Role: UX Designer
Type of Project: Solo Project
Duration: 40 hours
Software: Figma, Google Forms, PowerPoint
UX Redesign: Moodle
Overview
To live is to design, user experience is the essence of humanity, and to improve the world around us in an impactful way.
In one of my classes, we were tasked with analyzing the Institute's overall User Experience and identifying potential improvements.
I decided to tackle a problem that I and everyone else in the school had. Using Moodle, the school’s Learning Management System.
Problems with Moodle
During my time at DigiPen, one of the faculty members put it best when I asked him if Moodle met his needs. To which he replied:
“Yes, the same way that a leather shoe could function as food, I don't want to eat it, but it works as food. I would rather use anything else.”
Thus would begin my process of proving there was an issue with Moodle.
Leading me to speak with 12 users (Students/Faculty) about their experience using Moodle, and reach out to 2 stakeholders who had the channels to make a change.
User Interviews
An important part of this user research was getting a wide perspective from a variety of users. I wanted to make sure the problem I believed existed with Moodle was reflected in users' feedback across several degree programs and years of use at the school.
I discussed the users' pain points in accessing their assignments, classes, and grades on the Moodle platform, as well as the difficulties they face in navigating the site daily.
75% of Users in the study
reported slow load times as their biggest pain point with the website.
45% of Users in the study
reported the number of pages to get to important information about assignments as their major pain point with the website.
Problem Statement
Despite identifying two significant pain points, I developed a single problem statement to explore solutions to improve the user experience with Moodle.
Adjusting Moodle’s structure to reduce clicks for basic actions will reduce the number of pages that need to load. Making Moodle faster and more efficient. Allowing students/professors to feel that their academic needs are being met.
Proposed Solution
Consolidate redundant pages to minimize the number of pages that need to be loaded.
Create a new grading tab with grades for all enrolled classes with recently graded assignments.
Implement UI components with a focus on input control and navigation.
Modify the site to require fewer clicks, reducing the number of pages that need to be loaded.
Proposal
After my research and discussions with IT about potential changes to Moodle, I created my proposal.
I proposed the following changes:
The current landing page always links to the current semester’s login, with a dropdown to access additional sites.
Consolidate the Dashboard and Timeline pages to enable students to access all of their courses via a carousel navigation UI component, whilst also seeing all upcoming assignments below.
Add a new “Grades” tab to the dashboard screen, allowing students and faculty to view grades as soon as they hit the dashboard.
In the “Grades” tab, add an additional section to show recently graded assignments.
Rework the Calendar screen to show due assignments with a description, linked files, and a link to directly view the assignment.
I presented this idea to stakeholders and users. They agreed with the solutions, stating that consolidating pages is an efficient fix for the school's slow internet. The cost of rewiring and updating the school’s network would be unrealistic, whereas my solution of consolidating pages and improving the flow of critical academic information would be more realistic.
Solution Spec
Problem Statement
Altering Moodle’s structure to reduce clicks for basic actions will decrease the number of pages that need to load.
Target User
Digipen Students learning to use Moodle while managing their numerous classes and other responsibilities.
School Core Value Supported
Academic Excellence, Academic Freedom, Innovation
With the proposed redesign of Moodle’s Home and Course pages, students will be able to easily access the content their professors have delivered. Additionally, understand the expectations of their projects and assignments so as not to let anything get in the way of their success.
Benefits
The benefits to the institution would include student satisfaction and success, knowing that their students are doing better and enjoying their time at DigiPen more than before the change.
The benefit to the target users would be reducing the number of pages needed to access the information they want, which reduces the number of pages to load, thereby mitigating the issue of slow servers without having a third party manage our servers.
Results
After presenting this idea to my peers and stakeholders, it was discovered that DigiPen cannot change the Moodle website.
The stakeholders agreed that, if there were a way for DigiPen to implement this solution, it would be possible, but at the time of the presentation, it was not.
Check out my other project!