Overview
Applied X is an internal product for Applied Materials that facilitates employee learning and learning goals for the year. Applied X combines classes offered through edX, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and in-house employee designed classes.
Each year employees must complete a set number of hours of learning depending on their position and rank. Applied X was designed to help both employees and managers complete this process with ease.
My Role
UX Design Consultant
Timeline
April 2020 - November 2020
"How do we streamline and combine the user experience across all employee learning modules?"
We've all been there. Every year our employer sends us an email that we must complete an online learning module before a deadline. We mean to get it done, but a week before the deadline we end up getting a polite "nudge" email from our manager asking us to complete the required course.
Applied Materials has unique learning requirements dependent on the role and rank. Some classes are general learning, some specific knowledge for highly skilled positions, and some classes just for personal interest. At the beginning of the year, an employee and manager will map out a learning goal over the next 12 months. Employees are assigned required courses, and then given some freedom to choose to pursue learning of their own choosing.
The problem with Applied X is that it lacked any cohesion or intuitive navigation. Employees often waited until the last minute to complete their yearly learning, only to become lost in the almost impossible information architecture and scattered pages of their classes. Where are my assigned classes? What have I done? What needs to be done? Where am I?
This ended in most cases with the employee giving up, clicking "help", and overwhelming Service Now with help tickets. I was brought in as a consultant to fix this problem and provide a better user experience.
Scattered Pages
The first problem most employees encountered was "Where do I begin?" The entire process had been setup to navigate via short-links.
Courses was accessed via /courses in the browser. It served as a "homepage" of some sorts. It was built on the Open edX software and housed courses from edX, Linkedin Learning, Coursera, and in-house created classed called On Demand.
Pathway was accessed via /pathway and the user was brought to a Sharepoint page that showed classes that had been chosen for the year.
My Role was essential. This was accessed via /myrole. The importance of My Role was huge, but vastly understated. Essentially, a manager or employee could not choose or assign any classes until a role was chosen.
Connect was an attempt to create a simple internal social media page based on learning and connecting with other colleagues.
The On Demand "Homepage"
On Demand by Applied X were courses created internal by staff as Applied Materials. A user would access this page via /ondemand. The interface of this page seemed redundant to most employees. Clicking on the top icon took the user back to /courses. The user was left confused on where they should be seeing their classes and conducting their learning.
Users were confused about where to go and found themselves in a navigational loop.
Workshops - Untying the Knot
In order to address this issue as quickly as possible, I setup workshops with the stakeholders. I needed to understand what I was seeing, as I felt just as confused as the users.
First we mapped out the current flows to get a good understanding of how everything worked currently.
Once the current information architecture was mapped out, it was easy to see why users felt so confused. This was a sprawling mess. A patchwork of Open edX and Sharepoint pages that left users feeling like they were wandering around in the wilderness.
During workshopping, we uncovered that the journey is different depending on which kind of user was going through Applied X. We distilled these users down to four basic core users. I don't often use personas, but in this case it helped the workshopping tremendously. The stakeholders will still fixated on features they would like to add, rather than creating the flows. Personas helped me shift their mental model.
Once the personas were in place, we were able to map out an ideal journey for each of them. I used these findings to demonstrate how a dedicated home page in Applied X, along with clear navigation and onboarding, would cut their problems in half.
Updated Information Architecture
New User Flows - All Traffic Driven Through Homepage
A new Homepage as a Proof of Concept
Once all the stakeholders agreed that a dedicated home page and clear navigation was the first step, I dove in to designing a trial home page. Resources were limited for the Applied X program, so I had to be efficient. The page below is a combination of engineering resources and Sharepoint.
It was clear that "Applied X" was the home page and needed to be at the top of the hierarchy. We moved /appliedx from the On Demand page to this home page, and created a new /ondemand for the old page.
Because resources were scarce, this was a test and proof-of-concept to unlock future resources. With the navigation updated, and a much more clear navigation, I was given the green light to design a more comprehensive product.
Final Proposals - No Code option & Total Redesign
My final deliverables were two options for the future direction of Applied X. First was a no-code option for a home page. As I mentioned, resources for Applied X were limited, so having an option to create the page via Sharepoint would serve as a backup.
The other option was a full overhaul of Applied X to be rebuilt from the ground up.
No-Code Option
The "No-Code" option included custom features we had already built with the test run, as well as repurposing assets from old pages. This page would allow the Applied X team to implement the new home page and information architecture if they did not have the engineering resources to complete the overhaul option.
Total Rebuild Option
I created the mockup home page below to leave Applied X with a starting ground for how to modernize and rebuild the program. The rebuild includes clear navigation, onboarding, a template for a new design system, access to the rewards store, and the user should always know where they are and what to do next.
Reflections
Though my time at Applied Materials was brief, I felt like we accomplished a lot and I am proud of how many problems we solved. Since my consulting contract was only for 6 months, I wasn't able to do as much as I would have liked. With a full 12-18 months, I feel like I could have built an impressive internal education system for Applied X.
