Communities has had a visual refresh to coincide with the Google+ redesign last week, but has also added a few minor changes to the user interface. Let's take a look:
On first glance you'll see that not much has changed when looking at the Communities landing page, which displays the communities you're a member of and other recommended/suggested communities. You can switch between "All communities" and "Recommended for you" via the handy tabs underneath the search bar. Recommended communities are more prominent, with larger thumbnails. It is now easier for you to see who in your circles has joined communities, and hovering over their profile photos displays their hovercard. Previously, there were inconsistencies, and it would only display their name rather than the hovercard.
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| The new communities landing page, largely the same but with a new design |
When viewing a community, some elements of the user interface has moved around. The page the community has been created by has gained more prominence, with a large card on the upper right corner displaying that page with an option to add to circles, unfortunately this will not appear if a profile has created the community.. The about section has been moved from underneath the categories to underneath the "Created by" card, rules and other information about the community is very prominent now, and that's good.
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| Our Google+ Updates community with the new layout |
On the old layout, community moderators and members had separate sections. In the new layout, they have merged to form one overview/preview. Moderators will now have a star on top of their profile photo and will always appear on the Members widget. Unlike before, the members that show up in this widget are random, and will change upon a refresh of the page. Before, there was issues with spam, as fake profiles and pages would intentionally name their page with special characters such as quotations or placing an "A" before the name. Spammers would do this to appear first on the members widget. I am very happy that the Google+ team acknowledged the issue and changed the behaviour for the new layout.
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| Moderators of a community will have stars on their profile photos |
If you're a community owner or moderator, the message stating that you have removed a post will look a little different. Instead of the post collapsing into the message and then disappearing altogether shortly after, in the new layout the removed post will retain the original post's size and will remain until the page is refreshed, this gives you chance to decide whether you'd like to undo your action.
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| The new removed post message |
Everything else is largely the same as it once was, but with the updated look and feel. Some options have moved around (including the search box), which to make themselves more visible to the user.
Overall, all the changes have been well intentioned and do improve the state of communities well. With the gained prominence of some cards/widgets, communities now feel more individual and/or personal and it will be easier for new members to read up on the rules and fit in with their community.
I love the changes, but what are your thoughts?
