Bucks Fire & Rescue Service first introduced their LMS ‘The Learning Zone’ to the organisation in 2013. It was a platform they could use to train their staff and track any training online at the same time.
However, they made the mistake of trying to cram every available function in all at once and over complicated their LMS design.
Pages full of eye-catching pictures and buttons that had no real functionality caused confusion throughout the team, leading to less time spent completing courses and more time filling out support queries.
At the beginning of 2015 the team realised that something needed to change and with the help of Learning Pool and Totara Learn they began to develop a rebrand of their LMS. Training Design & Assurance Officer, Paul Whidborne explains ‘I want our users to know exactly what they need to do – get there in as little clicks as possible and have fun doing it.
They gave it a new name – Hub of Education And Training (HEAT) Online and, learning from their mistakes the first time around, they simplified the design and learned that even the smallest changes can have a dramatic impact on the user experience and that it’s worth looking at all options before making a decision.
For example – administrators had been inundated with several password reset requests each month, and upon reviewing these requests they soon identified that there was some confusion with learners using their computer username as their login instead of their email address. After looking at all of their options, they realised the solution was to change the login screen so that it requests an email address rather than a username. They haven’t had one single issue since making this simple change.
Andy Gillett, Watch Commander Bucks Fire has put great effort into continually improving their training program, taking into account any user feedback. They found making the right changes at the right time has really paid off and feel it is important to always gauge user opinion as they are the ones who are actively using the system, this also adds some ownership for the users, which in turn helps with the buy-in of the product.