A visualization of all the people, tools, services, and systems that surround and interact with a product — including channels, touchpoints, and data flows. Ecosystem maps reveal dependencies, redundancies, and systemic gaps that individual journey maps miss, making them essential for designing services that must coexist within complex third-party environments.
Common contexts
- Mapping the third-party integrations and internal systems a B2B SaaS product depends on before a major architecture change
- Visualizing all touchpoints a healthcare patient encounters across providers, apps, and physical locations
- Identifying redundant tools across departments before consolidating into a unified enterprise platform
Use when
When designing or auditing a service that involves multiple systems, actors, or channels — particularly in enterprise, healthcare, or financial contexts where invisible backend dependencies directly affect the user experience.
Avoid when
Don't build an ecosystem map for a self-contained single-platform product with no external integrations — the output will be trivially simple and won't justify the time investment compared to a focused journey map.
The most valuable discoveries in ecosystem mapping are usually the connections nobody in the room knew existed — treat the mapping session as a forensic exercise, not a documentation task.
Real-world examples
- IDEO created ecosystem maps for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to visualize the complex relationships between patients, providers, insurers, and community organizations in the US healthcare system.
- Philips uses ecosystem mapping in their healthcare design process to understand how medical devices, software platforms, hospital workflows, and patient home environments interconnect.
- Service design consultancies used ecosystem maps when redesigning UK rail ticketing, revealing how multiple operators, retail channels, and passenger types created systemic friction points.