User-centred design in content management system development: The case of EMasters

Abstract

Including users in design and development of an interactive product is crucial to achieve high level of usability. Content management systems have two categories of users, content creators and content consumers, and designers of these systems have to considers the needs of both user groups. In design of interactive learning systems, special attention has to be given to the process of learning, which means that functional, accessible and usable interface has to serve the purpose of knowledge acquisition. Designing for mobile learning brings additional challenges due to the small screens of mobile devices. The paper describes the process of utilization of user-centred design in development of a simple content management system for learning called EMasters. The aim of the EMasters is to enable teachers to easily create and organize courses which will be delivered to students to facilitate web-based and mobile learning. According to the user-centred design approach, teachers and students are involved in iterative process of design, implementation and evaluation of EMasters. Evaluation study used complementary methods and provided quantitative and qualitative feedback. The usability score reached good level and the guidelines for redesign of the system interface are drown. According to the obtained results, proposed framework is confirmed to be applicable in user-centred design of content management systems in general. In addition, the directions for adjustment of the framework for specific cases are provided.