User Journey vs. User Experience: Why They’re Both Essential for Corporate Training LMS

By Mohana Radhakrishnan, COO, ExpertusONE

Companies invest in employee training and development because they know the value it can bring.

In terms of innovation, compliance, productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction, learning management systems encourage learners to become actively engaged with their companies and to upskill in their field. This creates a win-win situation for the majority of businesses with well-trained employees and low turnover rates. A quality online training experience can mark the difference between an employee who wants to prepare for their role and one who zones out during a required course.

Why is the LMS User Experience So Important?

The user’s experience (UX) with LMS software is pivotal to bridging any skill gaps among employees and motivating them to learn as much as possible. A learning management platform with a strong focus on user experience helps make information more relevant and appealing. And it isn’t just the courses that should take LMS UX into consideration. The design of the platform also plays an important role in the user’s experience—for instance, if the learner can’t locate the course they need to take or finds the navigation confusing, their eLearning experience is going to start out on a negative footing. LMS should never leave the user guessing where information is located, as too much time spent tracking down resources will lead to disengagement and a less-than-ideal user journey.

How Can You Improve LMS UX Design?

Improving the UX design of a Learning Management System (LMS) requires an in-depth understanding of user needs and preferences. Start by creating personas to help identify how these users interact with the LMS and then create a plan that focuses on meeting their needs effectively. Develop clear navigational hierarchies, attractive visuals, and intuitively designed interfaces for easy access to content. Use feedback from pilots, surveys, and analytics to make continual adjustments until you have achieved the best possible LMS user experience. So how is the user journey related to the LMS UX? Let us explain.

The User’s Journey and What It Means

To know how they correlate, you must first understand what they are. A user’s journey is the path an individual takes to reach their goals. Users’ journeys are mostly used for different LMS platforms to identify the different ways users are able to achieve their goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. If your user’s journey is not intuitive, or if it sends the user on tangents with content that isn’t as targeted or useful to the learner, they will be less engaged and less likely to continue reaching their goals—or the goals the organization has set for them.

It’s important to keep the user journey in mind when crafting your enterprise LMS program. You want learners to complete specific tasks on your platform, but you must understand their individual goals first. The personal aspect—what they want out of their training—is what will keep them coming back for more.

Suppose you can identify how your employee will navigate your LMS platform, allowing you to learn their specific interests and goals. In that case, you can create a better user experience, increase your user’s chances of success, and improve the probability of their wanting to continue. That’s the whole point of a user’s journey. The more straightforward their journey is through the platform, the better the experience will be.

However, to create realistic user journeys, it is important to first identify the type of users you will have—this is best accomplished through an exercise called user profiling. Each learner will undoubtedly have a task or goal they are trying to reach, whether it is increasing leadership competency, developing new skills, ensuring the proficiency of current job duties, or boosting the company’s overall productivity. No matter the goals users have to fulfill, the path they take to satisfy that need is referred to as their user journey.

Creating the Best LMS User Experience

As technology becomes increasingly integrated in our day-to-day lives, it’s no surprise that users expect their online learning platform to be fully responsive and to work on a variety of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. They expect a simple interface and engaging material. The user experience, in its purest form, is about determining whether the user’s expectations were met. It’s asking, is this LMS effective, easy to use, and enjoyable to engage with? To obtain the most desirable experience, the intention must be present from the beginning. The best LMS system has UX implemented in its design. It should be natural and intuitive so the employees forget about the platform itself and only focus on the information being delivered. What ingredients can make this possible? LMS features should enable virtually anyone to use the platform with little effort. These are the key components an LMS needs to have to ensure a positive UX:

Accessibility: With our workforce growing more decentralized and more diverse—in age, location, nationality, etc.—so too should the options provided by an LMS system. A mobile LMS app, offline access, a multi-language system, and accommodations for people with disabilities are a few of the functionalities that create a top-tier experience.
Usability: The greatest gift an LMS can give is the freedom to navigate the site without disruption or impediment. The fewer the clicks, the better. The design should do exactly what the user expects it to, and the interface and navigation should be self-explanatory.
Gamification: Gartner defines this term as the use of game mechanics in non-game scenarios to engage, motivate, and change behaviors. These mechanics in ExpertusONE’s LMS gamification include points, badges, challenges, leaderboards, and incentives that make the experience holistically learner-centric.

At ExpertusONE, we talk about applying heuristic strategies to the design of courses and the overall design of our platform. Heuristic design means that we have created the platform in a way that enables the learner to discover and learn on their own, instead of requiring multiple tutorials or continual feedback from managers.

The ExpertusONE platform was designed with learners in mind and courses have a modular functionality so that team members can access information easily. One key heuristic design principle is referred to as “visibility of system status,” quite simply, this means that users should be able to understand where they are in the learning process. With the ExpertusONE platform, each user is served with a personalized user dashboard that makes it easy to navigate where they are on the platform and how to find the resources they need. The platform is also searchable, so users can find resources easily without scrolling through course after course.

Another element of heuristic design is “user control and freedom” which we believe is critical to the learner experience. That’s why we’ve created a platform that’s both easy to navigate and makes it easy for users to learn at their own pace. ExpertusONE uses AI to provide users with personalized course recommendations that cater to each user’s unique interests. This gives users the freedom to navigate the platform at will and to engage with training as they see fit.

Our customers have said time and time again that the ExpertusONE platform’s functionality and ease of use make it an ideal resource for companies looking to provide extended enterprise training for large audiences with multiple types of learners. With the user-centric design of our LMS, learners can engage with courses at their own pace and on their own time, accessing training content wherever they are located.

LMS technology that delivers an engaging user experience is crucial to the success of any company’s online training program. It allows you to retain your top talent by providing them with easily accessible support tools. Investing in the best employee training practices sets the foundation for a culture of continuous learning and allows HR and talent management teams to implement or better use workforce planning strategies.

If you want to take a closer look at our platform’s user-centric design, contact us to schedule a demo.