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Touchpoints

What are touchpoints?

Touchpoints are every point at which a user comes into contact with your product, service, or brand: app screens, emails, support calls, ads, packaging, and so on. Mapping touchpoints helps you see the full experience and decide where to improve or invest.

Use it when: you’re mapping a user journey or experience and need to list where interactions happen (channel and moment). Touchpoints are the “where” in each stage of the journey.

Copy/paste template (list touchpoints per stage)

For each journey stage (e.g. Discover, Sign up, First use, Support):

  • Channel: Digital (app, web, email, chat) / Physical (store, packaging) / Human (support, sales).
  • Moment: What happens (e.g. “Receives welcome email”, “Opens app home”).
  • Owner: Who’s responsible (team or system).
  • Pain or opportunity: Note if this touchpoint is a problem or a chance to improve.

Use this to populate a user journey map or service blueprint.

Why touchpoints matter

  • Make the full experience visible so you don’t optimise one channel and ignore the rest.
  • Help prioritise which interactions to fix or design first (e.g. first-run touchpoints for activation).
  • Support consistency: same message and behaviour across touchpoints where it matters.
  • Clarify ownership so each touchpoint has a clear owner (team or system).

What good touchpoint mapping includes

Checklist

  • [ ] Coverage – All relevant channels and moments for the journey you care about (don’t leave gaps).
  • [ ] User perspective – Touchpoints as the user experiences them, not only internal process steps.
  • [ ] Linked to journey – Each touchpoint sits in a stage of the user journey.
  • [ ] Actionable – You can name pain points and opportunities and assign next steps.
  • [ ] Ownership – Clear who owns or influences each touchpoint.

Common formats

  • By channel: Digital, physical, human. Use when you’re coordinating across channels.
  • By journey stage: Touchpoints listed under Discover, Consider, Buy, Use, Support, etc. Use for user journey maps.
  • Service blueprint: Touchpoints plus front-stage (user sees) and back-stage (internal). Use when process and systems matter.

Examples

Example (the realistic one)

Journey: New user from sign-up to first value. Touchpoints: (1) Marketing landing page – channel: web; (2) Sign-up form – web; (3) Confirmation email – email; (4) First login / onboarding screens – app; (5) “Get started” in-app message – app; (6) First success moment (e.g. “Project created”) – app. You note: touchpoint 4 is where most drop off; touchpoint 6 is under-designed. You prioritise redesigning onboarding (4) and the first success moment (6).

Common pitfalls

  • Only product UI: you list app screens but forget email, support, and marketing. → Do this instead: include every channel the user touches in the journey you’re mapping.
  • Internal view only: touchpoints are “our process” not “user’s moment”. → Do this instead: describe each touchpoint from the user’s perspective (what they see and do).
  • No next steps: the map sits unused. → Do this instead: assign pain points and opportunities to owners; tie to backlog or experiments.
  • Too many at once: mapping the entire company. → Do this instead: scope to one journey (e.g. onboarding or support) and one persona.
  • Touchpoints vs user journey: the user journey is the full story (stages, actions, emotions); touchpoints are the specific places or moments of interaction in that story.
  • Touchpoints vs user flow: a user flow is the path through a product (screens/steps); touchpoints can be product, email, human, or physical – broader than one flow.
  • Touchpoints vs channels: channel is the medium (web, email, phone); a touchpoint is a concrete moment in that channel (e.g. “welcome email” is one touchpoint in the email channel).
  • User journey – touchpoints sit inside journey stages.
  • User flow – product touchpoints often correspond to steps in a flow.
  • Onboarding – onboarding is a set of touchpoints (emails, in-app, etc.) in the “first use” stage.
  • User research – use research to discover and prioritise touchpoints.
  • Persona – map touchpoints for a specific persona or segment.
  • Empathy map – touchpoints and journey inform what users think and feel at each moment.

Next step

Pick one user journey (e.g. sign-up to first value) and list every touchpoint by stage and channel. Mark the top 2–3 pain points or opportunities and assign an owner or backlog item for each.

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