Journey Maps

Mapping Travel

More often than not, readers of travel narratives can expect to find at least one map—if not several—showing, as English privateer William Dampier wrote, “the Course of the Voyage,” that is, where the author-traveler went and, implicitly, a sense of what was seen and experienced. Dampier used a now-common cartographic strategy to tell the story from beginning to end as well as around significant places on the way by marking the journey with a ‘pricked’ line. Despite the lines’ popularity and present ubiquity, the complex intellectual and material process of considering travel as a continuum rather than as a series of stops along the way and of plotting a journey onto a map have attracted relatively little academic attention. Drawing on a thousand years of European travel writing and map-making, Jordana Dym suggests that after centuries of text-based itineraries and on-the-spot directions guiding travelers and constituting their reports, maps in the fifteenth century emerged as tools for Europeans to support and report the results of land and sea travel. Called in subsequent centuries 'route maps,' 'itinerary maps,' and 'travel maps,' often interchangeably, what Dym defines as journey maps added lines of travel to show where travelers had been. Sine their emergence, most have taken one of two forms: itinerary maps, which connected stages as points with a line, and route maps, which tracked unbroken lines between endpoints. In the seventeenth century, the conventions of journey mapping were codified and increasingly incorporated into travel writing and other genres that represented individual travel. With each succeeding generation, these linear journey maps have become increasingly common and complex, responding to changes in forms of transportation, such as air and motor car ‘flight’ and print technology, especially the advent of multi-color printing. This is their story.

Journey Maps

In this book is described one of most powerful tools available to craft a superior experience for your customers and end users. Credible studies show that organizations that focus on experience optimization perform dramatically better than those that do not. In the 20th-century product styling like advertising was about making people want things. Service blueprints are a response to the realization that it is more efficient and successful to create new services and experiences that people want and need. The service sector makes up nearly 70% of most western economies and more than 50% of the Chinese economy, yet customers are often frustrated by their service experiences. Customers choose products and services that deliver the best experiences. Designing your customer's entire experience is key to differentiating your designs from competitors in an increasingly crowded competitive marketplace. Through applying journey mapping organizations can deliver a more compelling and valuable experience. Experience maps build consensus across your organization with stakeholders, to positively impact your entire organization and your bottom line. This method is a core strategic tool for all design and I believe it will become a required skill for every working designer and manager.

Catalogue of map froom of the Royal geographical society