Overview
As a publisher, Cengage delivers most of it's courses as pre-authored and pre-packaged entities. Instructors regularly change due dates, make assessments for credit (or not) and in addition to that liked the ability to hide / reorder certain elements of the course to suit their purposes. The Hide / reorder functionality was a new feature that was being introduced, whereas the Due date and for credit classifications were a part of existing feature set
The Problem
User Problems
- Inability to reorder / hide modules according to course requirements
- Due dates, points and for credit toggle controls were in multiple pages and difficult to find
Business Problems
- Support overhead in customizing the course and modifying due dates
- QA automation was convoluted due to different ways of achieving same results
- Course customization was a tablestakes feature
USER RESEARCH
User Interviews:
Generative User Interviews to identify user goals and pain points
Information Architecture:
During IA research we found that the features we were discussing were all accessed once at the beginning of the course and seldom afterwards
Journey Map:
Building a comprehensive Journey Map touching several stakeholders with a focus on Instructors and Learners
Design Process
Brainstorming and Wireframing:
Ideating solutions and prototyping designs to communicate solutions while accommodating business and feasibility constraints
User Validation:
Iterative validation of designs for value testing to ensure that design meets user pains
High Fidelity Prototype:
Creating final high fidelity prototypes based on validated designs
User Testing:
Testing with users for usability and other final issues
Results
Product was released and is being used by instructors in live courses and metrics are being measured to verify usage