ATLAS Stage 1: Research
As PebblePad is a global company with customers and users based all over the world, one of the biggest challenges for any research project is access to users. By working closely with the Global Customer Success Team we were able to implement a research plan that captured perfectly the necessary insights we needed from a broad spectrum of user types from Europe, North America and Australasia. Distribution of the survey was another challenge we faced. This was overcome again by collaborating with the Customer Success Team and leveraging one of their key engagement tools, ChurnZero. As my experience of this system was limited, it was vital we had a good collaborative relationship with relevant stakeholders for training and access to the systems needed to generate, distribute, collect and collate the research materials and data.
The main objective for the survey was to raise awareness of the key issues that users have when using the core functionality of ATLAS. These issues could then be looked at in the context of designing solutions that improve the user experience via the product roadmap. By hi-lighting the opportunities for improving the UX in ATLAS, the research provided additional legitimacy as to why this work should be prioritised and planned into the roadmap. As well as providing insights into how users feel about using ATLAS via qualitative data, this research was also designed to provided us with useful baseline quantitative data that can be monitored moving forwards, to ascertain the effectiveness of any improvements that we introduce.
The survey included questions designed to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. 11 questions were asked:
- How often do you use ATLAS?
- What do you like most about ATLAS?
- What do you like least about ATLAS?
- How would you improve ATLAS for new users?
- How would you rate setting up new workspaces and assignments?
- Explain you rating
- How would you rate setting up and providing feedback?
- Explain your rating
- How would you rate your understanding of the ATLAS submission process?
- Explain your rating
- How would you rate how user-friendly ATLAS is?
Any product improvement suggestions that were generated through this research were to be captured and transferred to Monday.com and added to the product backlog. A standard rating scale of 1-10 was used to generate scores for each that can now be used as a base-line moving forwards. Monitoring and analysis of these scores in future studies should allow us to ascertain the effectiveness of any solutions that are implemented.
Participants
The survey was completed at 20 different institutes situated in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia.
A mixture of user types/personae were asked to take part in the survey giving a broad base of experience and opinions on the current ATLAS experience. Efforts should be made in future ATLAS UX surveys to include a similar socio-economic and geo-located cross-section of ATLAS users.
The following recommendations for how to improve the user experience for ATLAS are based on feedback received via this survey:
ATLAS VISION
All new functions and improvements must be:
- Simple to start
- Intuitive
- Scalable
- Helpful
- Consistent
- Concise
- Efficient
- Feel integrated
- Accessible
Key recommendations
Look in depth at the on-boarding journey and implement improvements to the on-boarding processes currently in place.
Look to implement improvements and new functions and features in Pebble+ that keep students out of ATLAS.
Review all core work-flows to reduce and remove ‘clicks’ with the intention of making them much simpler and efficient.
Inflection of the UI and progressive disclosure: hide away complex, advanced functionality, make it feel simpler and more light-weight.
Review the use of language and terminology.
NEW WORKSPACES & ASSIGNMENTS
Recommendations
Look at solutions for the creation of new workspaces to address issues raised around current process being “hard work” “...very complex and intimidating...” and difficult for non-advanced users.
Ensure that the process for setting up workspaces and assignments is presented through progressive disclosure.
Hide away advanced settings so that it appears as simple as possible for new users.
Also, review Auto-submit functionality and work-flows - again make this as simple and fool-proof as possible.
Make sure that any new functionality/Wizards are fully integrated and compatible with Canvas and other LMS’.
All help, support and training documentation should be up-to-date.
SETTING UP & PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Recommendations
Make it easier for students to find and act upon recently received feedback.
Allow students to easily manage all the feedback they receive.
Several suggestions have been made as to how the functionality of rubrics could be improved.
Review the functionality of Rubrics, look to implement additional functionality.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Recommendations
Review the submission process including auto-submit and look to implement improvements that address issues of confusion as to whether a submission has been made or not.
Clear notifications/instructions as to the status of submissions especially for students would remove a lot of unnecessary anxiety.
Raise awareness of deadlines and time-lines and reduce the burden on both in-house and PP support teams.
Make it easier for users to manage time-lines and deadlines.
FUTURE ATLAS SURVEYS
Recommendations
It would be beneficial to run the same survey again at some point in the future after some/all changes have been made. It will allow us to measure the effectiveness of any solution that is rolled out. We should look to distribute it to the same users if possible, and we should ask the same questions.This combination of qualitative and quantitative data is essential if we are to improve the overall experience of ATLAS.
This research project and process was to form a critical cornerstone of my annual user engagement plan, designed to deliver up-to-date insights and data that will be critical in maintaining momentum for the improvement of ATLAS and other products and services.
