Humans have always made maps; to tell us where we are, to show us how to get somewhere we want to go, to understand the bigger context. More and more, designers are creating maps for these reasons, and others. We make maps to draw insight, catalyze ideas, to get on the same page, and as tools for understanding complex experiences and processes.
We make customer journey maps, empathy maps, mental models, experience maps and strategy roadmaps. Maps are a pure form of sense-making. This is in our past and is undoubtedly in our future as a discipline.
What’s next for these tools? How will they evolve? What cartography capabilities do we need to develop as practitioners? What makes a map useful?
Let’s talk about maps, baby!
