iteach.msu.edu website instructional materials and personas

iTeach at MSU Commons

User Experience research and design

sUMMARY
My goal was to support the initial launch of the  iTeach at MSU Commons platform (formerly '#iteachmsu Commons') website; supporting the team and influencing the user experience design of the website through user research, user interface design, ans the usability testing and validation process.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Client
Michigan State University
Role
User Experience Researcher and Designer
Contribution
User Research
Information Architecture
Instructional Design
User Interface Design
User Experience Design
Usability Testing and Validation
Background
The iTeach at MSU Commons platform (iteach.msu.edu) was created with the goal bringing educators together. This platform acts as a hub for MSU educators to share ideas and questions, connect with others, and grow in teaching practice. I was able to contribute to the design and development of the platform as a part of this design team through various facets as outlined in the sections below.
User Research
In order for our team to better understand our user base, I conducted interviews with educators at MSU. To ensure that the information I gathered was representative of all users, I first assessed the current and intended user base and identified the four types of educators that exist in the space; administrators, staff, graduate students, and instructors. I also recognized that the university is made up of many colleges and programs with educators that all have unique perspectives, as well as individuals with varying levels of technological competence and experience with the platform.

Considering this information about our users, I reached out to MSU educators, inviting them voluntarily participate in a one-on-one interview to share their experiences and insights from their role as an educator. Our participants were chosen to be inclusive of different university roles, associated colleges, as well as other demographics.
Breakdown of user interview participants. "College: Broad Collage of Business: 2, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources: 3, Collage of Arts and Letters: 1, College of Education: 1, College of natural science: 4, The Graduate School: 1. Roles: Administration: 2, Staff: 2, Student: 3, Instructor: 5
Breakdown of user interview participants by associated college and university role
To conduct the user interviews, I asked the participants a series of questions focusing on the individual’s experiences within their role at MSU. The questions were intended to reveal their values, motivations, goals, and frustrations. For participants that were identified as active users of the platform, I asked additional questions regarding their experience and history with the Commons.

I then analyzed the participant responses for key themes, patterns, and significant details. Based on these findings, I then developed four unique user personas that represent each of the key educator groups including user values, motivations, frustrations, and desires.
User Persona #1 "Darryl Harding, Environmental Sciences, Librarian. Age: 50 years old. University Role: Staff. Focus, equal amounts teaching and research, slightly more collaboration leaning than independence. Values meaningful and effective organization. Productive uses of time, collaboration, and resources. Motivations: Creating meaningful connections with others, leading to collaboration and improvements in both teaching and research. Increasing the impace of teaching practices on student success by staying informed of new techniques and ideas. Pain points / Frustrations. Balancing work responsibilities, personal growth and student success with limited time. Locating the correct audience for self-authored resources. Managing the use of an abundance of platforms with overlapping functionalities. Ideal experience/desires: Resorces that outline curriculum structure and innovative uses of technology. Ownership of and authority over self-authored content.User Persona #2 "Mary Wise, Ph.D. Assistant Professor and Course Coordinator Age: 62 years old. University Role: Administration. . Focus, mainly on teaching and not research, more collaboration leaning than independence. Values personal identity and ownership of content. The sharing and understanding of different perspectives. Motivations are feeling connected to ideas and solutions for teaching, improving knowledge and skills within teaching tools and technologies and gaining feedback from colleagues
User Persona #3 "Carmen Lutz, Graduate Assistant. Age: 26 years old. University Role: Graduate Student. Focus, equal amounts teaching and research, more collaboration leaning than independence. Values cross-departmental communication and collaboration opportunities. Low stress, casual communication. User Persona #4 "Phillip Mendoza, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Course Coordinator. Age: 38 years old. University Role: Instructor. Focus, slightly more teaching than research, equal collaboration leaning than independence. Values cross-departmental communication and collaboration opportunities. Low stress, casual communication.
Four user personas created for the iteach at msu Commons
Instructional Design
It is important for all users to have the ability to access content and clearly understand functionality within web spaces, especially as new features are being released. Due to this, I assessed the existing “getting started” materials for the platform and discovered information that was outdated, difficult to use, and underutilized by the current platform users.

I developed a plan to create a new system of organization and layout for all of the “getting started” materials. The intention with my design of these materials was for users to be able to locate the information they are searching for and to receive instruction in a format that is comfortable for them to use.

To achieve these goals, I created a playlist (a collection of articles) that contains both information about the platform creation and intention, as well as organized content informing users of how to function. Users previously located the instructional materials via a hyperlink on the “introduction” page, but are now able to browse the information within one organized space; the new “Getting Started” playlist containing instructional materials for the Commons.

For each instructional article, I wrote out specific yet concise instructions about each function, organized with sub-headings for ease of the reader. I also added images with labels to supplement the written content. As a part of this process, I also updated the existing instructional videos and created new ones to include recent updates to functionality and interface design.
Instructional Article from the iteach commons titled "Getting Started in the iteach MSU Commons. Complete the getting started with iteachmsu commons playlist to learn about the basic functions of the site. Posted by Kaileigh Hermann. Playlist sections "About the iteachmsu Commons, how to get started, how to create content, how to organize content
An instructional article that provides an overview of the platform
Usability Testing and Validation
As the platform was still in developing stages, I conducted usability testing for development updates in both staging and production environments in order to ensure a smooth experience for all of our users as new features are released. This process included finding bugs and issues with the usability, accessibility, and overall experience of the platform and identifying potential solutions.
Screenshot from spreadsheet used for testing development updates showing pass or fail on various delivered features
Example of the spreadsheet used for testing development updates

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