Creating exports enables you to show your journey mapping results to other people. Each export type has its specific advantages.


General overview of export types

  • Journey maps can be exported in five different formats: PDF, PNG, Excel, PowerPoint, and emotional journey export.
  • Stakeholder maps can be exported as PDF files. 
  • Personas can be exported as PNG, PowerPoint and PDF files.


All of them are to be found in the export manager in the upper right corner of the journey map editor. 

The export history shows what exports you recently created and gives allows you to keep an overview of the changes you’ve made.




Tailoring exports


Poster export (.pdf and .png)

A poster export (PDF and PNG) is convenient to continue working on your journey maps in workshops. You can print it using a plotter and hang it up in the room. It's large enough for a group of people to view it and work on it.

If you don't have access to a plotter, but really want to review your journey map on paper, you could use Adobe Acrobat or Reader to print out as a poster. This way you spread it out over several pages that can be taped together.



Excel export (.csv)

Exporting a journey map to Excel (i.e. as a CSV file) makes it easier to further calculate the results, like average values of the emotional lane and dramatic arc. 

This quantitative analysis can support your findings and make numbers directly comparable. Excel exports include all the information of your journey map, converted to text and numbers. Furthermore, the storyboard is included as single pictures.

An example of an Excel export




PowerPoint export (.ppt)

PowerPoint exports can be adapted individually, which makes it a great option for whatever presentation you need, e.g. pitches for your boss or client. Export your journey maps by choosing the layout that fits the focus of your presentation and decide about the information and lanes to include. You can add a persona to your export, stage overview, etc.


Within seconds you get a customized PowerPoint presentation. Now you can go through it and make some changes if necessary, e.g. in the text length/size, colors, etc. The fields that are not included in the export will be shown next to it so you still can include them manually.


Emotional journey export (.pdf)

By displaying a customer’s emotional journey you are able to present compelling narratives where viewers help to develop empathy and understanding.

Supporting the emotional journey with visuals and bites of written information, you can to provide your audience with enough depth to help your team or client gain a quick snapshot into customer experience. Hence, you prevent others from being overwhelmed by the complexity of the whole experience.


Pro tip: Using two text lanes "long description" and "short description" will help you manage the information that is displayed on your emotional journey export. For example, if your original steps description lane contains long texts it means that it will be cut at some point and substituted with a "[...]" on the emotional journey export. For a better emotional journey export, just duplicate the lane, shorten the descriptions as you like and use the sharpened one on the export instead. 



How to create an emotional journey export?

Each export contains one persona, so that noise is reduced and a single journey can be understood with clarity. The export is focussed on providing a printer-friendly version of your chosen journey which should allow you to efficiently print using your own resources.


Using the configuration template you are able to display the relevant information and context for your chosen persona.

1. Persona section: You can display relevant information regarding your persona such as personal quotes, qualities, and descriptions about their personality.

2. Emotional journey section: You are able to show the emotional journey for a given persona that moves between different states of emotional experience. Each emotional state is enhanced by short descriptions that add context and detail to why they feel a particular way. 

3. Additional lane section: The additional lane provides you with the opportunity to add additional visual information such as a Storyboard made from icons and images that are relevant to the experiences of the user. Content for this section can be sourced through Smaply’s connectivity with the Nounproject, or relevant images provided by the creator. 

Export: All that’s left is to hit export and publish your Emotional Journey! You have selected PDF as your export format as it allows us to easily scale up the printed versions of your Journey Map, allowing large groups to work and collaborate on one document at the same time. 



Exports on trial accounts

As a trial user, you can export to PDF, PNG, and create emotional journey export. 

By default, these exports carry a watermark during trial.



Uploading logos for exports

Uploading your or your client’s logo to include in the exports helps you personalize journey maps, personas, and stakeholder maps. 


Uploading a logo to be used on every project of the organization

To upload a logo for the whole organization, please follow these steps:

  1. Click on your user-name next to the logout button to get to settings
  2. Next click "Brand settings" in the left sidebar
  3. Upload your logo

Uploading a logo for one specific project

To upload a logo for one project, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your dashboard
  2. Click on a project to get to the overview
  3. Click "upload new logo for exports"



Show/hide export date

You can select to include export date on your export by opening export manager. It's available for journey map, persona, stakeholder map and for all format except XLS as originally there is no export date on that.