User Profiles

Given such large user populations, there are many different types of users. Below are described the common attributes of users and the environments in which they work.

Many learners regularly use computers to carry out their work, though some (particularly in manufacturing and retail) do not have daily access to them. Learners may have a “quota” for training, based on the objectives they have set with their manager, and are responsible for locating the courses that they must take (a mixture of classroom and online), registering for learning events, and managing other learning activities. This will be a small portion of their job tasks, and they can feel that this activity is more of a necessary burden than something they are particularly motivated to do. Their use of the application is usually infrequent (once every 3-6 weeks), and focused on completing a single, immediate task. Some learners are focused on individual development, which includes personal goal-setting, creating plans for future training activities, and possibly managing and exploring the standard competencies that they are assigned within the organization. These activities require more task structuring and greater thinking/planning, and are often done in short, intensive periods of time, such as 1-2 weeks once a year.

Managers and mentors are responsible for reviewing and keeping track of other people’s training. They do this through a mixture of discussion with individuals and reviewing details on the computer. They are often frequent computer users but not likely to be sophisticated users. While they need to use the application regularly, they are likely to find ways to reduce the number of tasks they perform, which means that they will be interested in short-cuts, but also possibly prone to missing information if it is not something they commonly review. They can be more focused on other people’s training, rather than their own.

Approvers fall into two broad types: those who know the people that have requested approval (such as managers), and those who may not know the specific development needs of the individuals (such as finance or HR administrators). They all will probably have a high degree of familiarity with computers, but the latter will likely use the application only rarely for very specific tasks (possibly only for this one task: approving requests). They will understand what their responsibilities are, but may not feel focused on that in relation to other tasks they are performing for their job.

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KP2000: Learner Interface Redesign

introduction the users prior state solution attributes