Review/Feedback Request: UX for learn.wordpress.org

What is it?

Learn WordPress is a collection of online resources for educating both new and veteran WordPress users. It’s primarily composed of lesson plans and video workshops, where lesson plans are geared toward workshop facilitators or educators teaching others about WordPress, and workshops are geared towards learners seeking online, on-demand educational resources to boost their WordPress skills. Visitors to the site who watch video workshops can also participate in related discussion groups via the Learn WordPress Meetup.

What are we trying to solve?

The Training team and Learn WordPress Working Group would like to review the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. and UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. from a site visitor’s perspective. Currently, Learn WordPress has two main audiences: learners and educators. Workshops are geared towards learners, whereas lesson plans are geared towards those educating others about WordPress.

With both audiences in mind, we’d like to better understand overall improvements to the user experience for a first-time visitor to the Learn WordPress site. This might include things like:

  • How the site should showcase content on related topics, i.e. a workshop and lesson plan that touches on the same topic, or opportunities to unify the UX between lesson plans and workshops.
  • Improvements to the UX to better showcase the different types of learning opportunities available, such as synchronous learning opportunities through discussion groups.
  • Overall improvements to the layout and navigation of the site to make it clear who the content is for and where/how to get started.

Current status

In August 2020, the Community and Training teams launched a Beta version of the Learn WordPress site with both lesson plans and workshops housed under the same umbrella. In December 2020, we launched Learn WordPress officially and have continued to work on adding new, valuable content to the site.

As we continue to iterate, we’ve tracked some potential improvements and enhancements in the Learn WordPress Github, including one ticket in particular that received some design help around the visual organization of lesson plans. As we’ve brainstormed ideas and next steps for 2021 – which is tracked in the Learn WordPress Trello board – much of our conversation comes back to ensuring that the Learn WordPress site is as clear and engaging to visitors as possible. In particular, making sure newcomers to the site can clearly understand how to find what they need, whether that’s for a new WordPress user or a veteran educator.

How to Help

Ideally, what we’re looking for is to have someone (or multiple someones) from the Design team do a walkthrough of the user experience for Learn WordPress as a user: someone who wants to learn about WordPress and/or as someone who wants to educate others about WordPress.

If it is possible to get feedback in the comments on this post with suggestions for improvements, that would help the Community and Training teams to triage and prioritize the next iteration of Learn WordPress.

This post was written in collaboration with @courane01.

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