Hi Rafael,
Thank you for the explaination.
First of all I want to state that both new as old users I have spoken love the new UX in Boost.
The new course index is surely a great and welcome additoin to the Moodle Course navigation.
I am for one very happy with this development. It makes my live as an administrator much easier, and I will explain below why.
But to be sure, this what I post is absolutly not about bashing into this from an experience Moodle view.
Because I support this new UI fully, it was long over due, and it is important that NEW users find their way.
It is about embrassing the open communication spirit that Moodle HQ advocates.
What is the defination of a new user?
My definiation of a new user in this usecase is the new student that first logins in to Moodle, to start his or her course.
Some of these new users just come into Moodle for 1 course, others to finish their school carrier or because the workplace tells them to use it.
But it all comes to the fact that one day they will not return to Moodle again, one sooner then the other. But definitatly earlier then any site administrator and/or even teacher, which makes them the "key-experience" users, and also the "source" of any remarks that have been made been during their time of using Moodle.
Why am I as an admin happy with the new UI
As stated it makes my live as an administrator so much more easy. When a new Moodle site is been requested, I don't have to be "afraid" anymore that they are "horriefed" by the out dated look. Or I have to install and configure a number of plugins to get an UI that looks like something they are already familiar to.
I don't have to maintain all those plugins I use, so I can now more focus on helping my teachers to build the best educational course they can.
Why am I suprised that navigation buttons are gone
As I stated in my first post. I don't get how something that had dissapeared, had a long outstanding discussion returned, is now gone again. Since I was one of those old users that have attended UX sessions, I know I have addressed the point of the use of the button. I know I was at least one of them, and that I have showned what I will end up in this post.
Why do I strongly advice Moodle to reconsider this choice
Let's say you have autisme, ADHD , HSP or any kind of concentration or energy issue. As such a user I probably don't use the APP because I am self aware of my issues, the learning content will be cramped into 1 screen, as well I will lose my concenstration and focus because someone is calling me, social media or simply a what's app message popping up.
So when I go to my laptop/desktop and enter the course, it is most likely (because I am self aware) that I will start with closing the Course Index to ensure that my cognitive load is limit to only that what I need to do.
I have finished reading, going throuhgh a quiz, upload an assigment , your H5P activity what every is on your screen at that point. And want to move to the next activity.
I was fully focussed and concentrated. And now I have to relay that focus and concentration on opening the Course Index, finding where I was and then go further.
Even if I had decided to keep the Course Index open, i would still have to refocus and concentrated to know where I was and I want to go next.
It was a big course, and it took all my energy on concenstration. I leave the course frustrated, rethinking my steps and what I can do to improve my experience. I might not even concider sharing this with my class mates and/or teacher, because I feel that it's due to my own issues and/or I don't know that it would be an option to have navigation buttons in the bottom that would make things easier for me.
what I am trying to say here is that most 'new' users don't know what they are missing and accept the UI experience they have. But I also want to stated that in the current state you might excluded students with dissability that are not visable or even know to most admins and/or teachers.
Are their previous experiences with a similar setup
The answer is YES. And as I stated above I have shown this setup to the UX team during one of the UX sessions.
This experiences has been build about 4-5 years ago for group of clients in Moodle 3.5, and still is running in 3.9.
As I then told to the UX team member, I spoke with, it was a combination of theme, courseformat and a variation of the Course Navigation block that is in the plugin database.
The most heared question was the option to move the Menu out of the screen, as Course Index is doing now. We are talking about +300 courses a year, with a user group base of 10.000 users a year. With about eacher year 50% what I call "new users". We work with H5P and Quiz, so that states I believe under "complex activities".
And yes: in our first concept we did get feedback that the moodle standard navigation in the bottom gave confusion in the navigation.
So we did 2 user test: 1 with and 1 without, and the feedback is that if it has to be that choice, they rather have the moodle standard navigation.
we dived in deeper and concluded that it was about the distinction and visualisation.
so we convided with our theme developer and solved the issue (see screenshot below).
This said: we also have sites where we have added a top-line between the activity and buttons to ensure they where even more distinctive.
Closing argument
I don't believe I have in my +11 years of being a Moodle Siteadministrator ever so strongly advocated an item, but I also realize it is up to Moodle HQ to decided what is best for Moodle because they have the pleasure of considering all user cases and scenario's of how Moodle is being used.
When it comes to the point if Moodle HQ will ensure a return of the navigation buttons or not. I am fairly simple. I have ensured before that the UI was confirm the research we did, and I can do this again because of Moodle's flexibility.
But I do hope that Moodle , reconsider this decission, even if this is by making an optional setting in the boost theme so an admin can decided for her/himselve if it necessary in their user case. Based on that what I above stated, and the posts that followed by the others.
