Mapping users’
mental models
UX in the City Manchester 2019 • Mariana Morris • frutostudio.co.uk

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What
Intro to Mental
Models
Practice
Empathise
(Understand users)
Synthesise
(map out)
Designing
Case
studies
Fixing
Your journey in this session
How
When
Why
Be able to
apply the
techniques
on Monday.
Goal

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What are mental models

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“A mental model represents
a person’s thought process
for how something works
(i.e., a person’s
understanding of the
surrounding world). (...) They
help shape actions and
behavior, influence what
people pay attention to in
complicated situations, and
define how people approach
and solve problems.”
Susan Carey
https://uxmag.com/articles/the-secret-to-desi
Mental models

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“Mental models are simply
affinity diagrams of
behaviours made from
ethnographic data gathered
from audience
representatives”
Indi Young
http://boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/what
-is-your-mental/Excerpt.MentalModels.IndiYo
ung.pdf
Mental models

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User’s mental models (expected journeys)
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Get to the
train
station.
Get on
the right
train.
Get off on
the other
end.
I need to get
a train to
London.
Arrive in
London on
time.

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Friction happens when there
is a mismatch between users’
mental models and the
systems’ design.

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“There's great inertia in
users' mental models:
stuff that people know
well tends to stick, even
when it's not helpful.”
Jacob Nielsen
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mental-models/
Inertia in users’ mental models
Goal: Get cash
Photo by top by megawatts86 on Flickr.

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Example:
Monzo’s current account set up
Disruption:
Challenging the mental models
Innovation

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How?

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How
1. Step back and get into users’ mind
○ Ethnographic research
○ User interviews
2. Map out how users expect the system to work
○ Mental model mapping

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Empathise Synthesise Design
Ideal: User empathy before Design
Design
Frustrate
users
Empathise Synthesise Design (fix)
What usually happens: Design without
understanding users then redesign and fix.

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When?

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Empathise Synthesise Design
2. Fix UX issues
(existing project)
Problem
Empathise Synthesise Design
1. Identify business opportunities and innovative solutions
(new or existing project)
Business goal
We map out mental models to...

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Why?

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Business reasons why we out users’ mental models
1. Increase customer retention and adoption
2. Reduce costs of redesign
3. Increase in product competitive advantage (Spot innovation
and business opportunities)

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1. Empathise with users

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● Users are grouped by differences in behaviours and needs (not
demographics)
● Structured, but relaxed (conversation style, not a
questionnaire)
● Open non-leading questions
● Active listen
● It’s about their behaviours (not product preferences)
● Get to the root of the problem and their intentions (Ask why,
why, why,...)
User interviews to understand their mental models

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Open vs. closed questions
Open-ended questions: questions that allow someone to give a free-form answer.
Closed-ended questions: can be answered with “Yes” or “No,” or they have a limited set of possible
answers (such as: A, B, C, or All of the Above).
“The most important benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to find more than you
anticipate: people may share motivations that you didn’t expect and mention behaviors and concerns that
you knew nothing about. When you ask people to explain things to you, they often reveal surprising mental
models, problem-solving strategies, hopes, fears, and much more.”
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/open-ended-questions/
Open questions (Do)
● Who
● What
● When
● Where
● Why
● How
Closed questions (Don’t)
● Did
● Have
● Are
● Were
● Will

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Exercise 1: Interview

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“User interview” (activity 1) - 2min
(This would be done in user interviews, but to fit into the time of this session…)
Individually:
● Write down on post-it notes, the steps you take to plan a holiday:
● Trigger
● Behaviour (steps / actions) Example: Decide on the type of holiday.
● Goal
Trigger Behaviour Behaviour ...
Goal
(Book holiday)
Decide on
the type of
holiday
Look on a map
to decide areas
I haven’t been
to
Find
accomodation
Example:

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● In groups of 4.
● Talk through within your group your steps you take to plan a
holiday to understand them.
● Take turns (1-min each person).
“User interview” (activity 2)- 4min

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2. Synthesise: Mapping out
mental models

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The data gathered in the interviews provides the foundation for:
● Personas (for that particular behavior which was explored)
● Mental model maps
● Experience/User Journey maps
Data gathered from user interviews

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Mental model diagram by Indi Young
Mental model with features aligned beneath it. (Features from the product category list from Procter &
Gamble’s site www.pg.com.) Young, Indi. 2008. Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human
Behavior. New York: Rosenfeld Media.
Group names of behaviours within
(high level groups - “mental space”)
Task
Feature from
the product
category or
content of
website
User
Business

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Example

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Mental models help find experience groupings.
“The mental model represents a set of states of mind (mental spaces) that a person
might pop into and out of during this journey toward accomplishing a goal.”
https://rosenfeldmedia.com/mental-models/journeys-experiences-mental-sp/
How mental models relate to user journeys?

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Mental models containing other useful layers

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Exercise 2:
Map out the mental model

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1. Map out the users’ mental models - 10min
In groups of 4.
1. Group similar behaviours keeping the order of the journey
(affinity map).
2. Label the groups by themes (“mental spaces”).

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3. Fill in the other relevant gaps - 10min

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Case study:
Fixing UX issues

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Trigger
Users’ mental spaces Goal
Page flow
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Pages
List of problems

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Identifying friction & opportunities for improvement

To fix it, we compared the
existing design (what the user
needs to do) with what users
expect to do (mental
models).

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Case study:
Designing from scratch

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Matching mental models and page flows

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Mental model mapping & User story mapping
Mental models can also act as a road map, ensuring continuity of vision and opportunity. It can be nicely
aligned with User Story Mapping.
Image source: http://www.barryovereem.com/the-user-story-mapping-game/

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Thank you.
UX Consultancy & In-house training
frutostudio.co.uk
Mariana Morris
Director of User Experience Design
mariana@frutostudio.co.uk
@marianamota
Any questions?
This presentation © Mariana Morris, 2018