To improve the overall Community experience, the Community Team is rolling out three rather significant updates during the week of June 5, 2023:
- Simplified top-level navigation - New navigation cues in the Community will organize resources into the categories of Product, Groups, and Explore and will make it possible to find what you need more efficiently.
- Individual product landing pages - Each product in the four product families will have a new layout applied and will be organized to promote actions of Learn, Contribute, and Discover.
- Refreshed Home Page - An updated and elevated feel to the Instructure Community home page will make it easier to access the most important resources and topics within the Community.
After evaluating several weeks of traffic patterns and click data on the Instructure Community home page, the Community Team created a refreshed experience for Community members. Elements from the Welcome page were evaluated and then prioritized based on how often current items were clicked on our current home page. New ways to navigate to the newest topics and resources in the Community were added to enhance Community members’ experiences as well. The home page is meant to help those visiting the Community get to the essentials. We hope these changes will make it easier to do so!
Inclusive Branding
Before discussing the physical layout of the refreshed home page, we want to take a moment to celebrate the updated (and inclusive) branding that has been applied to the top-level navigation and the home page itself. You’ll see Instructure’s core navy blue prominently featured in the design. We did this to help make the branding colors associated with each family stand out boldly from the backgrounds as well as the top navigation and footer seen throughout the Community.
With this update, we are also proud to announce that community.instructure.com will redirect you to the Instructure Community home page. This additional URL celebrates the entire Instructure product family! Don’t worry, the standard community.canvaslms.com isn’t going anywhere. Both URLs work for navigating to the home page, and you’ll see our standard URL on all pages once you arrive.
Designing for Action
With the changes planned to the top-level navigation and product landing pages, the Community Team was inspired to also make key changes to the home page. The home page refresh should make the user experience and overall design feel more aligned with the polished look of the Product Hubs.
With our most recent review of Community traffic, we noticed that over 50% of the home page traffic took place in the top ⅓ of the page. Because of this, we simplified the layout and the collection of content in order to meet the needs of more Community members. The home page was reorganized so visitors are empowered to find the resources, topics, or news they need quickly.
First, with the refreshed home page design, you’ll notice each product family has its own button. You’ll see Canvas, Mastery, Elevate, Impact, and LearnPlatform all linked immediately under the search bar and current Community stats. Each product family’s logo will bring Community members to a landing page that features all of the associated products. Here, you’ll see direct links to specific product hubs alongside the top resources and featured articles relevant to that product family.
Next, we added a new and important link. The “How do I sign into [Product]?” guides are the most visited resources in the Community, and now, no matter which product you’ll use, the Need Help Signing In? button will provide direct links to supporting documentation. Whether you seek to sign in to the Community, Canvas, Mastery, Elevate, or Impact, those guides are in one easy-to-locate place, right on the home page.
Then, we bring the most important and recent topics to you in feeds. The See what’s happening in the Community section features the newest blogs and topics in our Question Forums. This section is meant to make it quicker to identify big announcements and trending conversations that impact your experience in the Instructure Community and with the entire Instructure Learning Platform.
In the tabbed content, you will note the three different ways to browse topics from all Product Hubs and Groups. Join the Latest Topics started throughout the Community, Popular Topics that are gaining the attention of Community members, or Featured Topics curated by the Community Team.
Next, there is a collection of buttons, meant to feature six major actions in the Instructure Community. Using action-based prompts, Community members can quickly visit key spaces or complete desired tasks. While all of these actions are duplicated in the top navigation, the featured items lower on the home page make it possible to get to these resources directly, without additional scrolling.
Featured here, are some of the most common actions Community members complete from the home page:
- Browse our product guides
- Resources in your language
- Join a Community group
- Explore interesting discussions
- Attend or host a live event
- Get advice from expert users or help answer questions
Last, but not least, Instructure Live is featured. While this is listed in our Explore tab in the top navigation and in the set of action-centric buttons, Instructure Live is an incredibly valuable resource. Right on our home page, upcoming events are highlighted alongside a button that allows you to see all events on the Instructure Live landing page.
Data and Ongoing Partnership Creates Change
Adding to the excitement of the simplified top-level navigation and the simplified top-level navigation updates, the Community Team will unveil this new home page the week of June 5, 2023! This was a bonus (and slightly unexpected) update that we are thrilled to share with you! We are including it with the other changes this month because we want you to experience the home page refresh for yourself, as soon as possible.
Meaningful changes happen when the Community works together and we look at data to inform decisions. We plan to keep watching our traffic patterns and clicks on the home page in the coming months. We are also looking forward to connecting with Community members at Insturucturecon 2023 to gather feedback and suggestions for further personalization of the home page for authenticated users. Thank you for your partnership!
