Service Journeys as Boundary Objects in Participatory Processes for Multi-stakeholder Engagement: the Case of the easyRights Journeys

Design disciplines are increasingly using journeys as a tool that addresses multiple purposes. Also known as Journey Maps, User Journey, Customer Journey, Experience Journey, or Service Journey, they represent the interaction of a person with a product or service step-by-step. This compilation of data reveals valuable insights for companies, organizations, decision-makers, managers, and service-owners to empathize with their users, triangulate their pain points and identify opportunities for improvement and innovation. Consequently, it is easy to understand the popularity of this method. This paper describes the case of the use of journeys in the easyRights project1 and presents their value as boundary objects; as a common artifact that facilitated the interaction of members of various groups of stakeholders, affording collaborative knowledge collection, generation, and distribution –traditionally attributed to boundary objects–, but also complementary strategies –like the identification of knowledge opportunities, the management of knowledge generation and the concurrence around such knowledge.