Behind the Blackboard (BtBb) -Case Study

Website Research

First, I completed an evaluative review of the website’s current design. I reviewed the site from the perspective of a support staff role who is tasked with Tier 2 technical support escalation, and LMS administration tasks.

Problem #1 -Support Case Submission

One of the main functions the BtBb site provides is technical and administrative support escalation. Submitted cases range from system and component update requests, to unresolved technical issues that require Blackboard Tier 3 support to review and resolve. The following hierarchical task inventory illustrates the steps required for submitting a new support case through the existing site function.

While the above image appears complicated, it only illustrates 50% of the Issue Topic options currently available within the case submission process. Taking it into further details, the following PDF contains screenshots provide a detailed overview of the current workflow to submit a single support case.

Problem #1 -Solutions

Reduce Manual Input

Integrate shortcuts into the case submission workflow. The time needed to create a case could be significantly reduced by reducing or eliminating manual data input. By using default settings, specific information concerning Account and Environment could be selected based on historical context of submitted cases by an individual support representative.

If a user typically submits cases for MH- Course Delivery – 3200.0.3-rel.75+4185SaaS, then by default the Environment would be set to this selection. The ability to change these parameters would be available, but the default would reduce the need to specify each time a case is submitted, when in reality a majority of cases are submitted for the Production, not Testing or Staging environments.

Also, the need to manually input emails addressees within the Cc field is cumbersome. The ability to manage contacts, or cache frequently used contacts would save time and help minimize manual input. Similar to existing email clients, addresses could be populated based on historical submissions from individual users or managed institutionally via an active directory (i.e. Outlook), or other enterprise solutions for email.

Adding Attachments

The ability to add a screenshot is crucial when assisting faculty with technical support escalations. The current inability to add attachments within the main body of the form, specifically within the Description and Steps to Repeat fields is counter intuitive. By adding in a simplified visual editor (WYSYWYG), support staff could easily embed or attach screenshots to illustrate the issue or required steps to replicate without having to do so after the case has been submitted.

Problem #2 -Homepage Organization

At first glance, there is a lot of information on the home page. Specifically, areas related to support escalation for administrators are secondary to Community Resources and Self Service. One of the best resources within the BtBb site is the ability to create cases for technical or administrative support related to Blackboard’s suite of products.

This feature is widely used within the collective team in support of faculty and staff escalations. While this may not be the same for all institutions using Blackboard, the ability to customize the homepage, specific to your role and preference is desirable and would improve the information hierarchy, and the effectiveness of the site. Frequent users of the solution would benefit with the added ability to surface information and functionality that is the most important to them.

Problem #2 -Solutions

Personalize Your Homepage

Allow individual support representatives to customize their homepage. This provides individual autonomy for users to curate content that is relevant to them. As the survey results would later imply, content currently located on the homepage is of little, or no importance. By creating the ability to personalize content, we can surface relevant support information to users. Using the existing two-column design, allow modular-based customization from a predetermined menu of options. This will allow users to configure their own “dashboard” and determine what information and resources are most important to their institution and specific role.

Curated Support Bulletins & Articles

Provide access to support bulletins, articles, and resources limited to the products currently utilized by the University. Add custom filter criteria to limit the scope of articles that are surfaced to a users’ homepage. Leveraging the My Institution information which currently resides within each user profile to provide support and technical documentation specific to the entity support staff are serving.

 Analysis

After reviewing the results, I was able to determine specific areas of focus using both the survey data and the previous evaluation of problematic areas of the site. The data presented the following areas of consensus:

• Cases -All respondents are using the BtBb website to submit or manage support cases. While only one (1) respondent provided specific feedback regarding a proposed enhancement, the general low satisfaction of site use lends me to believe that improving workflows related to case submission and management is a specific need of the target audience.

• Time Spent -While none of the respondents felt they are taking longer than expected to locate resources on the site, generally speaking the site is just meeting the needs of 80% of respondents while 20% have stated it takes them longer than expected. In addition, one user’s comment indicated the website organization is confusing.

Persona

Using the survey results, the general purpose of the BtBb website, and the qualities of the technical support staff, the following persona was developed.