Education Standards Authority - curriculum & LMS usability
Role
Sr. UX Researcher
Background
NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) set out to create a new Digital Curriculum website.
The Beta version of the Digital Curriculum website was launched in early November 2021. ��Come December 2021, NESA recruited 8 teachers from the NESA TENs Team to take part in usability testing of the Digital Curriculum website, testing functionality of the general navigation.
Qualitative and quantitative data was collected during these usability sessions.
Overview
Scope�The focus was to elevate the usability and overall experience of the new NESA site by implementing targeted improvements informed by thorough qualitative and quantitative research. By focusing on understanding user needs and pain points, this project sought to deliver a more intuitive and user-friendly solution, ultimately enhancing user satisfaction and engagement.
�Problem�Navigation and content restructuring. Usability refinement to influence which content would be included in the final Learning Management System (LMS) migration.
Goal�Identify any structural issues or pain points within the newly designed Curriculum site, focusing on how participants navigate. Address content-related challenges and usability issues that may hinder user satisfaction or impede effective interaction with the product/service. Compile comprehensive recommendations for improved usability, ensuring alignment with user needs and expectations.
Discovery
Through extensive testing evaluation, it was discovered that the proposed structure of the new site was desirable to a range of teachers, fitting various instruction level needs. This new structure would also support the secondary user group: parents/guardians.��Qualitative results indicated that most teachers found the new website easier to use than the current. ��Quantitative results showed a UMUX-lite score of between 70 and 85, with a 70% confidence interval (approximately 68 is a good UMUX-lite score).
Thematic analysis
Severity codes
Good practice
Minor problem
Serious problem
Critical problem
Usability session findings were first categorised and then prioritised by implementing a severity rating scale:
Findings at a glance
Recommendations
Recommendations focused on improving the usability of the new Digital Curriculum site fell into three overlapping categories:
�Specific recommendation within categories: