Icon Library: Author Process
Issue
The library of icons had grown in quantity much faster than the platform third-party authors used for downloading assets. Their needs out-paced the library’s capability.
Author Need
They needed a more efficient process for searching, saving, and integrating the icons they found into their course decks.
Deliverables
UX, UI, Icons
Discovery: The Course Creation process
Third-party authors have a large number of resources available to them that aid in their course creation process. My teammates and I conducted interviews (Voice of Authors or VOAs) with a variety of authors to discover their pain points, what was going well for them, and what we could do to make their course building experience better. These were new authors, experienced authors, and authors who had begun but not yet completed their course.
What became evident from this set of interviews regarding icons
Authors needed a more user-friendly platform.
They enjoyed having access to custom icons and graphics.
They needed quicker ways to gather and utilize the icons in our icon library.
Where to Begin: Old Flow needs to Go
Grabbing an icon from the library was a very basic process: log in, go to the icon search page, pick an icon, and download.
Why A Simple Thing Stopped Working
The search didn’t always serve up consistent results.
Authors wanted a way to save specific icons for possible future use as well as for a particular course they were working on.
The offering of 5 categories wasn’t very helpful, as the library continued to grow.
New Functionality
I created wireframes and prototypes that were then used in a new round of author interviews to test usability.
Functionality tested
Removing the 5 categories
Adding in the ability to favorite and save selected icon to a folder
Results
Authors really liked the ability to save and favorite. They also did not feel attached to the 5 legacy categories, as those were just added to keywords and still searchable.
Wrap-up Thoughts
This was a good opportunity to make some small changes that were helpful to our authors. Author interviews were not only helpful in pulling out areas of improvement in the icon library, but they were also full of information that could be applied elsewhere in the platform. Ultimately, the library has the opportunity to be a rich ecosystem, resource, and time-saver for authors.
In My Dreams
Ability to drag and drop from search results into folders
Direct integration of the icon library into PowerPoint
For Keynote users, the creation of a desktop app
Ability for authors to tag their own set of icons
Adding in a field for notes
Adding in suggestions for similar icons that had been searched