LMS authoring:
Videos and files

Problem statements

  1. Course Authors manually delete and download videos and files individually in a single action which is time consuming.

  2. Course Authors have no way of knowing if their assets are being used and where they are being used in a course.

  3. Course Authors do not have a consolidated location for videos and files and have to go to different pages to manage them.

How might we statements

  1. How might we combine both pages so that all course assets (videos and files) are consolidated?

  2. How might we provide a reference to where an asset is used and if it is currently being used?

  3. How might we include bulk actions that handle multiple videos and files to be able to be deleted and downloaded?

Research

7 User interviews

I conducted user interviews who fall into our target demographic. Yearly check-ins with course authoring partners, notably Harvard and MIT have produced a running list of requested improvements across the LMS platform. These problems have been identified as the #1, #2 and #6 on the importance scale for 3 years running for the overall platform.

User types

  • Course author admins

  • Course author admins assistants

  • Has bulk actions

  • Has centralized assets

  • Has usage reference

Competitive analysis

  • Has bulk actions

  • Has centralized assets

  • No usage reference

Ideation workshop

I facilitated an hour-long workshop with 9 attendees with the following format:

  • Agenda and background

  • Overview of problem and HMW statements

  • Quick reference for ideation

  • Crazy 8’s sketching

  • Refinement sketching

  • Sketch discussion

  • Dot voting

  • Retro

Ideation results

Top new features

  1. New product feature tour

  2. Consolidated library with both videos and files

  3. Usage reference

  4. Video preview modal

  5. Bulk delete

  6. Buld download

  7. Folder functionality

  8. Zip file support

  9. Alternate view toggle

  10. Undo action feature

  11. Expanded sort and filter

  12. Video transcript support

Impact / effort matrix

Designs

Lo-fi

Example below is of the the bulk delete feature experience. Also showing new asset card design with selection box, preview, kabob menu and file type.

Hi-fi

Examples below include, new feature messaging, advanced sorting and filtering, asset detail info, horizontal view toggle and UI tooltips.

Usability testing

2-prong approach

I used usertesting.com with general population for a non-biased usability study and another with power users of this software from MIT and Harvard.

Results

  • Bulk actions (delete and download) were a big hit with power users

  • Clarity of UI and ease if use was notable with usertesting study

  • View toggle was really liked by those who are more comfortable with data tables and appreciated more at-a-glance file info

  • Sort and filter was extremely easy to use and mirrored more modern common UI patterns

  • Asset info detail panel was “gamechanger” for power users with usage reference and file info

Next

Unified service desk