I have a lousy sense of direction, so Google Maps has always been my right-hand app. On a whim last year, I decided to skip the beach and sunburn and head to Budapest for spring break. That’s when Google Maps became my best friend.

我的方向感很差，因此Google Maps一直是我的右手應用。 去年我一時興起，我決定跳過海灘和曬傷，然后去布達佩斯度過春假。 那時候Google地圖成為我最好的朋友。

When I wasn’t admiring the Buda Castle or bathing in the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, I was on Google Maps. Google Maps helped me decide where to eat, how many attractions I could see in a day, what public transportation to take, and — when I inevitably got lost — how to get back to my Airbnb.

當我不欣賞布達城堡或在塞切尼溫泉浴場沐浴時，我在Google地圖上。 Google Maps幫助我決定了在哪里吃飯，一天可以看到多少景點，乘坐哪種公共交通工具，以及(當我不可避免地迷路時)如何回到Airbnb。

I learned that when I take a trip to a new area, I want to explore and engage with that place as much as possible. This is difficult because:

我了解到，當我去一個新地區旅行時，我想盡可能地探索并與之互動。 這很困難，因為：

1. I don’t always know which places to explore

   我并不總是知道該探索哪些地方

2. I don’t know how to optimize my route to make sure I get to all of the places I want to see

   我不知道如何優化路線以確保到達所有我想看的地方

3. I don’t know where to save my ideas and plans in one place

   我不知道將我的想法和計劃保存在哪里

第一件事第一 (First Things First)

User Research

用戶研究

I interviewed ten users to understand how people use Google Maps to plan daily activities. I found two distinct user-types:

我采訪了十個用戶，以了解人們如何使用Google Maps計劃日常活動。 我發現了兩種不同的用戶類型：

1. Logistic-Oriented. These are users who use Google Maps daily to optimize their routes. They like to focus on numbers: trip duration, mileage, and traffic delays.

   面向物流。 這些是每天使用Google Maps優化其路線的用戶。 他們喜歡關注數字：出行時間，里程和交通延誤。

2. Explorers. These users might not use Google Maps as their primary navigation app. They use it to find things to do, pin locations they want to visit, and see what those places look like using Street View.

   探險家。 這些用戶可能不使用Google Maps作為其主要導航應用程序。 他們使用它來查找要做的事情，固定要訪問的位置，并使用街景視圖查看這些地方的外觀。

In general, both user types agreed: Google Maps is great at 1) helping you decide where to go and 2) helping you get there.

總的來說，兩種用戶類型都同意：Google Maps擅長以下方面：1)幫助您決定要去哪里； 2)幫助您到達那里。

Market Research

市場調查

Logistic-oriented users praised Google Maps for having the most accurate GPS information. Users also agreed that Google Maps promotes exploration more than other navigation apps.

面向物流的用戶稱贊Google Maps具有最準確的GPS信息。 用戶還同意Google地圖比其他導航應用程序更能促進探索。

Although Google Maps lets you share your route progress and favorite places with friends, it has very limited social elements — especially compared to apps like Waze. I thought this could be an interesting opportunity area. Could adding a larger social element help users find even more cool places to explore through their network of friends?

盡管Google Maps允許您與朋友共享路線進度和最喜歡的地點，但社交元素非常有限，尤其是與Waze之類的應用相比。 我認為這可能是一個有趣的機會領域。 可以添加更大的社交元素來幫助用戶通過其朋友網絡找到更多更酷的地方進行探索嗎？

After acquiring a hefty stack of sticky notes and recruiting two friends, we got to work brainstorming ways that Google Maps could be even more useful to me on my next spring break trip.

在獲得大量便簽并招募了兩個朋友之后，我們開始集思廣益，以求在我的下一個春假旅行中，谷歌地圖對我來說更加有用。

Identifying Opportunity Areas

確定機會領域

Two areas of improvement stuck out for enhancing trips to new areas:

為了改善前往新領域的旅行，突出了兩個改進領域：

1. Exploring + Connecting. This would give users even more ideas of places to visit when traveling.

   探索+連接。 這將使用戶在旅行時可以更多地了解游覽地點。

2. Organizing + Planning. This would help users optimize their routes and get to all the places they want to go efficiently.

   組織+計劃。 這將幫助用戶優化路線，并高效到達所有想要去的地方。

With this in mind, we narrowed our potential solutions down to 4 viable features:

考慮到這一點，我們將潛在的解決方案縮小到4個可行的功能：

Although including friend activity might give users more ideas for places to go, user feedback helped me understand that a large social component would overly complicate a navigation app — and actually drive some users away.

盡管包括朋友活動可能使用戶對去的地方有了更多的想法，但用戶的反饋幫助我了解到，龐大的社交組件會使導航應用程序過于復雜，并實際上使一些用戶離開。

I wanted a solution that would appeal to both the logistic-oriented users and explorers. After accounting for feasibility and impact, I chose my final solution.

我想要一個對面向物流的用戶和瀏覽器都有吸引力的解決方案。 考慮了可行性和影響后，我選擇了最終的解決方案。

定位我的目的地 (Pinpointing My Destination)

I decided to go with the Saved Routes feature.

我決定使用“ 保存的路線”功能。

Thanks to Google Maps, we have a lot of valuable information at our fingertips. After going through the trouble of finding the best route for you — shouldn’t you be able to save it for later?

多虧了Google地圖，我們唾手可得了許多有價值的信息。 在為您找到最佳路線的麻煩之后，您難道不可以保存它以便以后使用嗎？

到達那里 (Getting There)

Choosing an Entry Point

選擇一個入口點

The first step was exploring how users would access this feature. I wanted the entry point to be visible and intuitive. However, I didn’t want it to be so prominent that it distracted from Google Maps’ main goal of getting you from point A to point B. I played around with different entry points to explore how users might save their routes:

第一步是探索用戶如何訪問此功能。 我希望入口點可見且直觀。 但是，我不希望它如此突出以至于偏離了Google Maps將您從A點帶到B點的主要目標。我在不同的入口點進行了探索，以探索用戶如何保存其路線：

I decided that Screen B accomplished this goal best. I thought putting the entry point on the home screen like Screen A might enhance visibility — but, user testing showed that it made more sense to save the route only after actually creating it. Although Screen C could serve as an additional entry point, I decided to focus on one main access point for my study.

我認為Screen B最好地實現了這個目標。 我以為將入口點放在屏幕A之類的主屏幕上可能會提高可見性-但是，用戶測試表明，僅在實際創建路徑之后保存路徑才有意義。 盡管Screen C可以作為額外的入口點，但我還是決定將重點放在一個主要的訪問點上進行研究。

Accessing Saved Routes

訪問保存的路線

Examining the information hierarchy of Google Maps, I got a good feel for where a list of saved routes might fit in. The ‘Saved’ tab on the homepage seemed like a pretty logical choice to me.

檢查了Google Maps的信息層次結構后，我對可能保存的路線列表適合的位置有了很好的感覺。主頁上的“ Saved”選項卡對我來說似乎是很合理的選擇。

Next, I wanted to explore what the ‘Saved Routes’ page might look like. I decided that it would be helpful to have folders to organize routes — but I wasn’t sure what the best layout would be.

接下來，我想探索“保存的路線”頁面的外觀。 我認為使用文件夾來組織路線會有所幫助-但我不確定最佳布局是什么。

User feedback confirmed that organization is a top priority. Participants agreed that folders would help with organization, but they didn’t want to be forced to use them. They also liked the idea of sorting and searching for routes. I ended up choosing a design most similar to Screen A because it was most visually consistent with similar Google Maps features and it would allow users to filter their routes so they could find them efficiently.

用戶反饋確認組織是重中之重。 與會者同意，文件夾將有助于組織，但他們不想被迫使用它們。 他們還喜歡對路線進行分類和搜索的想法。 我最終選擇了一個與屏幕A最相似的設計，因為它在視覺上與類似的Google Maps功能保持一致，并且允許用戶過濾其路線，以便他們可以高效地找到它們。

鋪在坑洼處 (Paving Over the Potholes)

After establishing the entry points for saving and accessing routes, I turned to optimizing my flows for efficiency and visual design.

建立用于保存和訪問路線的入口點后，我轉向優化流程以提高效率和視覺設計。

Naming and Saving Routes to Folders

命名和保存路由到文件夾

Originally, my flow for naming and saving a route had 3 separate steps: naming a route, deciding whether to save it to a folder, and choosing a folder to save it in. User feedback showed that I could enhance this flow by combining steps.

最初，我的命名和保存路線的流程包含3個單獨的步驟：命名路線，決定是否將其保存到文件夾中以及選擇要保存到其中的文件夾。用戶反饋顯示，我可以通過組合步驟來增強此流程。

Although Flow B combines all 3 steps, the pop-up is overly crowded and visually unappealing. I ended up going with a flow most similar to Flow C, which gives users more information about each folder and is easier to read.

盡管流程B合并了所有三個步驟，但彈出窗口過于擁擠且視覺上不吸引人。 最后，我使用了與Flow C最相似的流程，該流程為用戶提供了有關每個文件夾的更多信息，并且更易于閱讀。

Next, I focused on visual design. I made the following adjustments to make sure I was staying consistent with the Google Maps brand.

接下來，我專注于視覺設計。 我進行了以下調整，以確保與Google Maps品牌保持一致。

I ended up creating a Google Maps UI Kit to help me stay visually consistent. Because I’m building off of Google’s work, I knew visual consistency would be key to integrating my feature successfully.

我最終創建了一個Google Maps UI Kit，以幫助我保持視覺上的一致性。 因為我是基于Google的工作，所以我知道視覺一致性是成功集成功能的關鍵。

Editing Previously Saved Routes

編輯以前保存的路線

Finally, I focused on how users could edit their Saved Routes. At first, I wanted to have a prominent Edit Button to draw attention to it. Then, I realized this would be changing the flow that Google Maps has in place.

最后，我重點介紹了用戶如何編輯其保存的路線。 首先，我想要一個醒目的“編輯按鈕”來吸引人們的注意。 然后，我意識到這將改變Google Maps的流程。

The Ellipses Button in the upper-right corner of the screen already lets users edit!

屏幕右上角的橢圓按鈕已經可以讓用戶進行編輯！

I decided to go with Screen C. This screen maintains the editing flow that Google Maps already has by using the Ellipses Button. The highlighted Saved Button also provides feedback so users know they are editing a previously saved route.

我決定使用屏幕C。此屏幕使用省略號按鈕來維護Google Maps已經具有的編輯流程。 高亮顯示的“保存的按鈕”還提供反饋，使用戶知道他們正在編輯以前保存的路線。

到了 (Arrived.)

After polishing off my flows and visual design, it was time to put the pieces together.

在完善流程和視覺設計之后，是時候將這些片段放在一起了。

Finalized Flows

最終流程

I also created a prototype to show how users would interact with the feature within the actual Google Maps app.

我還創建了一個原型，以展示用戶如何與實際Google Maps應用程序中的功能進行交互。

Google Maps is already great at helping users explore new places and helping them get there. My hope is that saving routes will allow users to take full advantage of the mapping and explore capabilities by letting them plan trips in advance. Users can then feel good about taking the time they need to create the best route for them knowing they can save it and come back to it later.

Google地圖已經非常擅長于幫助用戶探索新地點并幫助他們到達那里。 我希望通過保存路線，可以讓用戶提前計劃行程，從而充分利用地圖并探索功能。 然后，用戶知道自己可以保存并稍后返回，便可以花些時間為他們創建最佳路線，從而感覺良好。

Thanks for tuning in to my first case study! I really enjoyed gaining design experience through Cornell AppDev’s Digital Product Design class and can’t wait to continue developing my UI/UX skills in the future. If you have any thoughts, feel free to connect— I’d love to hear them!

感謝您收看我的第一個案例研究！ 我真的很喜歡通過Cornell AppDev的數字產品設計課程獲得設計經驗，并且迫不及待地希望將來繼續發展我的UI / UX技能。 如果您有任何想法，請隨時聯系 -我很想聽聽他們的意見！