Short description | | The user experience of ILIAS LMS has always been a topic of discussion within its community. While the platform is known for its robustness and flexibility, its interface and user journey can sometimes feel complex, leading to usability challenges, especially for non-technical users.
As part of a broader initiative to enhance engagement and accessibility, we embarked on a UX/UI transformation project tailored to the needs of one of our customer, an organization using ILIAS for corporate learning. The project was structured in three key phases: user research, design, and implementation, each aimed at improving how users interact with the platform while preserving its core functionality.
The analysis phase was a crucial starting point. Instead of making assumptions about what needed to change, targeted interviews with key users were conducted to gather insights into their pain points, expectations, and daily struggles with the system. These conversations helped us identify recurring usability issues and opportunities for a more intuitive experience. The results of this research shaped our design approach, ensuring that the proposed solutions were not just visually appealing but also aligned with real user needs.
Following the research, a comprehensive UI prototype was developed using Figma, translating the findings into a structured, visual representation of the future ILIAS experience. This stage involved iterative feedback loops with stakeholders, refining the design to strike a balance between modernization and functional consistency with the LMS’s existing ecosystem. The new interface was designed to provide a clearer navigation structure, a more accessible dashboard, and a more immersive learning experience that reduces cognitive load for users.
The implementation phase has been completed, with the Figma design successfully translated into an interactive and functional UI within ILIAS. This process presented several technical challenges, particularly in maintaining compatibility with ILIAS 9.x while ensuring that future updates would not disrupt the new interface. Customizing an open-source platform like ILIAS required a careful approach—introducing visual and functional improvements while preserving system stability and upgradeability.
Through this presentation, we will share the lessons learned so far, discussing both the methodology behind our design decisions and the technical considerations involved in integrating a redesigned UI within an existing LMS. We will explore how user-centered research shaped the development, how we navigated the constraints of working with an open-source platform, and what this project means for the broader ILIAS community.
This topic is relevant to developers, designers, system administrators, and project managers who are looking for ways to modernize ILIAS without disrupting its ecosystem. It also raises important questions about the future of UX/UI within open-source learning platforms, how we can collectively contribute to their evolution, and what best practices should be adopted when tackling similar initiatives.
We hope this session will provide valuable insights to those considering UX/UI improvements in ILIAS and inspire new discussions within the community about the role of design and usability in e-learning platforms. While our work is not yet complete, this ongoing process highlights the importance of research-driven design and thoughtful implementation in ensuring that any transformation—big or small—adds genuine value to the users who rely on the system every day. |
