Mentor Assessment 

 
Name of Professional: ​Mr. Roman 
Profession:​ UI/UX Design 
Business Name:​ Cloud Elements 
Date of Meeting:​ March 17, 2019 
Time: ​2:00 PM 
Topic:​ User Journey and Site Maps 
 
In order for me to understand the UX Design process in depth, my 
mentor, Mr. Roman, had asked me to create a sitemap and research about user 
journey maps to develop a basic outline of my website. I was a slightly nervous 
because I had no idea what sitemaps and user journey maps were, so creating 
them would be difficult for me without background information. Even though 
this would be a challenging task for me, I was at ease to know that Mr. Roman 
would guide me through the process.  
In order for me to create a user journey map, Mr. Roman had assigned 
me an article to read to have a better understanding of what the map is used for 
and the creation process. As I was reading the article, I learned that UX 
designers typically use empathy maps to analyze the user’s goals, expectations, 
needs, and behavior. In my opinion, I felt that this strategy was efficient because 
the user’s vision would allow the designer to easily map out the website. In 
addition, I also learned that empathy maps are created before journey maps in 
order to reference back to the needs of the user. Journey maps are split into two 
categories, retrospective and prospective. Retrospective focuses on different 
traditional design styles in the past, which helps map out how users currently 
use their resources. Prospective stresses on how the designer expects the users 
to behave with a new product. As a part of my Original Work research, I also 
created a sitemap which served as a basic outline of my website. I experienced 
difficulties while brainstorming the tabs that I would include and if the contact 
page was necessary to add, but Mr. Roman suggested that adding a contact page 
would be redundant since each club page would include the club contact 
information.  
Additionally, I was intrigued by the outline of the user journey map and 
the different factors that are included. I expected the journey map to resemble 
the empathy map but they were categorized differently. The empathy map, 
which serves as a rough template, is split into different sections based on 
behavior and the the user’s needs. The user journey map is portrayed as a big 
table with steps similar to a grid where the horizontal lines are the steps 
through time while the vertical lines are the themes for analysis. The horizontal 
column aids the designer in creating a basic outline of the steps that are needed 
to take to finish the product. The vertical lines help the designer to research 
more in depth within the steps taken. I didn’t quite understand what to include 
for the themes for analysis since the diagram given in the article was 
referencing videography and didn’t match up with the website development 
process. Mr. Roman suggested that I eliminate unnecessary categories and write 
about the exploration of clubs and search capability.  
After creating the sitemap and user journey map, I’ve learned that it is 
critical to create a sitemap since sitemaps serve as the infrastructure of a 
website. Sitemaps allow the designer to easily plan out their ideas for 
development which saves time in the process. Empathy maps are important 
because it allows the designer to capture the user’s persona and communicate 
with ease. Without communication, the development process would be 
difficult and the product wouldn’t have user flow. Additionally, user journey 
maps are vital because it allows for the designer to navigate through the design 
process and understand the issues faced when creating the website. It enables 
ideas to flow within the team in order to develop a user friendly site. Since I 
have already created a sitemap and user journey map of my own, I would be 
able to use the information gained as a reference when creating my website to 
understand the obstacles that I would face as well as the different approaches I 
could take to improve my product.  
Overall, I was able to learn more about the UX Design process including 
the maps used to plan out the development of the website. The strategy of 
understanding the users through empathy and user journey maps would allow 
me build connections, improve communication, and efficiently create a 
website. The information gained from research as well as the suggestions 
received from Mr. Roman would be beneficial to my Original Work and the 
future when I continue my journey in UI/UX Design.