Custom LMS design: creating eLearning platforms for 21st century learning

Frequently, LMS design is driven by the old way of doing things, for old reasons. So sadly, too many learning management systems (LMSs) are designed for old-style schooling, passé business training and obsolete learning methods. But that can’t continue. New eLearning requirements need new LMS design approaches.

What is LMS UI design?

LMS User Interface (UI) is the layout and functionality of the pages in the LMS and ties more closely with how a person feels when they finish interacting with the platform/product.

As part of the UX design, the LMS UI design focuses on how people interact with the system.

Some of the components that make up the user interface of modern LMSs are:

• Icons
• Buttons
• Menus
• Search bars
• Welcome screens
• Dashboards
• Newsfeeds

For effective learning experiences, interactions with the LMS should be easy and straightforward, so that the system isn’t a barrier to the user’s learning activities.

If you want to offer products or services that have value for your customers, you must first make the effort to understand what customers consider valuable.

Jan Jursa

Author of UX Storytellers

LMS UX design considerations

Creating a better user experience (UX) involves making something easy to use and more appealing. As a whole, it focuses on human-product interaction, including aspects of hardware design.

To deliver an effective LMS UX, you should avoid the common mistakes such as a lack of mobile adaptability, complex navigation, and dull and unengaging experiences.

According to Statista, in 2022 there were 5 billion people accessing the internet on their mobile, indicating that over 60% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. Given that volume, your LMS must smoothly adapt to different devices, especially smaller screens, or you risk losing users.

The better your images, text, navigation and other elements adapt to different devices, the more positive the UX of your learning management system is for users.

88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.

Justin Mifsud

Founder, Usability Geek

The UX design of your LMS can also significantly impact your customer retention.

Ultimately, you want users to find it simple, easy to use, and enjoyable. And accessibility to users with a range of abilities, is essential. Images must have alt text, audio descriptions included for users who are blind or visually challenged and closed captioning added to any video material.

All these adjustments – when incorporated in the LMS design from its conception – helps all your LMS users, not just those with hearing or vision impairments.

While UX is recognized as a trillion-dollar problem in ecommerce, it’s been sadly overlooked in LMS design, in favor of other considerations. Highlighting the importance of UX, the Future of Design in Startups Survey listed the five biggest benefits for a UX-focus:

• Boost in revenue and conversion
• Fewer support calls, therefore fewer employees
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Reduced development waste
• Lower risk of the development of a wrong idea

That’s five perfect reasons for making UX a priority in your LMS design, especially when combined with the 21st century learning principles now being employed in eLearning.

LMS design with four modern learning principles in mind

Some teachers are already using their initiative and adapting classroom practices with eLearning tools and technology. However, the edtech sector needs to keep up – by providing LMSs that incorporate this knowledge into their LMS design.

LMSs meet 21st century skills

Today’s eLearners need 21st century tools to prosper. While several essential 21st century skills have been identified, those receiving the most attention and deemed critical for learning, are known as the four Cs – critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and collaboration(1).

eLearning tools for 21st century learning must incorporate these four pillars of learning.

If you haven’t already, investigate whether your LMS design supports these four pillars of learning, and if it doesn’t, they’re the basic starting points for a redesign of your LMS – to deliver improved eLearning results. Here’s four examples of modern learning principles, applied to LMS functionality:

1. Facilitating questions and answers

Questions are used by teachers to discover what students do or don’t know, and what’s being misunderstood (2). However, there’s an art to asking good questions – the most effective ones are typically divergent (or open) questions, encouraging higher levels of critical thinking (5).

LMSs should allow teachers to pepper online lessons with questions that reveal students’ thinking. Teachers and trainers should be able to access responses in real-time, to immediately adjust lessons and clear up common issues.

Taking this to the next level, an LMS could prompt suggested alternative questions, such as “This appears to be a closed question – consider starting with Why…”.

3. Increasing participation and engagement

Teachers and trainers often encourage participation by randomly selecting participants to answer questions. So what are the LMS design implications for this? An LMS should facilitate the random selection of people from amongst the learning group and could be automatically updated using an eLearning tool like an online name picker (e.g see www.wheelofnames.com ).

For your LMS design, the core concept to include is random selection – so each person has an equal chance of being selected.