Empathize: User interviews

To ground our design process, we embarked on a journey of empathy. Through insightful user interviews, we intimately understood the needs, aspirations, and challenges of our target audience. This step was pivotal in unraveling the pain points faced by young Africans seeking affordable and relevant education options.

Key Findings from fictional users, Samuel Njoku and Aisha Kone

Affordability Concerns: The interviews revealed that cost is a significant barrier for young Africans seeking to enhance their skills. Many expressed frustration with the prohibitive costs of traditional education options and were actively seeking accessible alternatives.

Lack of Practical Application: Respondents often highlighted the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. They sought courses that not only provided knowledge but also equipped them with skills they could apply immediately in real-world scenarios.

Peer Interaction: The desire for community engagement was evident, with participants expressing a need for opportunities to interact with peers, share experiences, and collaborate on projects.

Relevance to Careers: Participants consistently emphasized the importance of courses aligned with their career aspirations. They expressed a strong desire for courses that directly translated to practical skills relevant to the job market.

Flexible Learning: Flexibility emerged as a common theme, with many participants expressing the need for learning options that accommodated their busy schedules, part-time jobs, and other commitments.

Competitive Analysis: Identifying Opportunities and Differentiators

Informed by meticulous competitor analysis, we uncovered the whitespace in the market. Coursera, Future Learn, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy and Skillshare served as our benchmarks. Our strategic differentiation anchored on African-centric content, personalized learning paths, affordability, and the innovative B2B/B2C model that set us apart in the online education space.

Creating Differentiators:

African-Centric Content: Unlike our competitors, Blackboard Learning's strategic differentiation centers around offering courses that are tailored to the African context. This ensures relevance to local job markets and societal needs.

Personalized Learning Paths: Our emphasis on personalized course recommendations based on user interests and performance differentiates us from platforms that offer a more generic approach.

Affordability and Accessibility: By providing a flat-rate subscription, we set ourselves apart as a more accessible and affordable option for our target audience.

B2B/B2C Model: Our innovative B2B/B2C approach, inspired by Spotify, allows us to cater to organizations seeking private courses while also empowering individual content creators to monetize their expertise

Define: Identifying painpoints and goals

Translating user insights into actionable design goals. Meet Samuel Njoku and Aisha Kone, archetypal representations of our target users challenges. Samuel's pursuit of practical programming skills and Aisha's entrepreneurial ambitions guided our design decisions toward crafting meaningful solutions.

Challenges

Affordable Skill Enhancement: Samuel faces financial constraints after his degree and needs cost-effective courses.

Relevance and Practicality: He seeks courses directly related to software development for better job prospects.

Hands-On Experience: Samuel wants courses with practical projects to build a portfolio.

Peer Interaction: Samuel desires a community to collaborate with peers on coding projects.

Flexibility: He needs courses that fit around his part-time job and commitments.

Challenges

Financial Constraints: Aisha is budget-conscious due to student loans and part-time jobs.

Relevance to Entrepreneurship: She looks for courses that align with her business aspirations.

Practical Knowledge: Aisha requires courses with actionable insights for her fashion business.

Time Management: Juggling studies and her business, she needs flexible course options.

Networking: Aisha values a community for connecting with fellow entrepreneurs and seeking advice.

Design Goals:

Affordability: Offer courses at affordable prices to cater to budget-conscious learners.

Relevance: Curate a course catalog that directly addresses the skills needed for various career paths.

Practical Application: Ensure courses provide hands-on projects and case studies for real-world application.

Flexibility: Design courses that accommodate learners' busy schedules with self-paced options.

Community Engagement: Develop interactive features like discussion forums for peer collaboration and networking.

Ideate: Generating creative design solutions.

The "Ideate" phase ignited our creativity as we translated user needs into visionary design solutions. We envisioned task flows, sketched wireframes, and designed user interfaces with precision. By leveraging the power of InVision, we brought our concepts to life, enabling us to visualize the future of Blackboard Learning.
Here's how we navigated this crucial phase:

Crafting Design Solutions:

Putting Users First: We embarked on crafting detailed task flows, wireframes, and user interfaces for both the platform and app. Every element we envisioned was aimed at creating an experience that resonated seamlessly with our users.

Guiding User Journeys: Task flows were meticulously created to map out the step-by-step journeys that our users would undertake within the system. This method ensured that their interactions remained intuitive and optimized.

Visualizing Layouts: Wireframes emerged as the blueprint for each screen's structure and layout. This stage prioritized functionality over aesthetics, focusing on perfecting the interaction experience.

Empowering Through Dashboards: We devoted special attention to designing comprehensive dashboards catering to different user roles—admin, quality assurance, tutors, and students. These dashboards would serve as hubs for smooth interactions, tracking progress, and providing valuable insights.

Revolutionary Pricing Model: Our pricing model aimed for inclusivity and simplicity—a flat rate subscription granting users unrestricted access to our rich course library. To cater to diverse needs, we accommodated both private courses for organizations and public courses for individual content creators.

Inspired by Spotify: Borrowing from Spotify's approach, we envisioned a platform that seamlessly catered to both B2B and B2C segments. Organizations could offer exclusive private courses, while independent instructors could monetize their expertise by sharing public courses for a fee.

Engaging Stakeholders: Our decision to involve stakeholders at every turn proved strategic. This approach ensured our design solutions remained in harmony with the larger vision and objectives of Blackboard Learning. We nurtured an environment of collaboration, fostering constant feedback loops to refine our design journey.

Implications on Design:During this ideation phase, we witnessed the transformation of abstract ideas into tangible blueprints. By giving shape to task flows, wireframes, and dashboard designs, we translated user needs and our design goals into a visual reality that could be refined and iterated upon.

Prototype and Test: Turning concepts into Reality

Having crafted a solid foundation in the "Empathize," "Define," and "Ideate" phases, we ventured into the transformative "Prototype and Test" phase. Here, we transitioned from conceptual ideas to tangible prototypes, refining our design solutions through iterative testing and user feedback.

Collaborative Brilliance: The Design Team at Work. Behind the scenes, our design team diligently collaborates to shape the future of Blackboard Learning. In this screenshot, you get a sneak peek into our dynamic workspace, where ideas converge and creativity thrives. Notably, a carefully crafted design system lays the foundation for consistency and excellence, ensuring that every detail of Blackboard Learning's design speaks to our commitment to delivering a seamless learning experience.

Empowering Career Aspirations: Your Path to Success Begins Here. The Blackboard Learning home page, thoughtfully designed to ignite career ambitions and cater to beginners across all sectors, especially the tech-driven careers of the future. Dive into a world of hands-on courses meticulously curated to accelerate your growth. Whether you're charting your first steps or advancing a well-established journey, we're here to guide you towards a future ripe with possibilities.

Pricing in Progress:: Navigating the Future of Learning Access. In this snapshot from our ongoing website implementation, we're in the midst of fine-tuning our pricing strategy. Our commitment to affordability and accessibility is paramount, and we're diligently exploring how to provide unlimited access to all public courses, excluding accredited school courses. Keep an eye out for our evolving pricing options, including the family plan, single plan, and enterprise plan, designed to cater to a diverse range of learners and organizations.

Empowering Career Aspirations: Your Path to Success Begins Here. The Blackboard Learning home page for reoccorent users, thoughtfully designed to ignite career ambitions and cater to beginners across all sectors, Whether you're charting your first steps or advancing a well-established journey, we're here to guide you towards a future ripe with possibilities..

Hands-On Learning: this dashboard is the central hub for an enriching and personalized learning experience. Designed with users success in mind, this dashboard empowers users to take charge of their educational journey like never before.

Unlocking Knowledge with Interactive Testing: A Glimpse into Blackboard Learning's Testing Features we've meticulously designed our testing features to be a dynamic and immersive part of your learning journey. Here's a sneak peek into what tests look like on Blackboard Learning:

Building a Vibrant Learning Community: In this snapshot, we celebrate the power of community. Blackboard Learning fosters strong connections through dedicated forums for individual topics, fostering deep discussions and shared insights. And at the heart of it all, our general forum acts as a central hub, bringing learners together from all corners to exchange ideas, seek guidance, and create lasting connections. Join us in shaping a dynamic, collaborative learning environment.

Results and takeaways

As we continue to implement the new Blackboard Learning web interface, we're already witnessing promising developments and anticipating positive outcomes. Here are some key insights and ongoing learnings from this project:

User-Centric Approach: From the outset, our focus on the user experience is showing promise. Early feedback suggests that learners are finding the platform more intuitive and engaging.

Affordability and Accessibility: Our pricing strategy, including family, single, and enterprise plans, positions us well to make quality education accessible to a diverse range of learners, in line with our commitment to affordability.

Career-Centric Learning: The platform's emphasis on career growth and hands-on courses tailored to future tech-driven careers continues to be a point of interest, promising learners a path to success.

Flexibility in Learning: The flexibility for learners to schedule classes on their terms is anticipated to be a major asset, allowing education to fit seamlessly into their busy lives.

Community Building: The development of dedicated forums and a general forum is expected to foster a strong learning community, enabling learners to connect, share knowledge, and grow together.

Practical Application: The emphasis on practical application through test screens and assignments remains a focal point, bridging the gap between theory and real-world skills.

Design Consistency: The carefully crafted design system continues to ensure a consistent, visually appealing, and user-friendly learning environment, reinforcing our dedication to quality.

Adaptive Evolution: We're building the web design to evolve continually, to stay responsive to the dynamic education landscape and address the evolving needs of our learners.

Blackboard Learning

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Prototype

Test