To improve the overall Community experience, the Community Team is rolling out two 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. (Please read our previous blog!)
- 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.
After gathering feedback from all of you and collaborating with the Community Coaches, we made several improvements to each product hub’s landing page to make it easier for you to find the guides, resources, releases, blog posts, and links to groups you need quickly. We are confident that the changes you’ll see on each product’s page will empower you to learn even more about the products you use in your learning and teaching experiences.
Designing for Action
With the changes coming to the product landing pages, we wanted to ensure that Community members felt confident exploring the Community and identifying resources as they gain knowledge about a product. We also created a design that clarifies the product family with which the resources are associated. We hope it will be easier than ever to identify where you can Learn, Contribute, and Discover on a page.
First, with the new product landing pages, you’ll notice each product within each family has its own hub. We also know it’s valuable to quickly identify you’re looking at resources aligned with your product. Because of that, each family’s branding colors and logos are an important part of the update. The search feature on a product hub has also been updated to return results that are specific to the brand family! Whether you’re exploring Canvas, Mastery, Elevate, or Impact, you can browse the Community confidently because it is easier to see that the resources correspond to your interests or questions.
Next, instead of seeing a page filled with buttons, we’re consolidating the activities and resources related to a product based on Community activities. We put the “action” first in the improved layout, and we organized content around the tasks you often need to complete:
- Locate and access the guides or resources for a product
- Contribute to conversations or ask questions
- Discover opportunities to connect with others with similar interests
- Identify updates that are relevant to your adopted products
1. Locate and access the guides or resources for a product
As a support Community, helping you learn about a specific product is important to us. Because of this, we placed the link to the guides prominently in the structure of each landing page. The Read the Guides button stands out from the others, and we hope it will act as a shortcut to the Community’s most-visited resources.
Under Additional Resources, you’ll see a curated list of information, additional documents, and special topics, all specific to your product and role. These resources will help you maximize your understanding and utilization of a product in your teaching and learning experience.
2. Contribute to conversations or ask questions
Each page is a space to get product information and also to contribute. In 2022, the Questions Forums housed over 6,000 new questions, and when you can identify the product quickly, it’s easier to join the conversation or offer help. Each of the product hubs will also have its own Question Forum. This addition will provide spaces for more focused discussions, and we’re excited to see how you support and collaborate with others!
3. Discover opportunities to connect with others with similar interests
Together, we can discover so much. We know that it can be inspiring to collaborate with people with similar roles, interests, and passions! For this reason, each Instructure product will have its own blog and list of supporting groups. This addition will make it easier to read Community members’ stories, learn from each other’s expertise, and connect with others around the world with common goals.
4. Identify updates that are relevant to your adopted products
Below the Learn, Explore, Discover options at the top of the page, there is a brand new section designed to streamline different information sources within the product hub.
While the buttons will redirect you to prominent Product items like the Roadmap, Ideas & Themes, and translated guides, the tabbed content feeds which feature Recent Activity, the Product Blog, and Release Notes bring the most recent product-related news and updates from all parts of the Community to one easy-to-reference location.
Partnership Creates Change
Alongside the simplified top-level navigation, the Community Team is excited to start sharing these refreshed landing page designs with you the week of June 5, 2023! Thank you for your partnership and feedback in our surveys and conversations. We enjoy hearing from you and turning those comments into tangible changes. We also appreciate your patience as we move content into the new layout and as we become familiar with the new organization of Community resources for each product. We can’t wait to see what you learn from and accomplish within these new product hubs!
