Revamping lms.tamu.edu

The one-stop-shop for faculty during the transition to canvas

As Texas A&M University shifted to support a new Learning Management System, the Office for Academic Innovation built out a resource for faculty and staff alike to learn more about the product and how to best utilize it.

lms.tamu.edu

The definition of an 'on going' project

During the transition of learning management systems, eCampus to Canvas, I was the lead UI/UX designer on a team tasked with creating and maintaining the website for Texas A&M. We worked alongside instructional designers and governance committees within the university to develop a one-stop-shop for the transition.

With the introduction of COVID-19 during the process, our office was given the deadline to move almost 13,800 courses online after COVID-19 was upgraded to a pandemic. We successfully transferred 57,871 of our students and 2,988 faculty members (that were not already teaching online) to virtual classrooms. And did so in just seven business days. This was aided by the production of the lms website and a university-wide campaign to #KeepLearning #KeepTeaching.

The Problem

Creating a website in seven business days to teach faculty how to transition online tends to allow best practices in web design to fall through the cracks.

This website had several accessibility and user flow errors that prevented users from finding the answers they needed. We set out to look at the pain points and how they could be resolved.

User Journey

We collected data on demographics, FAQ's in our office ticketing service, and user design trends to determine what reorganization of the information would make the most sense.

Our team found that the age demographic that struggled the most was the 50-65 age range. The older demographic of faculty are independent and want to conduct their research. One major shift was to make sure to use words and phrasing that a large audience will understand.

A More Collaborative Process

We used Figma to cross collaborate through teams

Working in a collaborative office where the skills differ greatly between teams, it was important for us to find a solution where everyone could collaborate. We found Figma to be an incredible tool. It allowed us as designers to put in practice what was best for web, while content creators wrote specified topics per assigned area.

This tool massively changed the way our office designed content on the web. We were able to collaborate with non-designers for a better and more thoughtful page.

Visit the Figma Wireframe

lms.tamu.edu sees the average presence of 67K users every week

What the 'Solution' looks like today

I think we all understand the idea of websites never being quite done. This project is not the exception. Over the two years of my employment with Texas A&M University, I have edited this website every day. In this time we have increased web traffic and customer engagement metrics with marketing strategies by developing countless resources for faculty over this time.