How to visualise your app customer journey
Once upon a time there were two prospective lifelong users for your app. One of them converted into an engaged, loyal user, while the other churned after just a few interactions. How can you begin to understand the difference between these two people and why they made the decisions they did?
While app analytics can help you track installs and user behavior, they don’t go far enough to explain the complexity of a modern app user journey. Only through creating a detailed app user journey map can you visualize what users go through at each moment, allowing you to optimize the experience to maximize retention and revenue.
What is an app user journey map?
Simply put, it’s a visual framework that helps you understand a user's experience—from initial awareness of your app, to onboarding, to continued engagement and advocacy.
If done effectively, an app user journey map encompasses all touchpoints across various platforms and devices that users interact with. The methodology for constructing this journey map varies, and can be approached in multiple ways, which we will outline later in this article.
Regardless of the tools or format you use, the core goal is to map out each stage of the journey to identify user motivations, pain points, emotions, obstacles, and engagement opportunities. This highlights what is otherwise invisible in raw analytics.
According to research from Aberdeen Group, companies that utilize structured journey mapping see:
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54% greater return on marketing investment
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24% more positive social media mentions
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3.5 times greater revenue from referrals
How to plan your app user journey effectively
Think of each segment of your map as a plot point in an app engagement story that prompts questions about why users take certain actions and what drives their next steps.
At the core of each decision is an emotional state. Whether your user is opening your app while commuting or interacting with a push notification at home, each touchpoint evokes specific emotions that influence retention. Your job is to enhance these interactions by providing the right content or incentive at every stage of the journey.
Start with a simple who, when, and why framework. First, build user personas, identify pain points, and determine who is entering any given journey. Then, identify when they engage with your app and map their interaction touchpoints. Finally, examine what motivates them at each stage—this is crucial to understanding retention dynamics.
What should the map look like?
There’s no single way to visualize an app user journey. You might prefer post-it notes, digital flowcharts, or a journey-mapping tool.
This article by Neil Davey features nine different journey map styles. The common thread is applying user emotions and actions at various engagement stages. While most maps include awareness, onboarding, engagement, and retention, you can customize these to align with your app’s goals.
Tools such as Microsoft Visio and Gliffy are useful for structured mapping, while Lucidchart offers a simpler alternative. Choose a format that provides meaningful insights for your team.
Key challenges in mapping the app journey
The biggest challenge in crafting an app journey map is the **omnichannel nature of user interactions**. Users engage across different devices and platforms, making it difficult to track all touchpoints comprehensively.
Additionally, offline engagement, such as word-of-mouth referrals, can influence the journey in ways that aren’t always easy to measure. For instance, Dea Kacorri from Realise points out an example with travel apps:
“A travel app like Expedia facilitates booking, but the user experience ultimately sits with the airline or hotel. Whether they return to Expedia depends on their post-booking experience, which the app itself doesn’t fully control.”
Finally, an app user journey map should be dynamic. As you collect more data from A/B testing, surveys, and in-app behavior analysis, your map should evolve to reflect real user experiences. Treating it as a static blueprint can result in missed opportunities for optimization.
Summary
Mobile users navigate a crowded digital landscape where distractions are constant. Without a structured app user journey map, you risk overlooking critical drop-off points and failing to maximize retention.
Of course, user personas, onboarding funnels, engagement loops, and journey mapping must work together for a complete picture. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but integrating emotional states into user touchpoints will help craft an effective journey that keeps users engaged.