Redesigns of Blackboard Learn

User Experience: Final Prototype

Nick Fleming

Concordia University Chicago

IDT-6700
Wozniak
05/03/2020
 My redesign of Blackboard Learn, accessed via a web browser on a PC, includes multiple changes based on my initial

evaluation framed through the lens of Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics, with additional guidance from the Human-Computer

Interaction design principles also focusing on usability. I based further alterations on feedback received through focus groups and

usability testing. A small scale test, I had three users perform various tasks based on my redesigned pages recording their thought

processes and screen through the Snagit application.

I specifically set out to alleviate the confusion stemming from the navigation graphics and functions in the Discussion Board

area, and minimize the possibility of students forgetting about or misunderstanding their assignments when saved as drafts. I found

that many of my changes helped, but further issues arose and caused confusion; I had not anticipated these, and thus made

adjustments.

Executive Summary
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My initial plan was to move the “Unread Posts” and “Unread Replies to Me” links inside the forums and thread so they do not distract users from the
correct link to open the full item with all posts for context; however, I received positive feedback about using these red bubbles as notifications. Instead I
changed the circles which indicate zero unread items to a dark gray. Now the circles will be red only if there are unread posts or replies. The red circles fit
more consistent standards of what users expect in a notification. Usability tests indicated that this was effective. Users immediately distinguished which
circles indicated a new notification. I also made the heading text appear when the cursor hovers over one of the circles. This helps alleviate cognitive
load caused by split attention when there are several forums/threads, and users to have to scroll past where the current headers are visible. Now when
looking at the sixth forum, users will not have scroll back to the top to see which link opens “Unread Posts”.

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For the issue of where to click to open a forum or thread, my testing yielded 33% of users who did click the blue link by default. The rest clicked any
general area within the highlighted section to open the full thread or forum with original post and all comments together. In conjunction with the alterations
made to the red bubbles, this improves the design in regard to the error prevention heuristic because the bubbles are often clicked by users trying to
open the full thread or forum without realizing that they won’t see their own nor previously read posts. When clicking the box, they are less likely to make
errors caused by thinking their post disappeared, as it will never show up as unread. This issue did not arise in my testing, thus my redesign would likely
reduce the occurrence of this error.

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Switching over to the “Save Draft” feature for discussion posts and assignments, my proposed change would have notifications added to the main page
of Blackboard when a student has a draft saved for an assignment. Opening “Course Updates” would show the normal “Assignment Due” notification, but
would now include an indication that a draft is saved. All users found the notifications and were able to navigate back to the saved draft easily, however
users more familiar with Blackboard did acknowledge that they tend to ignore these notifications. Though they may be useful, if they are not used, then
they are irrelevant. I believe tying these notifications in with the mobile app notifications would make them most effective. Many younger users use this
app and receive notifications on their phones, which they are less likely to ignore than the ones on the browser.

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Taking this idea a step further, I added a large banner to the “Announcements” page reminding students right when they open the course that they have a
draft saved. This also includes a link to open the draft, which minimizes the possibility of students forgetting they only saved an assignment as a draft and
missing the deadline. This helps reduce cognitive load of the students by the nature of the recognition over recall heuristic. My focus group participants
each ranked this issue as their highest priority because it can affect students grades and put the responsibility on the instructor to determine if a student
really forgot about the draft, or just did not complete their full assignment in time. It is better when there are multiple clear indicators that an official
submission has not yet been made. In practice, the test users had no trouble seeing the clear indicators that they needed to address their drafts.

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One issue I underestimated until the usability test phase was the navigation when on the assignment page with a saved draft. The testers easily made it
back to this page from various points, but all of them expressed some level of confusion of what to do from here. Again I added an indication that the
assignment is saved as a draft to mitigate any confusion as to whether an official submission went through yet. With the current labels for the navigation
links (“OK” to go back to the previous page and “Continue” to proceed to the editing page), users had to guess and use trial and error to figure out what
to do next. Nothing was clear here as the labels were interchangeable and vague. For my latest iteration, I have altered the text so that “Exit” will take
users back to the previous screen and “Edit Draft” will take them to the editing page where they can submit the assignment. This text is much more
clear, which should help alleviate frustration and cognitive load in students as they should not have to guess where to click.

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From this point, I would perform another usability test to see if the new changes I made helped to solve some of the problems I had not

anticipated in previous iterations of the design. I would also look to other learning management systems to see if they have the same issues

arise and how they have dealt with them or not. Checking back through the multimedia principles and usability heuristics I would like to

compare the current design to other options which I may not have considered yet. In a real project this would all be based on the available

time and resources provided by the institution and the team working on this project. If there is time we can also tweak something to improve

the usability, but it is best to know that it is being done for the right reason. Making changes just for the sake of making changes can be

detrimental to the overall interface of an LMS. Every alteration should be based on legitimate research whether conducted by the designer

directly or through a published account of someone else’s research.

Conclusion
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 References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for
consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Wiley.

Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). What is human-computer interaction (HCI)?.

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-interaction

Nielsen, J. (2005). Ten usability heuristics. Retrieved from

http://lore.ua.ac.be/Teaching/SE3BAC/practicum/acceptanceAndUsabilityTesting/TenUsabilityHeuristics.pdf