[Update] New layout on Community Center homepage

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

[Update] New layout on Community Center homepage

Hello everyone,

 

We hope you are enjoying the recent Community Center updates to the Direct Messaging system and the improvements to the Community profile page. We have more news for you, this one you may have noticed already! 

 

We know it's not always the easiest to navigate the content in the CC, especially when it’s your first visit here. To help with this, we have made a few changes to the CC homepage. 

 

Old: 

 

 

Katie_5-1595523464986.png

 

 

New:

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-23 at 18.03.43.png

 

 

What's new? (We are saying goodbye to teal and hello to pink!)

 

  • The Discussion Boards are now visible from the homepage
  • The search bar is more prominent and will follow you down the page, so you have it in easy reach
  • An additional feature box to allow us to highlight great CC created content (so over to you!)
  • For those of you who enjoy participating in multiple CC languages, you will be able to easily access the other CCs from any page, through the language icon
  • Your Notification feed will now be visible on mobile and tablet

 

Katie_6-1595523464918.png

 

 

 

You will find your Notification feed and DM inbox under the dropdown in the right hand corner (and this is the same on mobile): 

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-23 at 18.05.51.png

 

                 

 

This is just the first of many updates we hope to make, we know there is more we can do to improve your experience. If you have any further ideas or feedback please let us know.

 

We hope you find this useful and we look forward to hearing your thoughts. 

 

Katie

 

26 Replies 26
Debra300
Level 10
Gros Islet, Saint Lucia

@Katie,

The new layout is okay.  Since your announce didn't pop up as the first posting, it took a bit of time before I figured out what going on, and to understand the layout.

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hey @Debra300, thanks for the feedback - sorry it took a while to find the post. 

 

Yes, I think it will take a little bit of time to get used to the new layout, but fingers crossed it will make the homepage much easier to navigate, especially for new members 😊

Debra300
Level 10
Gros Islet, Saint Lucia

@Katie,

The very first time that I saw the new layout, there was a red number zero by my profile page which I thought was an indicator that I had messages or notifications.  Since then, I've not seen any type of indicator.  I have to click on my profile picture to see the drop-down and any notifications.  A numbered notification is a common feature on sites with messaging systems, and I'd like to see it re-implemented here at the community.

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hey @Debra300

 

I checked my profile page and I don't think there have been too many changes to this specific page in this recent update, although there was an update to this a few months ago? This is what it looks like now:

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-27 at 17.38.55.png


On your profile you should be able to see messages, but not notifications themselves. As Sarah said below, these used to be a part of the 'Nav bar' along the top of the page, but they are now part of the drop-down with all other account bits:

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-27 at 17.50.00.png

If you have pending notifications then these will appear as a pink number in brackets next to 'Notifications', the same way they do for messages.

 

The '6' you can see over my profile pic is referring to messages only, as this is the number displayed by default I think. You have to hover over the profile pic (to make the menu appear) in order to see notifications. For example, if you have 0 unread messages, then the number wouldn't be displayed (even if you had new notifications), and you would need to hover over your profile pic to check for any. 

 

Would it be better to have the notifications and messages included in the number displayed over the profile pic?

 

(Is this what you meant? Let me know if I'm missing something 🙂)

Debra300
Level 10
Gros Islet, Saint Lucia

@Katie,

Yes, it would be extremely helpful to have notifications included in the number indicator next to profile pictures.  

 

And it would be helpful to have the links to other language communities prominently displayed on the homepage.  There are so many hosts looking for help, and posting in a community that cannot communicate with them.

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

I don't like the hashtags all in caps at the bottom of the discussion item summary. Rather distracting. 

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Michelle53,

 

Thanks for your feedback on this, and sorry to hear you're not a fan of the hashtags. Fingers crossed the other updates will be more your thing, but if you have any more comments then feel free to post as it's good to get a pulse on things people like or don't like 🙂

Laura2484
Level 10
Ohope, New Zealand

@Katie 

Great job with the updates , I like the layout changes especially the new format of the  Discussion Rooms , less scrolling 👍🏾 

 Thanks Katie & team

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Yay! Glad you like it @Laura2484 - yes I agree, much easier to navigate, and it looks pretty snazzy and a bit more modern too 😄

Essaouira-Beachlife-Moro0
Level 10
Essaouira, Morocco

@Katie ,  and all the staf... very good job. I like this new configuration.

I have already tried and participated in French, English and Spanish! That's great! This new option is fantastic for me :"For those of you who enjoy participating in multiple CC languages, you will be able to easily access the other CCs from any page, through the language icon". it's a very good idea. Now the world is accessible to everyone if they wish and much more easily! Thank you!

Essaouira_Beachlife_Morocco
Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Aw @Essaouira-Beachlife-Moro0 I'm so pleased to hear that. Love that you're able to participate in all the different CC's too - quite the polyglot, kudos!

 

Yes, I think it was pretty hard to spot the option to change languages before so it's good to see it's much easier now.

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

Hi @Katie & those involved in setting up the new format. It’s interesting and I like the drop down for language and info, such as notifications. 

The hashtags could be a little less dominant, but that’s just an aesthetic.

 

My biggest aesthetic that I’ll greatly miss is the #Teal colouring and banners.  #BringBackTeal

I know the CC forum is an Airbnb owned and operated forum, but psychologically, having it a different colour and tone, gave me the masked perception it was a little bit more independent. As I said, psychological - not fact. Besides, #Teal is a calmer colour, something the CC forum could admire and reconsider for its masthead. It also separated the formal Airbnb business side of things, with the opinion and less formal.

 

I’m going to lobby for #Teal, to maintain my sense of harmonisation. NOT TEALING THE PINK! 

🦋🐬🐳🐟🐠🐋🦕🦋❄️🎣🥏🥣🎽🎿🏌🏼‍🎭🧩🚙🚎✈️🚊🗾🏙🌃💎🛋🚰📘🌐💠🌊🌏🌍

Katie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Cathie19,

 

Thanks for the feedback here, and glad to hear that for the most part you're a fan. 

 

Haha I love your #teal campaign here - I have to admit that I was a fan of teal too, but I also like the new pink. I think the colour choices were mainly motivated by the Airbnb colour palette, as it's been updated since the last version of the CC, so it is designed to fit better visually within the overall brand.

 

That said, the CC is all about you guys and what you bring to the table, so in that sense it is what all of you make it  💙  (this blue one was the closest I could get to teal for you! 😁 ) 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Katie  It's okay for the most part, but I really don't like the fact that the headers for notifications, discussion groups, Pm's, etc were moved to a drop-down box under our profile photos. What is it with Airbnb and the love affair with "the more clicks the better"? 

Whereas I used to be able to see at a glance if there was a new notification by it appearing in red evidently, now I have to first click on my profile photo, then click on Notifications. Why use two clicks where one will do? How is more steps and hiding things that used to be easily visible considered an improvement?

 

@Cathie19  I actually like teal, but I don't call that computer blue Teal. It's just a namby-pamby blue to me and blue isn't my color 🙂 I'd definitely prefer a calmer color, the red is distracting, but maybe a moss green or light brown.