For the last year, the User Experience (UX) Service has supported the LOUISA project with a programme of UX research activities aimed at understanding problems with the current experience of assessment and feedback from student and staff perspectives and identifying potential ways to improve it. Here, I consolidate the work that led to the recommendations […]

In May 2025, the User Experience (UX) Service continued a programme of user research for the LOUISA project by testing how easily students could use a prototype course in Learn to complete key tasks relating to assessment and feedback. This research helped prioritise areas for improvement. Previous student research and input from staff helped inform […]

Learn Ultra is the newest version of Learn, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The University is planning a phased upgrade to Learn Ultra as part of the VLE Excellence programme and the wider University 2030 Strategy and Digital Strategy. As part of a programme of user experience (UX) activities to support the upgrade of […]

As part of the Learn Ultra Upgrade project,  members of the Educational Design and Engagement team conducted a series of workshops and hybrid user experience testing and interview sessions with students on internships within Information Services, to help the project team understand how the integration of the new Ultra Base Navigation (UBN) layer could be […]

As part of the programme of user experience research for the latest phase of the Learn Foundations project, Learn Foundations teamed up with colleagues from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and the User Experience and Digital Consultancy Service to conduct usability testing. The programme of user experience research for Phase 3 of the Learn Foundations Project sought to understand how Learn […]

Staff and students were interviewed about their experiences of using Learn to support hybrid teaching and learning. The detail they provided helped build a rich picture of the hybrid environment – encompassing the practicalities and nuances of the new context.

Following last year’s successful series of usability testing showcase sessions in support of the Learn Foundations project, we are carrying out some more in 2020.

Throughout 2018/2019, the User Experience Service has been collaborating with the Learn Foundations project team to undertake a comprehensive programme of user research with students and staff. Through this we have discovered how students’ experience in Learn is closely intertwined with how staff work with it. This post summarises all our work, and outlines how we have ended up taking a service design approach.

As part of our comprehensive programme of user research in support of the Learn Foundations project, the User Experience Service has conducted contextual enquiry to better understand the contexts and needs of staff members working with Learn.

We had developed an information architecture and tree tests as part of our programme of user research for Learn Foundations. The next step was to use first click tests to pit the new template against existing courses.