Hello everyone,
We have started work on improving the navigation around Moodle as part of the Moodle 4.0 UX improvements. The main goal is to reduce the cognitive load for new users in our system. We want to users to be able to intuitively find the location they are looking for.
We ask for your feedback on our proposal. We have the outline of our project located at Moodle 4.0 navigation improvements, as well as an epic in the tracker which has even more detail. Please feel free to add comments and suggestions at any of these locations.
Small suggestion about the wiki page: Since the new UI mock-ups are a really important part of the proposals, perhaps you could edit the layout to make them bigger?
(I know, it's a wiki. I could edit it myself, but I did not want to start 'messing around' with 'your' page.)
(I know, it's a wiki. I could edit it myself, but I did not want to start 'messing around' with 'your' page.)
Seems to me that course "Enrollment methods" should be under: "Course and category management" instead of having to go into the course and clicking on "Participants." Then going to settings."
Admin->Courses->Manage courses and catagories. Then editing the settings for whichever course would seem the logical place to set enrollment methods.
Admin->Courses->Manage courses and catagories. Then editing the settings for whichever course would seem the logical place to set enrollment methods.
OK. Took matters into my own hands, and made the images bigger. If you don't like it, you can revert. (I guess by the time you do, I will have finished reading the document.)
Hi,
Looking at the course navigation (because I think that is most important) I am not sure this is right. Just my opinion, I don't have a very strong one because we use a custom theme and would not use navigation like this in any case (and I haven't worked out if underlying changes have problems for us).
Looking at the course navigation (because I think that is most important) I am not sure this is right. Just my opinion, I don't have a very strong one because we use a custom theme and would not use navigation like this in any case (and I haven't worked out if underlying changes have problems for us).
If, and it may be a big if, I have understood the mockup image correctly... Then the navigation on a course page looks like this:
Overview Settings Participants Grades Reports Question bank More
Overview Settings Participants Grades Reports Question bank More
In other words it visually looks like there are lots of tabs available within a course all with equal prominence, the first is 'Overview', the next is 'Settings', then 'Participants' etc etc. It looks like the selected tab, when actually looking at a course page, is 'Overview'.
This is not the right way to conceptually view a course. There are two categories of thing here: the actual course page (which is not an 'overview'), and then various pages about the course (settings, grades). If you were to represent it as a hierarchy (I'm not suggesting the navigation should work that way), it would be something like:
- The actual course
- Metadata
- Settings
- Participants
- ...
At a minimal level, a way to represent this might be something like:
- Use the course shortname (e.g. CS101) instead of the misleading 'Overview'.
- Change formatting so it's clear that the course is much more important than the other options.
Here's a mockup, not that I'm sure this is a great idea either, but just saying 
I'm not really sure if this metadata really ought to be top level navigation along with the main course page, or it would be more appropriate in a side menu (as present), but this kind of distinction would at least help imo.
--sam
Hi
For discussions, it's here or https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=8716 ?
What's the better place ?
For discussions, it's here or https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=8716 ?
What's the better place ?
@Tim Hunt:Yes those images are a bit small. I'll get them updated.
@Sam Marshall: That seems to be an older screenshot. Overview has been replaced with "Course". I'll look into getting that image replaced.
@Luiggi Sansonetti: That is an older forum discussion. This forum here would be better.
@Sam Marshall: That seems to be an older screenshot. Overview has been replaced with "Course". I'll look into getting that image replaced.
@Luiggi Sansonetti: That is an older forum discussion. This forum here would be better.
Some very nice ideas. I am looking forward to working with this in the future. The edit mode button will be very useful.
I watched the video and I think I am seeing a lot of horizontal stacking of information that will contribute to scrolling, especially in courses with a lot of activities and resources. It looks like half of the the default course page is blank. In addition the opening and closing of the course index and blocks would be a challenge for me and many of my students.
I should have said vertical stacking, or better yet just stacking.
It may be of interest that we have another forum post which has the mock up accessible to everyone. Other people has similar concerns about the reduced width of the main content and large courses.
Hi,
These improvments seems very clean and nice.
Do you also plan to create some user tours to explain how things (now / in future) work, like it was done some versions ago? I think it would be useful (but to do later in the whole process).
Séverin
These improvments seems very clean and nice.
Do you also plan to create some user tours to explain how things (now / in future) work, like it was done some versions ago? I think it would be useful (but to do later in the whole process).
Séverin
We didn't have an issue for this, but it seems like a good idea. I have added that to the epic issue which is the linked issue above.
Just picking one small nit, but it is bugging me in every screen-grab, and I want to get it off my chest. Sorry it is mostly off-topic.
Top-right of every screen is an editing on-off widget. That is bad in so many ways:
- About half of the top of the screen on mobile. Far from being the most importat thing that much screen space could be used for
- It is inconsitent: These days, every system that you log into (including Moodle) has the user menu top right. That is good consistency. Don't break it.
As a penant who one did a course in requirements analysis, I feel impelled to point out that your user stories are not worded well. E.g. the first one;
"As a learner, I want to easily find the menu item, so that I can move between courses and activities."
The user story should be what the user wants to do:
"As a learner, I want to easily move between courses and activities."
How to achieve that is your business as UX designer, but things like 'menu item' are part of the solution, not part of the requirement. (Also, not a very specific requirement, which could usefully be improved.)
When we get to
"As a learner, I can want to view my grades for a forum activity, so that I can discover if my participation is satisfactory."
that just makes me want to cry. So many dangerously wrong assumptions about learning and pedagogy, crammed into one sentence 😥
It looks really nice ! More exactly, course related page look very nice (home page look lonely).
However I am very suprised : it takes a lots of vertical space while there is a lots of free horizontal space, at least on desktop.
However I am very suprised : it takes a lots of vertical space while there is a lots of free horizontal space, at least on desktop.