What is a digital journey map?
A digital journey map is a visualization of the steps web audience members take to accomplish a goal, such as registering for university or applying for a job. Three key journey maps have been produced by the Web Services team:
- Prospective student journey map: Steps prospective students take as they investigate options, apply for admissions, accept an offer and transition to being a student at McGill
- Current student journey maps: Steps current students take from the time they arrive at McGill in their foundation year through to graduation
- Academic and career planning - Focused on how students manage and track progress towards achieving academic and career goals
- Becoming part of a community - Focused on steps students take as they are introduced to and become part of the McGill community
Information displayed in the journey maps reflects student input shared through interviews. Interviewees include representatives from across McGill's diverse student body.
Why do we create digital journey maps?
These maps help us understand the journeys of our web audiences in a meaningful way. They provide strategic insights that we can use to improve audience experiences.
How is a journey map created?
Our digital journey maps are created with input from across campus.(A big thank-you to individuals and teams in our community who've contributed in the maps we've produce so far!)
Here's an overview of our process:
- Identify goals and areas of interest
- Conduct interviews
- Facilitate workshops to analyze data collected with key contacts from across McGill
- Illustrate journey map
- Review and discuss map with stakeholders to inform projects
How are we using our journey maps?
These maps help us improve audience experiences in a multitude of ways:
Developing empathy to maintain user focus
Producing journey maps helps us develop empathy and understanding for audience experiences. Empathy makes it possible for us to relate to peoples' perspectives. Through understanding, we can make choices based on audience preferences, rather than our own.
Identifying areas for improvement
Journey maps illustrate common challenges in our audience experience that should be addressed. Maps also highlight opportunities to provide support in areas that may have been overlooked in the past.
Creating strategic alignment through a shared frame of reference
We review and discuss our journey maps with project teams across campus. These discussions help prioritize efforts and focus intent. We can reach consensus and make decisions that we know have been informed by our audience needs.
Projects informed by our digital journey maps
Completed
- McGill homepage redesign
- Undergraduate admissions website redesign
In progress
- Career Planning Service
- Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science
- Schulich School of Music
- McGill Web Advisory Committee planning
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Connecting our journey map to McGill applications, systems and services, with input from:
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IT Application Services
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Macdonald Campus
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Student Life and Learning
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Teaching and Learning Services
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Planning in progress for additional projects.
Interested in learning more about our Web Services' digital journey maps and how they relate to your web projects and initiatives? Fill out Web Services' consultation request form to share your project details and request support.
