Personalized learning to scale workplace training
A mobile based adaptive learning system for the workforce
THE CHALLENGE
To conceptualize a personalized mobile experience focusing on the pivotal moments across the learning path
MY ROLE
UX Design
TEAM
Product Manager, Business Stakeholders
TIMEFRAME
2019
Background
Personalization will become an enormous opportunity as we look to the future of scaling online courseware.
If our systems can remember learner habits and preferences, while recommending how to proceed in the moment or down the road, we can truly revolve the experience around the customer, as opposed to the customer adapting to the experience.
Analyzing User Feedback
Glimpse of the research report
Targeted at Employees, this product offers a learning platform for training at the workplace.
Over the course of seven months in 2017, our teams collected user data based on our Adaptive Learning platform focused on workplace learning. Research methods like Instructor and Manger Surveys were used to gather insights.
# Onboarding
Users weren’t always clear about how to get started and what to expect from the platform.
# Avoidable Relearning
Having to jump into the course directly meant users were forced into relearning topics they were familiar with. They would prefer the idea of being able to choose specific topics appropriate to their current level of knowledge.
# Clicking over Learning
Some users felts that they could just click through the platform and still complete it, without actually learning anything
“The "video game" style of learning is useless. People just keep clicking until the are finished.”
# Adaptive Frustrations
Some of the adaptive logic around when to interrupt a learner’s progress caused frustration. This also made the whole course feel longer that it was.
Understanding the Problem
In partnership with the Product Manager I started off by putting together some quick and dirty wireframes. The goal was to think about the key experiences and document any ideas that emerged through the process.
I focused on individual screens and features rather than the end-to-end experience. This helped me zoom into the pain points of the users and get to the root of the problem.
Ideation Questions
# Are we providing enough information to the learner, especially at critical points of the experience?
# How can we engage with the learner in a timely manner without causing frustrations?
# How can we improve on the metacognition and other aspects of our learning science model?
Course structure with the ability to download topics for offline learning
Acknowledging pivotal points in the learning experience
Ideas for motivational concepts like correct answer streaks
Key Design Considerations
# Clear Context
Whether it’s first-time or returning users, knowing where they are and their next steps will help ease them into the learning experience.
# Forgiving
Making errors is part of the learning process, but tracking them in a forgiving and informative way helps improve learner understanding and motivation.
# Personalized
Every learner should be enabled to form their own path. Give the learner control on choices around preferred learning resources and ways to move forward.
# Timely Cues
Whether an automated push notification to “Refresh” on a particular topic or motivational concepts like “correct answer streaks”, it’s important to identify pivotal moments of engagement.
Visualizing the Learner’s Path
Having done the groundwork, I moved to a low-fidelity prototype to build on our ideas and see how they might fit into the end-to-end experience.
I started to notice some themes emerging as a result of this exercise.
# Learning by Doing
Allow users to familiarize themselves with the adaptive features of the platform before getting into their course. Having them answer some sample questions to get started would help them understand how the system is meant to work.
# Self Investment
Having the learner invested in their own learning process is bound to improve engagement. For instance, what type of learning content would they prefer - Videos or Slides?
Giving learners the choice to tailor their own experience gets us moving towards true personalization.
# Timely Intervention
To understand the moments in time where automated intervention can help enhance the learning process. Missing the mark can easily lead to frustration, disengagement and lack of motivation.
← Clickable Prototype
Takeaways
This conceptual exercise helped us gather our ideas in a visual format to feed into project planning. It was meant to serve as a foundation to help the teams brainstorm new delivery workflows and concepts. This also helped communicate business needs in a more intuitive format, versus a list of written features.
Next Steps
# Review with stakeholders and finetune as needed
# Validate with users to understand if these ideas meet their expectations and identify any gaps
# Work on defining requirements in line with market expectations and product roadmap
Personal Explorations
In order to supplement my portfolio, I recently did some visual design explorations based on my ideas from this project.
