D2L Redesign
2025
Case Study and Prototype
This team project was assigned to 4 students, including myself (Blaire Hinkle), Jordan Gurka, Mutunga Mukeku, and Aditi Gonuguntala, to redesign D2L, the website MSU students use to complete and submit their class work. The team was split into two small teams, with each team designing a side of D2L's interface: the instructor side with Blaire Hinkle and Jordan Gurka, and the student side with Mutunga Mukeku and Aditi Gonuguntala
Heuristic Analysis
Visibility of System Status and Match b/t System and the Real World are ways in which the system provides proper feedback in a language that is easily understood. D2L seems to struggle with this concept, with little navigation, which causes communication struggles.
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use and Aesthetic and Minimalist Design suggest that there must be smooth navigation that helps all kinds of users while also containing only important information in the main interface. Anything more and it gets too confusing and complicated. D2L has few shortcuts and quick interactions, which overcomplicates things within the main interface. The home page also has hardly any extremely important informational items and has a convoluted notification system.
User Control and Freedom and Consistency and Standards are the ways in which users can get “out” if they screw up while also being able to navigate the interface with clear iconography/words. Students have immense trouble being able to navigate all of the important subjects, such as grades and contents. It also has problems with other, less-used tools and their placement within the interface. This can cause a lot of confusion for the students using the website.
Error Prevention and Recognition Rather than Recall highlights the way that the interface prevents the biggest issues from happening right off the bat, while also making all functions easily legible from one section to another in order to limit needing to remember immense content. Many submissions do not require a confirmation prompt to leave the pages, and many important contents are hidden behind dropdowns or not outwardly clear for the students
Interviews
Instructor Notes:
Navigation & Course Structure
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The interface is not intuitive, with too many steps and redundant paths.
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Searching through created courses is complicated and unforgiving.
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Course pages do not follow consistent navigation across instructors.
Visual & Interaction Design
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Visibility and other icons are too small or unclear.
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Instructors want more control over visual presentation, especially banners.
Grading Experience
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Grade weighting and item linking are confusing and overly complex.
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Some instructors can manage grading fine after setup, but the initial setup is a barrier.
System Feedback
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D2L gives missing error messages.
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The site sometimes goes down, and there is no warning or status page.
Course Creation
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Drag-and-drop content uploading generally works well.
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Some instructors feel D2L content editing is "easy" - Some avoid certain tools because of complexity.
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Widgets on the home page clutter the interface and confuse students.
Personalization
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Instructors want more customization, but customization currently creates inconsistency and confusion for students.
Student Notes:
Navigation & Consistency
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Every course is organized differently, leading to confusion and relearning
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Content, Modules, and Assignments vary by instructor
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No clear consistency for layouts (banners, widgets, spacing)
Visual Design
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Visual clutter on dashboards and course pages
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Too many panels competing for attention
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Lack of hierarchy makes it hard to know what’s important
Pages are walls of text
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Lack of headings, spacing, and visual organization
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Custom banners sometimes lower readability
Assignment Experience
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The mobile app is difficult to use
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Buttons too small, pages slow to load
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Scrolling through modules feels endless
Overall Experience
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Students feel overwhelmed by alerts and widgets
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There is no clear prioritization/hierarchy of tasks/assignments (“What’s due today?”)
Affinity Mapping
We synthesized user research insights through affinity mapping, organizing findings into four key categories: Accessibility, Content & Navigation, User Flow, and Visual Design. Each insight was plotted on a value-feasibility matrix to prioritize features for prototyping.
Instructor Dashboard
Instructors valued efficient grading workflows, student progress tracking at a glance, and flexible class management tools. High-feasibility wins included consolidated grading interfaces (grade by student vs. by assignment) and visual status indicators for submissions. Lower-feasibility requests involved advanced analytics and cross-course comparison tools. The key insight: instructors need centralized information access to reduce time spent navigating between multiple pages while grading.
Student Dashboard
High-value, high-feasibility features clustered around streamlined navigation, clear assignment visibility, and intuitive grade checking. Students prioritized quick access to upcoming deadlines, submission confirmations, and consolidated course materials without excessive clicking. The mapping revealed strong demand for reduced navigation complexity and clearer visual hierarchies, showing students need to complete tasks with minimal steps and cognitive load.
User Need & Task Flow
Instructor Need:
Teachers need a streamlined and efficient grading system in order to improve and ease their busy workload.
Instructor Task Flow:
Open D2L Homepage (Assuming account is logged in already)
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Click on a course
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Go to Grades (Replace the assessments bar with just one general page for grading)
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2 Categories show up
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1 for grading by assignment
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1 for grading by the student
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The user will choose grading by student
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A list of all students in the class will show up on the page
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The user will pick the student
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ALL assignments for the student will pop up
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On the assignments, there will be visual icons to indicate if the assignment has been turned in, graded, missing, or late
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The user will select an assignment
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Within the selected assignment, the user will input the grade
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1 box for the documented grade and 1 box for any comments towards the student
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The user will submit the grade for the assignment
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Assignment grade will be updated with a grade and/or comment
Student Need:
Students need a simplified, distraction-reduced interface in order to concentrate on critical tasks like upcoming deadlines and submissions without feeling overwhelmed by visual clutter.
Student Task Flow:
Opening a Course
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Click on the course card/tile or course name to enter
Navigating the Course
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Use the navigation bar
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Content - course materials and modules
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Assignments - list of assignments (with most due at top)
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Grades - your grades
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Calendar - due dates and events
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Discussions - posts
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Viewing an Assignment
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Click Course on the homepage
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Look for assignments filter
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Click on the assignment tab to view details
Submitting an Assignment
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Go to Assignments from the navigation menu
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Click on the assignment you want to submit
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Upload your file
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file option
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Click Submit to finalize
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Get submissions alert
Checking Your Grade
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Click Grades in the navigation menu
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Look for the assignment name in your grade list
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In the Grades section, click on the assignment name
Mid-Fi Wireframes:
Instructor:
Student:
