Introducing the Dashboard!

As I mentioned in the last post, there's a new Dashboard system now which is intended to give you a better view of what's happening on the site. It features the return of the top activities by score (which goes up to 15 now!) and a new list for activities that are new and garnering attention. You can also easily access your latest activities as well as your favorites. If you're a subscriber, it will also show a feed of recent comments on any of your activities, as well as your lessons for today from the Lesson Tracker.

I've flipped the switch and now it should be the default page you see when you log in, and you can return to it by clicking the link in the menu at the top left of the screen. If you want to see the home page, it's still accessible in the footer menu, but the Dashboard should have all the same links and features as the home page, with more to boot.

My intent is for the Dashboard to be the page that most people use when they're using the site. Over time, I'm going to start tinkering with the home page to aim it at people who are visiting the site for the first time and could use an overview before signing up.

I'm also running the annual site survey to get an idea of everyone's feedback on the site and help prioritize what I work on next. Please fill it out if you have the time!

As always, please let me know what you think! Enjoy the fall!

October 5 update: A number of the survey responses are pointing out that the Dashboard feels a bit cluttered compared to the home page. Now that I look at it on the live site (instead of my local copy of the site with randomly-generated data) I'd have to say that I agree. I took one really good user suggestion and have made it so the longer lists (I call them "tickers" in the site code) show the first 5 entries, and then there's a "More" link you can click on to see more. I've also pumped up the gaps between items to give them a little more visual separation.

I'll keep tinkering with it. My goal is to make it more useful than the default home page but certainly not any harder to use. If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment!