User experience vision and principles

Output

A way of describing what your organisation is working towards – the future-state experience you’re attempting to create for users.

Outcomes

  • A clear articulation of the user experience that your project team recommends or is going to work towards; this can include journey maps, user scenarios, system maps, storyboards and prototypes.

Use when

  • Trying to persuade sponsors to allocate funding by bringing to life the user experience you intend to create.
  • Trying to clearly describe the end goal to another team who will take over the project.
  • You’re testing a vision or a concept with users in a research setting and you’re seeking feedback on the user experience.

User experience vision and principles are not

  • A plan of action – The vision and the principles simply describe where you are going, not how to get there.

Tips

Decide on the most important elements of the user experience that you need to bring to life for your audience before you decide which format will be most helpful for your visioning output. You may need multiple visioning outputs for different audiences or to help you make more than one point about the user experience.

Key terminology

Vision: An output that brings to life the experience you are attempting to build for users. Journey maps, user scenarios, system maps, storyboards and prototypes are all ways of articulating your vision.

Principles: Statements that act as touchstones for a team as they work to design a particular sort of user experience.

Updated