Journey mapping is a visual method that helps designers understand the experiences people have as they interact with a product or service. It’s more than a chart—it captures emotions, pain points, and opportunities along the way. I created a journey map around Jonathan Lee, a 27-year-old software developer from Brooklyn, who commutes daily to Manhattan. His morning routine blends two constants in city life: public transit and music.

Using the six Points of View (POVs) from TikTok, Canvas, and Netflix, I explored different ideation techniques to analyze user feedback and identify how each platform could enhance the user experience. Drawing on the readings "Introduction to the Essential Ideation Techniques,” "Ideation for Everyday Design Challenges," and more, I combined analytical and visual methods to generate structured yet creative solutions. The readings emphasized quantity over quality, and curiosity over non-judgment, reminding me that the best ideas often emerge from iteration and exploration rather than a single “right” answer.

In user experience design, defining the problems is one of the most critical steps in the design thinking process. As Aaron Benjamin explains, “It’s important to define a problem statement to measure how well your solution solves it.”

User personas are a core aspect of user experience (UX) design because they bring real, human-centered ideas into the design process. Personas are more than simple “profiles”—they are empathy tools that remind designers who they are creating for. There is no official method for creating personas, but there are standards that one should meet.

Design thinking begins with empathy. Before ideas, sketches, or testing prototypes, designers first need to understand the people they’re designing for. Empathy is what allows us to step outside of our own perspective and see, feel, and experience the world as others do.

“A designer who doesn’t understand human psychologies is going to be no more successful than an architect who doesn’t understand physics.” – Joe Leech

Design thinking is an iterative, human-centered method to help tackle complex problems. Tim Brown of IDEO emphasizes that it’s about “creating an environment conducive to growth and experimentation, and the making of mistakes in order to achieve out-of-the-ordinary results.”

Design thinking has become one of the most talked-about approaches to problem-solving across various industries. At its core, it is a method that prioritizes empathy, creativity, and iteration.