Can we have a useful map of being human?

Needed: feedback from psychologists and coaches who work with this material. I am not one of them.

As a software engineer, looking for answers, I kept coming back to a question.

Can we have a useful map of being human - or is that idea not worth pursuing?

Most people first meet personality through one type of test - sometimes online, sometimes through a coach or trainer who specialises in that system.

You answer a set of questions. You get a result: a letter code, a colour, an animal, scores on five traits. You might remember it. Using it to good effect in real life is harder - at work, with someone you care about, or with a decision that will not settle. Later, many people meet a second type of test, built on a different model, with different words. The second result does not connect to the first in any clear way. Neither shows how the pieces fit, or what each test is actually for.

That has been normal for decades. There are many useful instruments. There is almost no shared public overview that says: these are the main areas of being human people talk about, this is what this test measures, and here is where we still have little or nothing. What makes it worse is that most providers have a vested interest in selling their system, so all too often the message is that you only need this one.

I do not mean one theory that replaces every other. I mean something ordinary and practical: a set of tests that cover the main parts, side by side. Traits and temperament. Motivation and the role you tend to give. Worldviews and growth. Emotion. Body and senses. Work and activity. Strengths. Mood and how you are doing this week. Familiar frameworks in plain English - Big Five, Jungian types, four-style tools, high sensitivity, character strengths - and a clear note when we have little or nothing yet.

A useful map would do a few jobs:

• Name the areas people already talk about, so it is clear what belongs where.
• Place well-known tests with their strengths and limits, not a sales pitch for one brand.
• Give a free start - a short portrait you can share - without paying for a membership to see who you are.

That is what we are building with what-world-way: three free tests at the centre (What, World, and Way), a portrait you can remember and pass on, and other instruments around them as we add them. We are a non-profit. The point is open access so people can get a broader picture - not a single-system funnel. Our hope is that a richer picture helps coaches support more people more effectively.

The map of areas is our attempt to explain that picture and where we are up to - the areas, the frameworks, and the gaps (and links through to the tests where we have them). They are not finished. They are not the last word on any of it. A handful of framework pages are fuller; others are still thin. We will add more over time.

I am not a psychologist of any kind. I have thought hard about how to put good instruments where ordinary people can reach them, without pretending one questionnaire explains a whole person. The platform is young; we have not been publishing these tests for long. That is why feedback matters more than polish.

Feedback helps us steer. What belongs on a map of being human that most personality tests leave out? What have we got wrong, or left too thin?

Have a look. Tell us - especially if you work with this material for a living.

Areas of the map →