Dealing with academic-related questions like picking a course, fulfilling a major requirement can be tedious and ineffective when you have to simultaneously balance school work, social activities, and focus on personal growth and career development.

當您必須同時兼顧學校工作，社交活動以及關注個人成長和職業發展時，處理諸如選課，滿足主要要求等與學術相關的問題可能既乏味又無效 。

With the goal of tackling this problem, my friends and I decided to bring Inquiry, a community Q&A web app for college students, to life.

為了解決這個問題，我和我的朋友們決定將Inquiry (面向大學生的社區問答Web應用程序)帶入生活。

了解問題 (Understanding the Problem)

用戶研究 (User Research)

I distributed a survey to get a general sense of students’ experiences in getting answers to their academic-related questions. Among the 40 respondents, more than half of them believed that getting their questions answered was not easy, and around 43% of the respondents said they always have more follow-up questions.

我進行了一項調查，以大致了解學生在獲得與學術有關的問題的答案方面的經驗。 在40位受訪者中，超過一半的受訪者認為回答問題并不容易，大約43％的受訪者表示，他們總是有更多的后續問題。

After getting responses from the survey, I decided to conduct interviews with several college students, and the goal is to discover their pain points.

在從調查中獲得答復后，我決定對幾名大學生進行訪談，目的是發現他們的痛點。

主要發現 (Key Findings)

1. Information that is vague and general wouldn’t be helpful to them.

1.含糊而籠統的信息不會對他們有幫助。

“School websites are not really helpful to me…they are just too vague.”

“學校網站對我沒有真正的幫助……它們太模糊了。”

2. When students only have quick questions and hope to have them answered right away, the process of getting answers could be time-consuming and frustrating.

2.當學生僅有快速提問并希望立即回答時，獲得答案的過程可能既耗時又令人沮喪。

“… I only have a quick question that can be answered in one sentence, but it takes time for my advisor to get back to me via email, and it’s not worth my time to walk across half of the campus to the advising office.”

“……我只有一個簡短的問題，可以用一句話回答，但是我的顧問要花一些時間才能通過電子郵件與我聯系，而花時間遍歷整個校園的一半去咨詢辦公室也不值得。”

3. Students tend to take or receive feedback from peers who have been in their shoes.

3.學生傾向于接受或接受同齡人的反饋。

“I know some upperclassmen from my major, so I usually just reach out to them when I have questions.”

“我認識我專業的一些高年級生，所以我通常在遇到問題時才去找他們。”

用戶角色 (User Personas)

Before diving into ideations and design, I created a user persona based on the research to guide me through the design process.

在深入研究思想和設計之前，我根據研究結果創建了一個用戶角色，以指導我完成設計過程。

問題 (The Problem)

Students want to get answers for questions that are specific to their academic disciplines, but they have hard time doing so because:

學生希望獲得針對其學科的問題的答案，但是他們很難這樣做，因為：

1) Information they obtained are often too general or vague.

1)他們獲得的信息通常太籠統或模糊。

2) It’s hard to reach out to people who’ve been in the same shoes.

2)很難接觸到曾經穿同一雙鞋的人。

最終解決方案 (Final Solution)

設計過程 (The Design Process)

構想 (Ideation)

I used “How Might We” questions to help myself brainstorming opportunity spaces and solutions that could be implemented.

我使用“我們的力量”問題來幫助自己集思廣益，探討可以實施的機會空間和解決方案。

• How might we make getting answers or relevant information more efficient?

  我們如何使獲得答案或相關信息的效率更高？

• How might we connect inquirers with potential answerers?

  我們如何將查詢者與潛在的答復 者聯系起來？

• How might we encourage people to ask questions without feeling awkward and uncomfortable?

  我們如何鼓勵人們在不感到尷尬和不適的情況下提出問題？

• How might we ensure and encourage constructive answers?

  我們如何確保和鼓勵建設性的答案 ？

確定所需的內容和功能 (Deciding on Required Content and Features)

Based on HMW’s, I decided to incorporate the following key features:

基于HMW，我決定合并以下關鍵功能：

To include proper implementation, I also took a look at similar platforms on the market, such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, and Reddit. After studying their features, user flows, and design patterns, I came up with a basic hierarchy including the necessary functions for this app.

為了包括適當的實現，我還研究了市場上類似的平臺，例如Quora ， Yahoo Answers和Reddit 。 在研究了它們的功能，用戶流程和設計模式之后，我提出了一個基本層次結構，其中包括該應用程序的必要功能。

初步探索 (Initial Exploration)

I would like to design an intuitive and enjoyable user experience for the target audience (college students just like myself), and deliver a product that was based on three user goals:

我想為目標受眾(像我這樣的大學生)設計一種直觀而愉快的用戶體驗，并提供基于三個用戶目標的產品：

1) Users feel comfortable asking questions. 2) Users trust their peers to give honest and helpful answers. 3) The entire process from asking a question to getting an answer is quick and easy.

1)用戶可以輕松地提問。 2)用戶相信他們的同伴會給出誠實和有益的答案。 3)從提問到得到答案的整個過程都是快速 而簡單的 。

With these goals in mind, I started off by turning my ideas into sketches.

考慮到這些目標，我首先將想法變成草圖。

中保真設計 (Medium Fidelity Design)

查看答復的流程 (The Flow of Viewing Replies)

In figuring out the flow of viewing replies to a post, I came up with the following iterations:

在弄清查看帖子回復的流程時，我提出了以下迭代：

Flow A enabled individuals to see replies of a post without the need to navigate to another screen. I originally thought this iteration would make it easier and quicker for users to access the responses of a post, but then I realized that it would actually overwhelm the users with too much information on the same page.

Flow A使個人無需導航到另一個屏幕即可查看帖子的回復。 我原本以為，這種迭代將使用戶訪問帖子的回復變得更加輕松快捷，但是后來我意識到，它實際上會使用戶在同一頁面上獲得太多信息而感到不知所措。

It was clear to me that Flow B was a better option because this iteration provided a less cluttered user interface. It avoided users from losing engagement by reducing information overload and creating a clear visual distinction between the main post section and the comment section. Also, with a larger and emphasized section for writing comments, users would potentially offer detailed and thorough responses.

在我看來，Flow B是更好的選擇，因為此迭代提供了一個不太混亂的用戶界面。 通過減少信息過多并在主要文章部分和評論部分之間建立清晰的視覺區別，它避免了用戶失去參與度。 另外，如果用戶在撰寫評論時使用較大且強調的部分，則用戶可能會提供詳細而徹底的回復。

“創建帖子”的入口點 (The Entry Point for “Create a Post”)

In deciding the entry point for creating a post, I considered the four options below.

在確定創建帖子的切入點時，我考慮了以下四個選項。

Option A had a contained button placed next to the search field. Since the actions of “Search” and “Create” are irrelevant to each other, this design might lead to potential confusion for users. I did not pursue B, a text button with an icon, because text buttons are typically used for relatively less important actions, but making a post is one of the most important features for this app. Option C is an extended floating action button that includes an icon and a text label. It introduced the entry point for creating a post with the highest emphasis, but the text-heavy button design would clutter the screen.

選項A在搜索字段旁邊放置了一個包含的按鈕。 由于“搜索”和“創建”的操作彼此無關，因此此設計可能會給用戶帶來潛在的困惑。 我沒有追求帶有圖標的文本按鈕B，因為文本按鈕通常用于不太重要的動作，但是發布帖子是此應用程序最重要的功能之一。 選項C是一個擴展的浮動操作按鈕，其中包括一個圖標和一個文本標簽。 它引入了創建重點最突出的帖子的切入點，但是文本過多的按鈕設計會使屏幕混亂。

I decided to go forward with D, a simple floating action button because it prevented visual clutter while expressing a high emphasis level for the entry point.

我決定繼續使用D ，這是一個簡單的浮動動作按鈕 因為它可以防止視覺混亂，同時為入口點表現出較高的強調水平。

迷你卡視圖 (Mini Card View)

I considered the following iterations in determining the mini-view of posts on the right sidebar.

在確定右側欄上的帖子的迷你視圖時，我考慮了以下迭代。

Option A displayed all of the contents, but the text-heavy design fails to engage the users. Also, I realized the text representation did not create enough visual distinction between “Answered” and the “Unanswered” status. In order to maximize the difference, I moved on with color representation.

選項A顯示了所有內容，但是大量文本設計無法吸引用戶。 另外，我意識到文本表示在“已回答”和“未回答”狀態之間沒有足夠的視覺區分。 為了最大化差異，我繼續進行顏色表示。

I pursued C because I wanted the statuses to be visually distinct from each other. Option B used color representation, but the small dot design at the bottom right corner might not be obvious enough for users. Also, unlike A and B, the design of C did not include extraneous information (profile picture and tags) but placed a heavy emphasis on the subject and detail of the post.

我追求C是因為我希望狀態在視覺上彼此不同。 選項B使用顏色表示，但是對于用戶而言，右下角的小點設計可能不夠明顯。 而且，與A和B不同， C的設計不包含無關的信息(個人資料圖片和標簽)，但重點在于帖子的主題和細節。

視覺設計 (Visual Design)

Here is the style guide that I generated for this app:

這是我為此應用程序生成的樣式指南：

高保真最終設計 (High-Fidelity Final Design)

結論 (Conclusion)

回頭看 (Looking Back)

This project is a great learning experience for me in going through a complete design process from brainstorming ideas to prototyping the final product. While designing, I paid close attention to make sure that the design is user-friendly, visually pleasing, and ties back to the problem.

對于我來說，從一個集思廣益的想法到最終產品的原型設計，整個項目過程都是一個很好的學習經歷。 在設計時，我密切注意以確保設計易于使用，視覺上令人滿意并與問題緊密聯系。

Overall, I learned a lot in terms of product thinking and building a thorough design system for an app. I realized that design was not only about creating aesthetic interfaces but also putting myself in the users’ shoes to find a feasible and viable solution that will satisfy their needs.

總體而言，我在產品思維和為應用程序構建全面的設計系統方面學到了很多東西。 我意識到設計不僅是要創建美觀的界面，而且還要使自己陷入用戶的困境中，以找到滿足他們需求的可行且可行的解決方案。

向前進 (Moving Forward)

Still, I see a lot of room for improvement in my final design. In the future, I would like to conduct more usability testings to refine my design. Also, I would like to explore other opportunity spaces such as the sort and filter functionalities, a built-in chat feature, etc.

盡管如此，我仍認為最終設計還有很多改進的余地。 將來，我想進行更多的可用性測試以完善我的設計。 另外，我想探索其他機會空間，例如排序和過濾功能，內置的聊天功能等。

Thanks to Emily Chan and thanks for reading! I would love to hear your comments, feedback, or suggestion! If you’d like to connect, feel free to reach out! (yc943@cornell.edu)

感謝Emily Chan并感謝您的閱讀！ 我很想聽聽您的意見，反饋或建議！ 如果您想連接，請隨時與我們聯系！ ( yc943@cornell.edu )