UX SERVICES & AGLEARNING
August 2016
“The most interesting problems today are people problems, user experience problems. They are
problems where you have to put yourself in the shoes of consumers as well as client and their
large companies."
- Hans Neubert, CCO at Huge
The User Experience (UX) Department at Happy Medium is primarily responsible for the creation,
execution and analysis of all research for clients. Without user data, it is impossible for an
organization to know with confidence that the decisions it makes are going to resonate well with
users and yield strong results. It is UX’s job to help organizations figure out the questions to ask
and then go out and ask them.
UX research methodologies allow us to take a critical look at all types of user behaviors, from
broad topics like brand perception down to specific, website-based tasks. Ultimately, it is the aim
of the User Experience department to use research to ensure that the user is paramount to the way
a site is designed.
In addition to research, UX works closely with designers and developers to create intuitive site
structures. You can think of site structure as you might think of architectural blueprints: the
structure gives a bare-bones, clear outline of the overall skeleton of the site and where everything
will live. Design and development then bring those blueprints to life.
For Aglearning, UX will primarily focus on three things: 1. User needs on a feature-heavy site, 2.
Site structure, organization and navigation and 3. User research to test new features.
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
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Features and User Needs
Praedium wants to revitalize Aglearning into a robust site where people can learn and grow—a
place where farms can focus on professional development and use it as a way to improve their
reputation in the industry. To do this, Aglearning needs to undertake a complete redesign that not
only focuses on visual changes, but will also introduce numerous new features to the site itself. In
UX, it is crucial that when creating a feature-heavy website like Aglearning hopes to become, we
must keep a focus on the outcome the user hopes to achieve—that is, we can’t focus only on the
features themselves; we have to be sure to focus on the ultimate purpose the site serves for its
users. Throughout the process, we will continually ask ourselves, “What is the user trying to do?”
and ensure that the features support the answer, whatever it may be.
We cannot adequately create a website without first identifying who its users are, and what they
want to do on the site. This is where UX serves an invaluable role. The UX Department at Happy
Medium will work closely with the developers and design team during the redesign process to
identify the unique roles that different users will have on the site, what these users will have the
ability to do or not do and what their ultimate goal is. From there, UX will create a journey map
for each type of user that will identify the different pathways they will take on the site. By doing
this, we identify potential areas of frustration a user might have and mitigate the issue early in the
redesign process. Designers and developers use these journey maps to help them understand the
flow of information, and ultimately create a website that functions seamlessly regardless of
whether someone is an administrator or employee.
While we of course want to focus our efforts primarily on the user, we understand that we must
also balance our decisions with the needs of stakeholders. At Happy Medium, we understand that
user needs and stakeholder needs must play nicely, and we have extensive experience in balancing
the needs of these two groups.
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
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Site Structure, Organization and Navigation
The journey maps we create for user pathways will also be used to inform how the site should be
structured. Knowing what the ultimate goal is for each user type, we can then work backwards to
prioritize where on the site they need to get to most frequently. This informs not only the overall
structure, but the navigation, as well. We want users to be able to come to Aglearning, sign in, and
get to their course (or whatever their ultimate goal is) with minimal frustration or fuss.
User Testing: New Features
The new Aglearning.com will be a feature-heavy site, and whenever a company plans to introduce
new features on a site, it is of the utmost importance to test those features with users to verify they
accomplish what you want them to.
Undoubtedly, new features and designs should be tested on users to determine their efficacy. For
Aglearning, we will work with you to prioritize which features we want to test with users (options
that come to mind include signing up, accessing/editing accounts, previewing a course, enrolling
in a course, taking a quiz), and then set up testing sessions with 5-10 participants. These sessions
could happen remotely or in person, and would assess a user’s ability to use the new feature as
well as gather their feedback and overall opinions on how well it worked for them.
This type of testing happens in the thick of the redesign process. This means that feedback and
data from testing sessions will be immediately incorporated into the design and development of
the site, and if testing uncovers an issue with a feature, we can respond and iterate quickly, fixing
the feature before becomes a larger problem. Ultimately, user testing saves time and resources
down the road by identifying and resolving potential issues before the site is live.
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
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Once we have completed our testing, we will cross-reference user data to see where there are
overlaps in themes, and also note unique needs among audiences where they arise. Ultimately, all
research results will be analyzed and presented to you in a final report.
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
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