Abstract
Narrative mode of thought occurs frequently in the design process. The user research phases of a design lifecycle involve stories of users’ pains and aspirations. Aspirations can be abstract and highly contextual to uncover from conventional user research questions. Using journey maps can be an effective means to elicit user needs. Two designers experiment with journey-map styled worksheets i.e., journey probes as a tool for user research. The experiment was carried out to understand aspirations of early-career employees in a multi-national corporation in information technology services. The paper outlines the learnings gathered from the experiment and its potential as a tool for user research.
Keywords
user research, journey maps, employee, aspirations
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.56
Citation
Ratkal, S.,and Patankar, S.(2025) Journey Probe: Uncovering aspirations of early-career employees via narrated journeys, in Mahamuni, R., Onkar, P. (eds.), ServDes 2025: Empowering Diversity, Nurturing Lasting Impact, 6–10 October, Hyderabad, India. https://doi.org/10.21606/servdes2025.56
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Journey Probe: Uncovering aspirations of early-career employees via narrated journeys
Narrative mode of thought occurs frequently in the design process. The user research phases of a design lifecycle involve stories of users’ pains and aspirations. Aspirations can be abstract and highly contextual to uncover from conventional user research questions. Using journey maps can be an effective means to elicit user needs. Two designers experiment with journey-map styled worksheets i.e., journey probes as a tool for user research. The experiment was carried out to understand aspirations of early-career employees in a multi-national corporation in information technology services. The paper outlines the learnings gathered from the experiment and its potential as a tool for user research.