On the iPhone version of the Canvas Student app, the nav bar is present on all screens, from the Dashboard to the modules. However, on the Android version (v. 7.5.3), the nav bar present on the Dashboard is missing from all other pages. Once the student opens a course page, and for any lower pages within the course, the only means to navigate to another course is to "back arrow" through all the previous screens until the Dashboard is reached. As students typically have several classes to manage in any given period, having to backtrack several screens just to manage another class is cumbersome at best.
I understand from interactions with Instructure Support that: "The navigation menu’s absence in courses when navigating through them is designed to provide a cleaner and more focused view of course content. This design choice helps reduce clutter and distraction by limiting unnecessary elements on pages with extensive content." Speaking as a "UX" designer for over 40 years, a "cleaner and more focused view ... of content" should never eclipse functionality, as this "design choice" has done. The minimal screen real estate occupied by the nav bar at the bottom of the screen does not constitute "clutter and distraction by [an] unnecessary element." On the contrary, it is a very necessary element to facilitate ease of use "on pages with extensive content."
The nav bar that appears at the bottom of the Dashboard screen should remain visible and accessible on every screen in the app. This would allow the user to jump immediately back to the dashboard from any location in the app, even several layers deep in the navigation. On pages with long content, the nav bar should remain fixed and visible as content is scrolled. Ideally also, a main "hamburger" menu accessible on every screen would allow the user to jump from one course to another without having to navigate back to the dashboard. Most students have more than one class to manage in any given period. Students today (including nearly-60-year-olds like me) use their smartphones extensively to manage the classes, grades, schedules, even to upload and complete assignments. While it may seem like just a few clicks/taps to get back to the Dashboard to navigate to another class, it becomes an inefficient time-waste for students trying to manage deadlines in multiple classes on the go.
