audience how to tackle their challenges with Userpilot capabilities.

6. Customer reviews

Customer reviews on pages like G2 or Capterra can encourage potential customers to explore your product further, so they should be part of your customer touchpoint strategy.

How do you optimize this touchpoint?

• Make sure your product pages on the review sites are up-to-date.
• Actively encourage existing customers to leave reviews . You can do it by targeting them with in-app messages .
• Always respond to feedback, especially if it’s negative . This shows your commitment to customer satisfaction and builds trust .

7. Word-of-mouth marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective marketing types, both in terms of conversions and cost . Customers are more likely to trust people they know than your marketing campaigns.

While most of your happy customers promote your product organically, you can motivate them to go that little bit further. Set up a referral program and reward them for every new customer they refer.

Just like Revolut, a UK-based bank, which offers £40 to every newly-referred customer who set up an account.

Important customer touchpoints during the purchase decision

Having captured the attention of the potential customers, it’s time to close the deals now. Here are the key touchpoints that can help.

8. Free trials

Free trials give users the chance to try out the product before they commit to the purchase. The principle is simple: instead of telling users what the product can offer, let them experience it firsthand.

How can you optimize the touchpoint?

• Use analytics to determine the ideal trial length . It needs to be long enough to activate users.
• Cap usage to let users experience value without satisfying all their needs .
• Create personalized onboarding experiences to reduce time to value .

Demos can quickly showcase product features and benefits to the customers.

Live demos are particularly useful for complex products whose value may be difficult to experience during the trial. By showing users how relevant features work, they allow them to use the free trial more productively.

For best results, tailor your demos to specific use needs and use cases and make them interactive so that participants can ask any questions that they might have. You can also email the recording to the participants so that they can review it at their own pace.

10. Pricing pages

Pricing pages provide detailed information about the various pricing plans, features included, and payment options available for the SaaS product.

To help customers make informed decisions, present the pricing details clearly and transparently: show the final price without any hidden fees. Add-ons make things unnecessarily complicated.

On your pricing page, include comparison tables to highlight the differences between plans.

To increase conversions , provide information about free trials, discounts, and special offers.

11. Comparison tools

Comparison tools help potential customers compare how your SaaS product stacks against competitors. These could be in the form of interactive web tools, downloadable comparison charts , side-by-side feature comparisons, or X vs. Y blog posts.

To do their job, the comparison data needs to be up-to-date. And keep the resources objective. Biased comparisons are easy to see through and erode trust in your brand.

12. Product reviews and testimonials

Customers trust reviews and testimonials more than your marketing materials. In fact, 88% of customers tend to trust reviews from strangers as much as from people they know.

They hinge on powerful psychological principles to build your credibility and authority. Customers who see that other well-known companies have chosen your product are more likely to ‘conform’ to become a part of the exclusive club.

Add testimonials and reviews to your money pages. Use images of real people, or even better, videos , as they convert the best.

Important customer touchpoints after the purchase

The customer swiping their credit card is just the beginning. The post-purchase touchpoints ensure they get adequate support and can get the value they’re paying for.

13. Thank you emails

Thank you emails are sent to users immediately after the purchase. To show your appreciation and confirm their transaction.

How do you write good thank you emails?

• Provide information on what the customer can expect next.
• Add a CTA that takes them to the login page or triggers an onboarding flow .
• Include links to additional resources, like tutorials .
• List well-known customers and include more testimonials to reassure the buyer they’ve made the right choice. In case they’re experiencing buyer’s remorse.

14. Upselling and cross-selling

Upselling and cross-selling involve promoting higher-tier plans or complementary products to existing customers to increase their lifetime value . And offer more value to customers.

You can achieve this through in-app messages that highlight the extra benefits of the add-ons or higher plans and prompt users to buy them.

Upsell/ cross-sell messages are most effective when they:

• Target users who are ready for the upgrade, for example, power users.
• Are triggered contextually when the user experiences the need for a premium feature or hits a usage limit.

15. Customer service touchpoints

Customer service touchpoints are interactions where customers seek help with their issues or questions. For example, via live chat, phone, or email.

Having frictionless access to support is essential for customer satisfaction. A lack of it can lead to churn as users’ patience runs out.

Here are some optimization tips:

• Provide support via multiple channels .
• Aim for quick response times.
• Train the customer service team to ensure product knowledge and excellent communication skills.

16. Welcome emails

Welcome emails are the first emails sent to new customers.

Just like thank you emails, they introduce customers to the product and provide essential information.

They follow the same rules: they are personalized , provide clear instructions on the next steps, and include links to onboarding resources, FAQs, and support contacts.

17. In-app onboarding

In-app onboarding involves guiding new users through the product’s features and setup process directly within the application. Using tools like tooltips , interactive walkthroughs , and checklists.

• Use progressive disclosure to introduce information gradually. Not to overwhelm users.
• Personalize it based on their use cases. To make it relevant.
• Use interactive elements and gamification to increase engagement and information retention.

18. Customer loyalty programs

Customer loyalty programs reward repeat customers with benefits like discounts, exclusive access, or reward points. The purpose? To strengthen relationships with customers and drive retention .

For example, you could create a points-based system where customers earn points for completing tasks or reaching milestones, and can exchange them for perks.

You can optimize this touchpoint by offering valuable and relevant rewards, clearly explaining how the program works, and keeping them informed about the rewards they’ve earned and new opportunities.

19. Self-service resources

Self-service resources, like knowledge bases, resource centers, or chatbots , allow customers to find answers and solve issues on their own without contacting support. 24/7.

How to optimize them?

• Ensure the resources cover the most common issues comprehensively.
• Keep content up-to-date with the latest information and product updates.
• Collect customer feedback to improve the resources.

20. New feature releases

SaaS teams can communicate new feature releases and updates via multiple touchpoints: email, in-app messages , blog articles, social media posts, and release notes, to name just a few.

To ensure the users engage with the new features:

• Clearly explain how they work and what benefits they offer.
• Showcase use cases.
• Create how-to guides , tutorials, and onboarding flows to drive adoption .

Well-optimized customer journey touchpoints provide potential and existing customers with the information they need and drive desired behaviors. This translates into higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. And better business performance.

If you’d like to learn how to use Userpilot to identify and optimize customer journey touchpoints in your SaaS , book the demo!

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9 customer experience software to improve customer satisfaction.

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Identifying and Optimizing Customer Journey Touchpoints

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What types of analytics software should i consider, the statsig team.

In a world where data is the new oil, harnessing its power is essential for businesses to thrive. Analytics software acts as the refinery, transforming raw data into valuable insights that drive informed decision-making and fuel growth.

Imagine navigating a ship without a compass or a map. That's what running a business without analytics software is like. You're sailing blindly, hoping to reach your destination by chance rather than by design. Analytics software provides the direction and clarity needed to steer your business towards success.

Understanding the importance of analytics software

Analytics software is the key to unlocking the potential of your data. It provides a deep understanding of user behavior and product performance, enabling you to make data-driven decisions that significantly improve business outcomes and user experience.

By leveraging analytics software, you can:

Gain insights into user engagement : Understand how users interact with your product, identify pain points, and optimize their journey.

Measure product performance : Track key metrics, monitor trends, and identify areas for improvement to enhance your product's effectiveness.

Make data-driven decisions : Base your strategies on real data rather than guesswork, increasing the likelihood of success.

Choosing the right analytics tools is crucial for effective growth strategies. The best analytics software aligns with your specific needs, integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack, and provides actionable insights that drive meaningful change.

Without analytics software, you're essentially flying blind. You may have a general idea of where you want to go, but you lack the precise navigation tools to get there efficiently. Analytics software acts as your compass, guiding you towards your goals with data-backed certainty.

Investing in analytics software is not just a nice-to-have; it's a must-have for businesses that want to stay competitive in today's data-driven landscape. By harnessing the power of analytics, you can make informed decisions, optimize your products, and ultimately, drive growth. Web analytics tools provide valuable insights into website performance and user behavior. They track metrics like page views, unique visitors, bounce rates, and time spent on site. This data helps you understand how users interact with your website and identify areas for improvement.

Popular web analytics tools include Google Analytics , Adobe Analytics , and Matomo. These platforms offer features like conversion tracking , which measures the effectiveness of your website in driving desired actions like purchases or signups. They also provide audience segmentation , allowing you to analyze behavior across different user groups.

Mobile app analytics: Measuring acquisition, retention, and in-app behavior

For businesses with mobile apps, mobile app analytics software is essential. These tools focus on metrics specific to mobile, such as app downloads, user retention, and in-app purchases. They help you understand how users discover and engage with your app.

Mobile app analytics platforms like Mixpanel , Amplitude , and AppsFlyer provide user acquisition insights, showing which channels drive the most installs. They also offer retention analysis , helping you identify factors that contribute to user churn. By tracking in-app behavior , you can optimize user flows and improve the overall app experience.

Product analytics: Gaining insights into feature usage and user journeys

Product analytics platforms go beyond traditional web and mobile analytics, focusing on how users interact with specific product features. They provide granular insights into user behavior, helping you understand which features drive engagement and retention.

Tools like Pendo , Heap , and Statsig enable you to track feature adoption and usage patterns. They help you identify friction points in user journeys and optimize onboarding flows. By analyzing user segments , you can tailor experiences to different user groups and personalize your product.

Marketing analytics: Measuring campaign performance and ROI

Marketing analytics tools help you assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts across various channels. They provide insights into campaign performance, audience engagement, and return on investment (ROI).

Platforms like HubSpot , Marketo , and Salesforce Marketing Cloud offer features like multi-touch attribution , which helps you understand the impact of different touchpoints on conversions. They also provide campaign analytics , allowing you to track key metrics like click-through rates and conversion rates. By measuring ROI , you can optimize your marketing spend and allocate resources effectively.

Choosing the right analytics software for your business

When selecting analytics software , consider your specific business needs and goals. If you have a website, web analytics tools are essential. For mobile apps, mobile app analytics platforms are crucial. If you want to optimize your product, consider product analytics solutions. And for measuring marketing effectiveness, marketing analytics tools are invaluable.

Many businesses use a combination of analytics tools to gain a comprehensive view of their performance. By leveraging the right analytics software , you can make data-driven decisions, optimize user experiences, and drive growth for your business.

Key features to look for in analytics software

When evaluating analytics software, there are several key features to consider. Real-time data processing and visualization are crucial for gaining immediate insights into user behavior and product performance. Look for platforms that can quickly ingest, analyze, and display data as it comes in.

Customizable dashboards and reports are another important aspect of analytics software. Every business has unique needs, so the ability to tailor the interface and output to your specific requirements is essential. Seek out solutions that offer flexibility in creating and modifying visualizations.

Integration with your existing tech stack is also a critical consideration. Your analytics software should seamlessly connect with other tools you rely on, such as your CRM, marketing automation platform, or data warehouse . Robust API support and pre-built connectors can make the integration process smoother.

To gain deeper insights into user segments and cohorts, look for analytics software with advanced segmentation capabilities . This allows you to slice and dice your data based on various attributes, such as demographics, behavior, or acquisition source. Cohort analysis helps you understand how different user groups engage with your product over time.

Other valuable features in analytics software include:

Anomaly detection : Automatically identify unusual patterns or outliers in your data.

Predictive analytics : Use machine learning to forecast future trends and behaviors.

Data governance and security : Ensure your data is protected and compliant with regulations.

Collaboration tools : Enable teams to work together on analysis and share insights easily.

When evaluating analytics software, it's important to consider your specific use case and requirements. Some platforms may excel at certain features, such as real-time analytics or advanced segmentation, while others may prioritize ease of use or integration capabilities . Take the time to assess your needs and evaluate multiple options before making a decision.

Implementing the right analytics software can have a significant impact on your ability to make data-driven decisions and optimize your product. By choosing a platform with the key features mentioned above, you'll be well-equipped to gain valuable insights and drive growth for your business. For startups looking to get started quickly, consider exploring specialized programs that offer tailored solutions and support.

Implementing analytics software effectively

Developing a clear tracking plan is crucial for consistent data collection. Start by identifying key user actions and events that align with your business goals. Document these events in a centralized tracking plan to ensure all stakeholders are on the same page.

Tag managers streamline implementation by allowing you to manage analytics tags without modifying code. This reduces technical overhead and enables faster updates to your tracking setup. Popular tag management solutions include Google Tag Manager and Adobe Launch.

Proper event tracking captures meaningful user actions , providing valuable insights into user behavior. Define custom events for actions like button clicks, form submissions, and page views. Use descriptive naming conventions and include relevant properties to add context to each event.

Establishing a data warehouse centralizes storage and analysis . A data warehouse acts as a single source of truth, combining data from various analytics tools and other sources. This enables advanced analysis, such as multi-touch attribution and cross-platform tracking.

When implementing analytics software, prioritize data accuracy and completeness . Regularly audit your tracking setup to identify any missing or incorrect data. Use data validation techniques to ensure the integrity of your collected data.

Collaboration between teams is essential for successful analytics implementation. Involve stakeholders from marketing, product, and engineering to align tracking requirements with business objectives. Foster a data-driven culture that encourages experimentation and iterative improvements.

Choosing the right analytics software depends on your specific needs and budget. Consider factors like ease of use, integration capabilities, and scalability. Popular options include Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude, each offering unique features and pricing models.

Leveraging analytics software for growth requires a strategic approach. Use insights from your analytics data to identify opportunities for optimization and experimentation. Conduct A/B tests to validate hypotheses and measure the impact of changes on key metrics.

As your analytics setup evolves, regularly review and update your tracking plan . Remove obsolete events and add new ones to reflect changes in your product or business goals. Continuously educate team members on best practices for data collection and analysis .

By implementing analytics software effectively, you can unlock valuable insights into user behavior and make data-driven decisions. Start small, iterate often, and always keep your business objectives in mind. With the right tools and processes in place, you'll be well-equipped to drive growth and optimize your digital products.

Leveraging analytics for growth and optimization

Analytics software provides powerful tools to drive growth and optimize your product. Funnel analysis helps you identify where users drop off in your conversion flow. By addressing these bottlenecks, you can significantly improve conversion rates and user engagement.

A/B testing allows you to experiment with different variations of your product experience. By comparing key metrics between test groups, you can determine which changes have the greatest positive impact. This data-driven approach ensures you're consistently optimizing for user satisfaction and business objectives.

Cohort analysis enables you to track user behavior over time. By grouping users based on when they first engaged with your product, you can identify trends in retention and lifetime value. This insight helps you focus on the features and initiatives that drive long-term success.

Predictive analytics uses historical data to anticipate future outcomes. By leveraging machine learning models, you can proactively make decisions that improve user experience and business performance. This forward-looking approach allows you to stay ahead of the curve and adapt quickly to changing market conditions.

Analytics software empowers you to make informed, data-driven decisions at every stage of the user journey. By continuously analyzing and optimizing your product, you can accelerate growth and deliver exceptional value to your customers.

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