The Blackboard Email project is a UI/UX design concept aimed at creating a unified and user-friendly email interface for students and faculty. The design features a common inbox accessible via mobile and desktop platforms, allowing users to filter messages by program, compose emails with smart recipient selection, and manage communications efficiently. The project emphasizes simplicity and user goals of group communication, seamless email access, and an enhanced search feature.
Create a common inbox, for easy access.
Challenge: How will the program-based filter work?
Solution: Create a sidebar filter for each program with checkboxes.
Create a section while composing an email to mark the Courses as recipients.
Challenge: What if it’s left blank?
Solution: Those would be moved to General(All messages).
Compose email in one touch.
Challenge: How will the user write to different recipients, groups, and courses?
Solution: Smart dropdown that enables course selection, a To field that has all contact cards, and groups integrated.
More controlled email handling.
Challenge: No such challenge in designing this part.
Solution: Provide a failsafe option to cancel the email.
Group communication: Users have to be enabled to communicate with groups that are created by the admin or created by the users themselves.
Purpose: Sometimes, they would want to send personal, broadcast, or group emails for mass communication regarding an assignment or project update.
Seamless email access: Users would like to have all their emails on one screen regardless of course.
Purpose: Suppose one wants to check an email but does not remember the exact specifics of the email, the sender, or the program. In these scenarios, having all emails in one viewport reduces the screen hop and time taken to search for the email.
Easy search feature: The user will be able to use the search feature to its fullest by making use of Keywords, subjects, Course filter, From, To, and also Date range.
Purpose: In a scenario where a user remembers certain aspects of an email but is unable to locate it using website navigation, during times like these, the user will be able to use any of the search parameters to locate the email.
In conclusion, the Blackboard Email project aims to streamline email communication for educational environments, focusing on creating a user-friendly and accessible interface for both students and faculty. By addressing common user problems such as email overload and cross-device inconsistency, the project seeks to enhance efficiency and satisfaction, ultimately leading to increased adoption and engagement with the platform. These efforts are designed to support educational outcomes by improving the management of academic communications.
User-Centric Design: Importance of a user-friendly interface tailored to the specific needs of educational users.
Efficiency: Addressing email overload and search inefficiencies to improve productivity.
Cross-Device Usability: Ensuring consistent and accessible experiences across various devices.
User Engagement: Focusing on interface elements that encourage active use and reduce frustration.
Feedback Integration: The value of incorporating user feedback into ongoing design refinements to better meet educational needs.
