Colloquia

Summary

An increasing number of companies and organizations are promoting a learning culture by providing opportunities for professional development through digital learning technologies, leading to sustainable business success. The trend of flexible attendance times, locations and modes of participation led to the introduction of learning management systems (LMSs), which are used to deliver, complete and assess educational content. Whereas an LMS lacks interactivity and considers the learner as a passive receiver of information, recently introduced learning experience platforms (LXPs) aim to provide a more interactive and social learning experience.

Nerds & Company has developed an LXP for large organizations which is called ‘Blocks’. The title ‘Blocks’ refers to its standard components and features that can be reused across different clients who receive a unique configuration of blocks that match their needs and wishes. Each Blocks LXP is supported by an admin panel backend, which allows learning and development or innovation departments to create and manage learning content for end-users and monitor user data. Although the composition of the admin panel depends on the present blocks, its look and feel is the same for every client.

Throughout the development of the Blocks admin panel, insights from developers have been incorporated rather than considering user perspectives. Consequently, features have become counter-intuitive for users and require a steeper learning curve to effectively navigate and operate. Additionally, consistency across various pages and platforms is lacking, and relevant information is inefficient for admins to access.

To improve the admin panel’s user experience, interviews and usability tests have been conducted with stakeholders to gain insights into their current usage and identify usability problems. This has resulted in new user interface solutions that fit admin needs by making features explicit and providing clear immediate feedback for beginners, while allowing flexible use and efficient navigation on diverse needed information for experienced users. These redesigns have been evaluated through a second round of usability tests.

Overall, the improvement of the Blocks’ admin panel enhances the user experience for six client organizations who manage the LXPs for a growing total number of approximately 8500 learners. In addition, this project demonstrates the value of user involvement in design, while evaluating the usefulness of certain UX tools and research activities.