Top 5 UX Tips from my first year as a Docebo Admin

Docebo LMS - Improving the end-user's experience

I enjoy learning systems. I've onboarded, administrated, and supported four different Learning Management Systems (Moodle, Schoology, Canvas LMS, Docebo), and I've learned and trained on countless other platforms (check out hitechpod.us for my podcast where Joshua Swartz and I talk about many of them).

However, each platform takes some "getting used to" when it comes to the end-user's experience. Where do I see messages? How can I turn off notifications? Do I have personal settings? Can I change my time zone? Where's my due date?

Most platforms have answers to these questions but they do not share those answers as consistently as they could. So, it's up to us (the admins) to mediate the difference. If you're a Docebo user, I hope that these top tips from my experiences help you get settled into your new Docebo LMS admin role.

1. Timing Notifications

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Now, this one is quite simple but has a lasting effect. Everything on the internet is on a time delay. Whether it's a delay that an admin or developer set, or it's just a delay based on server processing times, everything takes time. This is a good and a bad thing.

When we want it now... we, you know, want it now.

However, I've experienced that sending a notification immediately upon enrollment in a course or when a new account is generated can result in delays or less-than-optimal experiences. In the case of courses, I've had users report that they click on the link as soon as they get it and cannot access the course. I've worked with Docebo support on this and their response: "Some things take time."

My suggestion? Delay your notifications by at least an hour when using an event-based trigger. This practice will let all of the digital gremlins do their work in the background to give your end-user the best experience.

2. Wait Lists

If you run live events (virtual or in-person) through Docebo, then you no doubt are using Wait Lists. The only problem is that there is very little, if no, verbiage on the platform that explains to the user that they're on the wait list after they've joined it.

So, turn on some CSS and make it happen! Check out the below question for a tutorial that will will help you set up a banner that notifies the user that they're on the wait list. Pair this tweak with some wait list notifications and BAM! your users are in-the-know.

3. Notifications that "have yet to..."

Notifications are great. When they're accurate, easy, and effective, they make my day. However, one of my first notification schemes involved a series of events where a learner would receive a reminder to complete their work 12 days, 7 days, and 2 days from the deadline. However, if they completed the course at 11 days, they would still receive the 7-day and 2-day notifications. Kinda clunky- definitely not user-focused.

Huzzah! Docebo released the "Learner Has Yet to Complete a Course" event condition. Now if the learner completes 11 days before the deadline, they will not receive the 7-day and 2-day notifications. We need more of these event conditions but this is a big win for now.

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4. Course Widgets

To Docebo's credit, their course player and landing page are fairly simple. If we evaluate it on Cognitive Load, I'd say it's doing pretty well. However, the default course player does not offer much more than the training material or SCORM package. This is where course widgets come into play. Use widgets to add in custom content related to the course or build some extras with IFRAMEs. Lots of options to engage your users in creative ways.

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5. Hidden Menu = Infinite Pages

Last but absolutely not least is the Hidden Menu "hack."

You see, Docebo builds their visibility through a relationship between Menus and Pages. If a Page is on a Menu that the user has access to, then they can access the Page. In most cases, that means that the Pages have to be on the visible Menu. Unfortunately, this can make the user Menu pretty cluttered.

Menu visibility, however, is built on a hierarchy system. So, a user only sees the Menu that they're assigned to that is highest on the list of possible Menus. That means that any Menu under their assigned Menu is invisible to them. Invisible but not off limits.

If you build a Menu that is lowest on the list of your Menus but you give a user the direct link to a Page on that Menu, then they can access it! Literally this Hidden Menu could have 100 Pages on it (or whatever Docebo's maximum is) and any user could access the Pages with a direct link. So, build up an FAQ page, a landing page with tiles and cool illustrations, or make a few pages with different Catalog sets on them. Whatever you need to build, the Hidden Menu trick can help you figure them out.

Questions? Follow up? Clarifications?

Let me know below ⬇. You can also reach out to me directly via private message in the community or on LinkedIn.