2023-11-30 - UX/UI Working Group Meeting

 Date

Nov 30, 2023

 Discussion topics

Meeting notes

• We discussed how to broadcast the beta testing program more broadly. @Jenna Makowski will write a paragraph or two explaining the program so that we can share it, along with the test user recruitment form, with our networks. The program will also be announced on the forum, in the Slack Working Group channels, and in the blog

  • @Asma Ahmed created this spreadsheet for tracking where the announcement has been posted

• @Cassie Zamparini to share the Graded Discussions spec with this WG for input when it’s ready

• The wireframes for the HMX Custom Pathways project are starting soon. They will help to guide the technical specification

• Libraries V2 should launch sometime in December. @Jenna Makowski will conduct some user testing to help guide the spec for Content Libraries V2

• @María de los Ángeles Aguilar is still busy with the LTI wireframes, but they will be ready to present by our next meeting

• Launching features before the UX is perfect:

  • We decided that the work on copy pasting a unit should launch even though the UX is not very smooth

  • It is a highly-anticipated feature, and even though the UX may not be very intuitive, the documentation is clear which makes the feature usable

  • We can collect user feedback, and improve the UX over time

  • We discussed the option of pointing out to users when a feature has been releases but still needs UX improvements. 2U sometimes adds a big “feedback” button in cases like this, and then works fast to add fixes and improvements based on the feedback

• Santiago ran us through his usability testing process for the project allowing Course Creators to hide sections from the TOC

  • Moderated user testing was conducted using this prototype

  • The prototype was tweaked between each test based on the feedback from the previous test user

  • Feedback from the user tests, as well as test recordings, are shown in this comment

  • Santiago recommends the following books for usability testing:

    • Sprint (Jake Knapp)

    • The Mom Test (Rob Fitzpatrick)

      • Talk about their life instead of your idea

      • Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future

      • Talk less and listen more

• Brian mentions he likes unmoderated usability testing as the moderator is not influencing user feedback. Ali agrees that it’s difficult not to introduce bias during unmoderated usability testing.

• Santiago believes moderated testing should be used to see whether a product will be “valuable”, while unmoderated tests should be used to test out actual usability. Chelsea also mentions moderated should be used to evaluate whether a product satisfies a user’s actual needs. Maria mentions that moderated tests are more beneficial for complex feature tests. Brian suggests a combination of unmoderated and moderated testing can be beneficial too. This allows the user to walk through a feature unassisted and then the moderator can talk through any pain points thereafter.

• Cassie suggests putting together user / usability testing script templates to save time and introduce testing consistency across the community

• Jon mentions that they’ve received tons of feedback using a widget which is automatically output to a Google spreadsheet. This is a possible future consideration

 Action items

• @Jenna Makowski will investigate the Google Meet settings so we can record future meetings

• @Jenna Makowski will write a paragraph introducing the beta testing program and share it with the WG to share with their networks