visual pathways for storytelling

Journey Mapping & Timelines

From our online course, Become a Rockstar Scribe at School or Work.

Benefits & Applications Across Industries

Chalkboard with colorful text and drawings depicting concepts like personalized medicine, big data, artificial intelligence, and IoT. Includes references to medical coding, population health, and technological advances in healthcare. Words like "Singularity," "Quantum Computing," and "Semantic Interoperability" are highlighted.

What is the difference between graphic recording and creating a collaborative journey map or timeline?

Journey maps are a crucial component of the design thinking process.

  1. They visually represent a user’s path toward completing a goal.

  2. They serve as a tool for identifying opportunities for improvement, highlighting areas where user experience can be enhanced, and ultimately leading to the creation of better products and services.

Timelines are helpful for a group to record its history—or that of a specific industry or domain—as we plan for an unpredictable future.

This collaborative process, which requires both preparation and spontaneity, is a team effort.

These can be created LIVE onsite or iteratively over time, with each team member contributing their unique perspective.

Integrating visual explainers and illustrated journey maps into research enhances both data collection and communication.

These tools enable richer qualitative insights, facilitate participant engagement, and make quantitative findings more accessible and actionable.

Areas such as healthcare research continue to adopt human-centered design, and leveraging visual methods can lead to more impactful, patient-centered outcomes.

By adopting these approaches, researchers can ensure that their work informs policy, improves clinical practice, and ultimately enhances patient care.

How We Create Them (Live vs Iterative)

Case Study #1

Onsite Workshops with Post-Event Journey Maps

We worked with the Health Equity Collective in Houston, Texas, over several months and workshops to create a journey map for community health workers.

Collage from a workshop on March 30, 2023, titled 'CHW Journey Mapping,' featuring a group photo of diverse participants and various charts with Post-its displaying brainstorming topics such as 'CHW Career Path,' 'Big Ideas for Big Impact,' 'Organizational Support,' and 'Continuous Learning & Personal Development.'
Illustration on community health workers, highlighting challenges and opportunities. Includes core competencies like communication and public health. Features images of diverse people and elements like training centers, state legislature, advocacy, and support systems. Emphasizes the role of supporters and influencers in the development and success of community health workers. Artistic design by Peter Durand.

Raw output from breakout sessions or entire workshops can be synthesized, iterated, and refined to produce a holistic map or timeline. See the full process>>

Case Study #2

An Animated Timeline

From antiquity through the Enlightenment, the practice of physicians creating formal documentation for patient visits is a relatively recent development in medicine.

This is a brief history of patient records, narrated by Dr. Kevin B. Johnson, former Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor & Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

See more explainer video examples >>

  • A detailed infographic depicting the history of informatics, including key milestones from 1945 to 2012, with illustrations, dates, and descriptions of technological advances such as the first satellite, the first medical computer, the development of the internet, social media emergence, and modern healthcare technologies.

    History of Informatics

  • Illustration of community health workers and supporters with text highlighting their training, employment, mentorship, and support roles in healthcare. Features images of diverse people, a building, and various training and health-related icons.

    Community Health Worker Journey Map

  • This is a timeline infographic illustrating the 2020-2021 Early Career Leadership program by National Geographic. It includes key events, themes, and activities such as orientation in August 2020, community leadership in April 2021, and graduation in September 2021, with focus on public speaking, negotiation, mentorship, and decision-making.

    NatGeo Early Career Leadership Timeline

  • Graphic recording illustrations with colorful notes and diagrams for a mental health forum titled 'Future Opportunities & Solutions,' with two people in business attire conversing nearby.

    Mental Health Journey Map

  • Peter Durand is standing with arms crossed in front of a blackboard filled with colorful handwritten notes about media, society, and startups, including phrases like "Organize the World’s Information," "Google News Lab," and "Future of Media."

    Accelerator timeline

  • Colorful chalkboard with notes about healthcare technology, big data, AI, blockchain, and medical innovations. Includes headings like 'IMOO20', 'Personalized Medicine', 'Big Data', and 'Future' with various keywords and diagrams.

    The History of Medical Records

Get in Touch!

Feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we can help you understand complex situations and make better decisions.

Each project is a little different. We work with our clients and partners to craft something that fits their business needs or social goals. 

Send a quick message, SCHEDULE A CALL or create a detailed PROJECT REQUEST.

Follow the action!

  • Colorful chalkboard with handwritten notes about leadership, moments, AI, and psychological safety, featuring words like 'Moments that Matter,' 'Power of Moments,' and illustrations of a plant with pink flowers.
  • A man with glasses and a cap writes on a large whiteboard at a conference. The whiteboard has colorful diagrams, illustrations, and handwritten notes related to AI and technology, including phrases like "The Chief AI Office" and "So many problems to solve."
  • A conference room with a large screen displaying digital notes on an iPad about electric vehicle economics. The slide shows a cartoon green electric car with notes and diagrams about charging, data, business models, and infrastructure.
  • Peter Durand of Alphachimp LLC is drawing and writing on a transparent glass with colorful markers, with a smiling woman in the background and a man in the foreground focused on drawing a zigzag line.
  • Group of 14 adults from a workshop on sketchnotes is standing in front of a whiteboard with drawings, holding the book "The Sketchnote Handbook" by Mike Rohde, smiling and making peace signs.
  • Large presentation screens displaying colorful, handwritten-style notes and illustrations created by Alphachimp LLC at a conference or seminar, with a few people watching and a speaker standing in front of them.
  • A woman drawing cartoon bacteria characters on a whiteboard with the words 'Infectious Disease' written above in large blue letters.
  • An iMac on a wooden desk displaying video editing software, with a person on a video call visible on the screen. The desk has a black water bottle with a skull design, a black stylus, a gray notebook with a pen, two ergonomic keyboards, and a pen tablet.
  • A group of people standing at whiteboards drawing and writing during a workshop or meeting in a room with wooden walls and large windows, with tables and chairs in the foreground.
  • A man with a beard and long hair tied back is at a conference, looking at colorful infographic posters displayed on easels. Other people are in the background engaging and taking photos, with large windows letting in natural light.
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