The User Impact Canvas

Explore potential impact for diverse users

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Click on the image to download the template.

What is it?

The User Impact Canvas helps you to explore the past and potential impact of your user experience, in order to avoid harm and increase satisfaction. It helps you consider unintended consequences and how you might make people feel in order to create a better experience for everyone, avoiding negative impact.

Why does it matter?

Often experiences are created with a single dominant user in mind. However inclusive experiences are empowering for people of all genders, cultures, abilities and more. Without intentional thought about the needs, experiences and potential impact to people from minority, marginalised or underserved backgrounds, you could unintentionally be excluding people, or worse causing harm.

When should you use it?

Use The User Impact Canvas when you are looking to explore how a specific experience may impact different people. This could be the user experience of your product or the experience of your service users.

Ideally this reflection should be built in before the experience is launched but you can use it to improve existing experiences. It can be used internally for cross functional teams to share ideas and engage in meaningful discussion, or even better to get direct feedback from your current or potential future users.

How does it work?

The User Impact Canvas helps you explore how your experience may impact your users, from causing harm to feeling empowered, both in the past and in the future.

Review The User Impact Canvas to discuss how your experience might make people feel. Start on the left, at ‘harm’ and move to ‘inclusion’ and then ‘empowerment’. For each impact level discuss what about your experience could cause this impact and make people feel this way and what changes you could make. Consider both past impact and future potential impact.

Negative Impact

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe any harm that may have already been caused.

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe what potential harm could be caused.

Next, generate ideas for how you can reduce potential harm.

Neutral Impact

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe why people have felt excluded or unsatisfied.

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe why people may feel excluded or unsatisfied in the future.

Next, generate ideas for how you can make more people feel included.

Positive Impact

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe how you have made people feel empowered.

Add post it notes to the canvas to describe why people may feel empowered and who might need the most support to feel this way.

Next, generate ideas for how you can make more people feel empowered and create a more positive experience for more people.

Your User Impact Canvas should now be filled with ideas for inclusive change. Make sure they don’t just remain as ideas by prioritising them and integrating them into your task list or backlog.

Once you understand user impact be sure to use

The SocioTech Impact Canvas⁠

to look at the bigger picture.

What is it?

Why does it matter?

When should you use it?

How does it work?

Negative Impact

Neutral Impact

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