Cognitive Mapping

A cognitive map is a map of a place or process, drawn from memory by the user. They normally have around 6 minutes to draw the map, after which they talk you, the researcher, through what they’ve drawn. This then forms the basis of the Interview which follows, enabling the researcher to ask relevant questions even if the discussion is on a topic they know little or nothing about.

The most common geographic cognitive map technique would be to ask the user to draw the library (or whatever building / space you are seeking to better understand). You then see what they draw, what they leave out, and so on. We’ve more often asked users to draw maps that are of processes rather than places - so for example we’ve asked Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) to ‘map out your life as a PGR’ focusing on the scholarly aspects, or we’ve asked academics to ‘map out the process for creating a new module’.

No artistic skills are necessary for the user: the cognitive map is a device to get relevant information out of their heads and onto the page. The pairing of the Cognitive Map leading into the Unstructured Interview (the next technique covered in this toolkit) is perhaps the most effective and useful UX technique we have tried in the Library, and often leads to deep and actionable insights.

You will need to book a meeting room as Cognitive Maps usually happen in a one-on-one setting. They also require specific and informed, signed consent from the user. We update our Consent Forms regularly, so always go to the Consent Forms folder to find the most recent ones - make a copy and adapt the info for your project.

We’ve used Cognitive Mapping in almost every UX project we’ve done. For space-based map examples, see the Summer UX Project info:

We have used this technique in every UX project in which we want to understand a cohort or user behaviour, and as a smaller part of several larger projects. It is almost universally useful.

If you want to truly understand the user experience, cognitive mapping is an essential place to start. It completely changes the nature of the interview that follows, because it centres the conversation in the world of the user. We’ve experimented with using Unstructured (or Semi-Structured) Interviews without first doing a Cognitive Mapping exercise and, insofar as it’s possible to measure these things, the conversations have been less productive and less insightful than those we’ve had with the mapping exercise at the start.

You will need a number of materials to carry out Cognitive Mapping:

A session of Cognitive Mapping typically includes the following steps:

1. Explain to the user what the wider project is and what you are trying to find out. Then explain the specifics of the Cognitive Map, how will it will form the basis of the conversation that follows, and emphasise that absolutely no artistic talent is required
2. Take the user through the Consent Form section by section and ask if they have any questions, then assuming they are happy to, ask them to sign
3. Give them around 6 minutes to draw the map. In reality you wouldn’t usually stop them if they exceeded 6 minutes, or ask them to continue if they took less than that - but it helps them to have an approximate time frame in mind. If they want to add more notes or anything at the end to help it make sense that’s fine too
4. Once they’re ready, check if they’re happy for you to turn on your recording device, then ask them to talk you through what they’ve drawn and written. You can either ask questions as you go, or make a note of anything to come back to and ask about once they’ve completed their explanation. You can then segue way into the Interview

In our experience the most useful aspects of Cognitive Maps lie in the user explaining them to you, the researcher. You can get a deep understanding of something you’re not familiar with, and this allows you to then ask relevant questions even on subjects you previously knew nothing about. As mentioned above, the process of drawing and explaining the map leads to better, more user-centred conversations in the subsequent Interview. So we haven’t always done comprehensive analysis on Cognitive Maps.

However it can be a productive thing to do, especially around place-based maps. The Summer UX project in 2015 featured some really good analysis of maps of the Library based on library anthropologist Andrew Aasher’s advice on this. It’s worth reading Andrew’s whole post but here’s the pertinent info which Emma Grey, our intern for the Summer UX Project, used to inform her analysis:

The Summer UX Project Cognitive Maps combined data analysis (extract):

Some participants may wish to talk you through their map as they draw it; this is absolutely fine if that’s what they prefer.

We have had one user flat out refuse to draw a map (out of perhaps 300 or so participants we’ve asked): it’s unlikely this will happen but if it does, don’t pressure the user; just move onto the Interview.

As mentioned above, sometimes Cognitive Mapping involves using three colours of the pen. The process is exactly as described above except the user starts off with one colour of pen, and after 2 minutes you ask them to swap to a second colour, and for the final 2 minutes they use a third. You would use the same colours in the same order for all the mapping done as part of a project. The idea behind this is to get a sense of priority, the theory being the user will draw the most important things first and you can easily see which these are by the colour in which they’re drawn. We’ve found that as we’re most often asking users to map processes (rather than places) the maps tend to be chronological anyway, so the colour changing doesn’t add much content - as such we’ve just used one colour in Cognitive Mapping for several projects. It’s up to you which you’d prefer here, but as a rule of thumb place-based maps should use the three colours, while process-based maps can do without.