Context
Class Project
Role
Principal Investigator & Co-Designer
Completion Date
April 2022
Product Redesign
This project is the culmination of a complete product redesign of Canvas LMS. The beginning stages of this project included conducting original existing interaction research. The middle stages consisted of creating a user journey map, and the final stages focused on creating a low-fidelity Balsamiq wire-frame and a business proposal and presentation.
Timeline
5 Months
Interaction Research
This report was completed individually and includes the methods and findings of original research on higher education users that utilize Canvas as a learning management system. This research concluded that the variety of methods available to complete tasks was a major pain point for users.
Methods utilized in this research include observation and self-report methods to gather qualitative and quantitative data about both user behavior and feedback to ensure data accuracy. Specific observation methods used include site-visits, user analysis, task analysis, and environmental analysis.
Findings of this report suggest that a major pain point was having too many options to complete the same task. It also suggests that the most commonly used elements were the least liked by users. These conclusions resulted in changes in the redesigned wire-frame.
User Journey Map
After gathering user data from interviews in the interaction report, I created a user journey map that gives a visual representation of a fictional Canvas user based on demographics, pain points, and high points from my user pool in the Interaction Report.
The user profile depicts a white, male transfer college student that needs to learn this product for school. His journey using this product starts out with a neutral emotion. His emotion progresses to a negative one because he experiences a pain point of not being able to find upcoming assignments. However, by the end of the journey, his emotion is back up to a positive one because he discovered the Calendar feature, which allows him to complete his goal.
Redesigned Wireframe
Based on the information from the interaction report, my group partner and I created an improved wire-frame of Canvas using Balsamiq. This wire-frame features interactive elements of the Dashboard, Inbox, Account, and Assignments features.
A major improvement to the redesign is the simplification and re-categorization of important features, such as the left navigation bar. These design choices were made to to lessen the task options identified as a pain point by users.
Another major improvement is the addition of obvious and helpful features, such as a search bar and grade toggle on the Dashboard. These features were added based on user feedback that involved suggesting these features directly or indirectly stating their desire for a way to achieve a task easier.
Business Usability
Proposal
This business usability report includes an overview of the entire project including the interaction report, experience overview, requirements for both the user and redesigned product, alternative ideas considered and arguments for the chosen ones, and a conceptual design of findings and implemented changes.
