Enhancing Online Learning Experience

Simplifying course creation and improving educator trust through intuitive design and content verification.

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.

Project Snapshot

I led UX design and research for Sojourner, an adaptive learning platform built on Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative. The project focused on streamlining course creation workflows, enhancing content verification, and improving educator trust and satisfaction.

Outcome:

  • Simplified course creation process, reducing setup time and complexity.
  • Implemented content verification features, increasing educator confidence in materials.
  • Developed user-centered design mockups that guided platform enhancements.

The Challenge

Educators faced difficulties with a complex course creation process and lacked clarity on content verification, leading to frustration and inconsistent course quality.

The Approach

  1. User Research & Analysis
    • Conducted interviews with educators to identify pain points.
    • Developed personas and journey maps to visualize user workflows.
  2. Design Iteration
    • Created moodboards to explore visual direction.
    • Developed initial mockups and gathered user feedback.
    • Refined designs based on feedback to improve usability.
  3. Implementation Support
    • Collaborated with development teams to ensure design feasibility.
    • Provided guidance on integrating content verification features.

Meet Cindy!

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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

Cindy's Journey

  • 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

  • Streamlined course creation into clear, actionable steps.
  • Highlighted verified content to build educator trust.
  • Integrated contextual guidance and help throughout the platform.
  • Iterated designs based on direct user feedback to enhance usability.

To see the full version go the Figma Prototype here.

5
Interviews

5
Usability Tests

8
Interations