The Curse of Online Learning: Course Creation

My Role: UX Design & UX research
Year: Jan 2022 - Apr 2022
Client: Argos Education

Overview

Argos Education is a company focused on transforming education through innovative technology. They have developed "Sojourner," an adaptive learning platform designed to empower educators with the tools they need to create engaging and effective online learning experiences.

Built upon the foundation of Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative, Sojourner provides a robust and flexible framework for educational content development.

The Challenge

Argos Education, dedicated to revolutionizing education through innovative technology, developed "Sojourner," an adaptive learning platform empowering educators to create engaging online learning experiences. This project aimed to improve Sojourner's beta release by identifying usability issues and prioritizing critical features for the next iteration, building upon Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative. Based on user interviews and beta user data, we created a persona, Cindy Newell, representing a professor seeking to transition from traditional textbooks to a more intuitive and hands-on course creation process.

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Cindy wants to give her students the best course possible...

  • However using Argos Sojourner is difficult because she is unsure of what she can actually do on the platform
  • She also wants to able to use interesting articles and videos she found on the web but she has no way to verify if they are accurate

The Approach

To provide Sojourner with a competitive edge, we established the following objectives: enhance product usability, gain a deeper understanding of the product's target market within EdTech, and leverage market knowledge to inform design decisions.

The research aimed to identify existing features in the market, explore the potential for customizable software, and understand industry norms and trends in content and design.

To achieve these objectives, we conducted a thorough competitive analysis. This involved solidifying research goals, studying and selecting standard UX approaches, organizing observations of competitor features, and summarizing findings to identify features that align with the client's goals while incorporating a "wow" factor.

Argos Adopter Journey Map

  • Cindy struggled to understand the nuances of how to use Argos Sojourner
  • The information she did find was dense and hard to understand
  • She wished there was a way to navigate and understand the platform without calling customer service every time

Argos Competitive Analysis

  • Other competitors to Argos Sojourner Valerie looked into were able to verify content in a way
  • Valerie also found that unlike many of the competitors Argos Sojourner platform offered her peer-to-peer communication

Design

Wireframes

Based on user interviews and testing of the initial design with users like Cindy we arrived at the following insights:

  • 57% of the users felt the course set up takes a lot of time
  • 35% of the users felt the course analytics is hard to access
  • 85% of the users felt there was no visibility into course structure

The First Iteration

  • The first iteration of the Argos Sojourner platform left users like Cindy confused and frustrated
  • Users pointed out they overwhelmed in the library section of the platform
  • Users told us while the product helped them navigate Argos Sojourner better, they still felt unsure of what they could do on the platform

Style Guide

  • Based on the color scheme Argos Sojourner had and the colors that appealed to Cindy we created a comprehensive UI kit before proceeding with the high-fidelity design
  • The UI kit aimed to establish and maintain brand consistency across all digital touch-points, to give Argos a consistent brand identity for future iterations
  • The UI kit aimed to establish and maintain brand consistency across all digital touch-points, to give Argos a consistent brand identity for future iterations

User Feedback

The Solution

o enhance user trust and experience within the Argos Sojourner platform, we implemented several key improvements.

These include an in-house content verification feature, streamlined navigation for easier resource access, and enhanced course editor instructions to empower professors. Additionally, we implemented a rigorous content screening process leveraging Argos' proprietary software to ensure the quality and authenticity of all materials. These improvements, particularly the focus on content verification and user control, have significantly increased user confidence. We are committed to continuous improvement and are currently conducting further user testing to gather feedback and refine the platform for version 2.0.

To see the full version go the Figma Prototype here.

5
Interviews

5
Usability Tests

8
Interations