Learner Dashboard - edX
The learner dashboard is one of the most visited pages on the edX site, as it is the landing page when a user is logged in. However, the dashboard is also one of the most problematic pages on the edX site. Some of the problems are:
Courses show up in the order in which a learner enrolled in them with no way to arrange them differently
No way to hide old archived or completed courses
Courses and Programs (groups of courses) are on separate tabs within the dashboard
Not very much useful information
While I was working on the Enterprise team at edX, the Enterprise and Master’s Degree teams came together and decided that they wanted a more curated and modular dashboard. The Architecture team, which was responsible for fixing and re-architecting existing problems, also wanted to redo the dashboard. The UX team saw this as an opportunity to have large cross-functional impact. The enterprise team was going to be in charge of the bulk of the work, so leading this giant UX effort was my responsibility.
The old edX dashboard
Mapping & Brainstorming
When the UX team was brainstorming around the dashboard, we came up with the idea that the most important question learners are asking is “what do I do next?”. I wanted to make sure that the order of importance was clear. Getting back into a course where a learner left off was the most important thing for them - but how we determined what course was the most important was also a big decision.
Initially, the Master’s and Enterprise teams wanted separate dashboards for each of their respective programs. We initially started thinking about them as “linked accounts”, similar to being signed into multiple Google accounts at the same time, where a user can click between them. However, in thinking more about what a learner would want, the UX team decided each learner owns all their own learning, and therefore should be able to access all their courses at any time, from one dashboard.
Brainstorming with the UX team
Brainstorming with the Enterprise team
Flows
After deciding on one dashboard to rule them all, I created flows to explain how regular, Master’s, and Enterprise learners would go through their experiences. I presented these flows to all three teams (the Master’s team, Enterprise team, and Architecture team).
The Master’s Degree dashboard flow
The standard learner dashboard flow
Prototyping & Usability Testing
Once I had all 3 teams on board, I moved on to wireframing. I had to make sure I was
Clearly calling out the Master’s Degree and Enterprise sections separately
Showing useful information to each course and section
Answering “what do I do next” for each user
When I was testing, the most important tasks were around making sure that people understood the difference between personal courses, enterprise courses, and Master’s degrees, as well as if people could tell what to do next (which was what we had determined was the most important question/action).
People could tell what to do next. There were some problems with labelling between the different types of courses and programs, which I addressed and verified in a second round of testing.
Results
This project was a big deal because a new dashboard would impact every single learner on our site. For me, this project was a great example of how important it is to work across different projects for the UX team in particular. The product delivery teams knew what they wanted in their own silos, but it was up to me to illustrate the similarities between the product lines and challenge their assumptions.
