Free UX Templates (With Filled-In Examples)
Heads up: These templates are our own, used in UX teaching. Each comes with a filled-in example built around one consistent user so you can see the method in action, not just a blank grid.
Most free UX templates you find are blank grids. You download them, stare at the empty boxes, and still don’t know what good looks like. These are different: each template comes with a worked, filled-in example built around one consistent user, so you can see how the method actually gets used.
They’re the canvases we use in UX teaching — practical, method-based, and designed to move you from a blank page to a clear decision.
How to get value from a template: don’t just fill the boxes. Each template exists to answer a specific question about your user. Read the filled example first, then adapt the thinking to your own project.
The templates
User persona
A one-page portrait of who you’re designing for — needs, frustrations, context, and the insights that turn into opportunities. The filled example follows Maya, a long-term freelancer dealing with her bank.
Open the user persona template →
Customer journey map
How your user experiences a product over time, moment by moment — what they do, think, and feel, plus the pain points and opportunities at each step. The example maps Maya’s frustrating attempt to check a payment.
Open the customer journey map template →
Empathy map
See the world from the user’s point of view — what they say, think, do, and feel — so you design from their reality, not your assumptions.
Open the empathy map template →
User interview guide
Plan and run a research conversation that gets honest, story-rich answers instead of survey-style yes/no replies.
Open the user interview template →
How Might We
Reframe a problem you’ve found into an open opportunity worth ideating against — broad enough for ideas, narrow enough to stay useful.
Open the How Might We template →
5 Whys
Get from a visible symptom to the root cause by asking “why” until you reach something you can actually fix.
Proto-persona
A fast, assumption-based persona for aligning a team before you have research — and a starting hypothesis to validate.
Open the proto-persona template →
Concept
Define a solution clearly — what it is, who it’s for, the value it adds, and the actors needed to make it real.
Concept test
Validate an idea with real users before you build — capture the experience, the positives and negatives, and an honest acceptance level.
Open the concept test template →
Ecosystem map
See the actors, channels, and relationships around your product, so you design for the whole system, not one screen.
Open the ecosystem map template →
Storyboard
Narrate how a user experiences your solution in six panels, from problem to payoff.
Open the storyboard template →
Feedback grid
Capture and structure feedback — liked, to improve, new ideas, questions — so it turns into clear next steps.
Open the feedback grid template →
How these fit together
These templates aren’t isolated. They build on each other the way real UX work does. A common path:
- Run a user interview to gather real input.
- Turn it into a persona so the team aligns on who you’re designing for.
- Map that persona’s journey to find the painful moments.
- Use How Might We to reframe a pain point into an opportunity.
- Test the resulting idea with a concept test.
You don’t need all of them. Pick the one that answers the question you’re stuck on right now.
From method to portfolio
Here’s the part most designers miss: the work you do in these templates is the raw material for a strong case study. The persona shows you understood the user; the journey map shows you found the real problem; the reframing shows how you decided what to build.
If you want to turn that thinking into a portfolio piece, start with the UX case study guide, and study finished UX case study examples to see how research becomes a story a recruiter trusts.
The research you do with these templates is exactly what makes a strong case study. When you’re ready to write it up, Folioverse helps you turn that thinking into a case study recruiters trust — try it free.