Good User Experience Starts at The Front Door.
A seismic shift has occurred in the learning and development software industry over the last couple of years. Learning Management Systems (LMS), Learning Experience Platforms (LXP), and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) have been hard at work revising their user experience to accommodate users on the go - or so they would have you think in their marketing materials. Looking at their websites, demos, and presentations, you can suppose potential users are promised an accessible, easy, and helpful experience while on the go. Is this the case, though?
In our discussions with industry partners and other experts in the field, it seems that these promises are falling short. Why is that?
The answer is simple, in our opinion. A mobile-first UX should extend to all aspects of the application, including the onboarding process. A signup and login process that requires the user to bounce between multiple devices to complete authentication or finalize their account creation is not helpful to your new team members and leaves a bad taste for user acceptance and adoption. Where possible, a platform should embrace the ability to allow users a "Single-Sign-On" experience with one or two taps to quickly verify the information and get the user into the application. A streamlined onboarding ensures that users will feel comfortable knowing that the login experience will be quick and easy every time they return.
Once they are in and using the platform, don't try and gather all the information from your users without offering them some things first. Slowing them down before they get a chance to experience the application can also lead to a poor first impression. Allow them to explore what an app has to offer. Later, after they've gotten comfortable, you can send a notification encouraging them to complete their profile, engage with new content, or collaborate with others in a social learning setting.
If fast, low-friction, and effortless is your app's aim for learning and content delivery - you have to start that way. That user experience includes how you say hello to your learners right at the front door of your platform.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. ”
If delivering easy-to-use, mobile-first content is important to you and your organization, you must make it a priority. Contact us for tips on how to streamline your user experience and welcome users to your learning ecosystem.
We’re SparkLearn® and this is DarkSparks – a monthly series for design discussion and critique in learning user experience.