Process: Journey Mapping

Imagine that from the time guests research a hotel’s services to the time they check out, they feel like VIPs (Very Important People). They leave with a smile, write a glowing online review, and plan to return. They also spread positive word-of-mouth about the brand and, over time, are likely to become loyal guests. These are the impacts of refining the guest experience.

In this article, I’ll take a close look at the hotel customer journey—and how a business can optimize hotel operations to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

What Is the Hotel Customer Journey?

The hotel customer journey is the path guests take from the moment they first hear about a hotel to the time they complete their visit—and beyond. It includes all the touchpoints at which guests interact with a brand. These touchpoints cover everything from booking a room to staying at the hotel to post-stay interactions such as surveys and loyalty-program invitations. Every stage of this journey shapes the guest experience and guests’ likelihood of returning. Read More

This is a sample chapter from the book Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, & Diagrams, by Jim Kalbach, which O’Reilly Media published in May 2016. UXmatters is publishing this chapter with O’Reilly’s permission. Copyright © 2016 O’Reilly Media. All rights reserved.

Chapter 4: Initiate: Starting a Mapping Project

One of the most common questions I get in my workshops on mapping is, “How do I begin?” Aspiring mapmakers may see the immediate value in these techniques, yet they have barriers getting started.

Getting stakeholder buy-in is a common challenge. I’ve been fortunate to have had opportunities to create diagrams of all kinds and have found that stakeholders see the value in mapping only after the process is complete. As a result, initiating an effort requires convincing them up front. Read More

As we weave artificial intelligence (AI) into digital products, UX designers face a new question: How can we create experiences in which humans and AI agents work together seamlessly?

This article offers UX designers a practical blueprint for designing AI systems that are powerful, responsible, explainable, and deeply human. Traditional journey mapping focuses on human actions, emotions, and touchpoints. But AI‑driven systems introduce another active participant: the AI agent, a digital assistant and intelligent system that listens, thinks, interprets, and often takes action to support a user’s task in context. Read More