01
Interface
Is the interaction itself unclear, inaccessible, inconsistent or difficult to complete?
Kirmela / Tool 01
Experience Problem Map.
A practical way to look beyond the visible symptom and consider where an experience problem may actually be coming from before deciding what to fix.
The premise
The interface is one possible source of difficulty. It should never be assumed to be the source.
A difficult experience can be created by the interface, the wider journey, the information being requested, an underlying process, technical conditions, accessibility barriers or decisions elsewhere in the service.
Mapping the possibilities first can change what you investigate and what you eventually decide to change.
The map
Work through seven possible sources of difficulty.
02
Journey
Does the wider sequence, hand-off, timing or route through the experience create the difficulty?
03
Information
Are people being asked for information they do not have, do not understand or cannot provide in the required way?
04
Process
Is the digital experience exposing an underlying business rule or process that makes the task unnecessarily difficult?
05
Technical conditions
Could device, connectivity, performance, compatibility or another technical constraint be shaping what happens?
06
Accessibility
Are disabled people or people using assistive technology encountering barriers that are hidden in aggregate behaviour?
07
Elsewhere in the service
Is the cause outside the product entirely: communication, policy, support, operations or another decision surrounding the experience?
Use the map
Start with what you are seeing.
- Describe the visible symptom without explaining it.
- Mark what evidence you already have.
- Work through each possible source of difficulty.
- Separate evidence from assumptions.
- Identify the explanations worth investigating.
- Decide what needs to be understood before choosing an intervention.
Go further
A map can frame the question. Evidence has to answer it.
If the situation is important enough that the answer will change a meaningful decision, Kirmela can help investigate it.
Talk to Kirmela