New Moodle Improvements
New Moodle Changes
With the transition from .glyndwr to .wrexham now complete for our Moodle site, we have given Moodle some much needed love in the form of some user interface changes. On this page, you will be walked through these changes and what to expect for the future.
Navigation Bar
The first major change is to our navigation bar, this is the bar that appears along the top of every page you visit, and allows you to navigate to your Dashboard, view your notifications, view your profile, change your language, etc.
We thought that the previous design didn't reflect our university's branding enough. We also found that changing your language and accessing the ReciteMe accessibility tools wasn't as obvious as it could be, in addition to there being too many links.
Here is how the previous design looked: (Click on the image to see a larger version)
We have made a total of 10 changes! (and they are listed below)
- Changed the background colour to the university navy colour.
- Changed the font colour to white (for better accessibility).
- Changed the university logo to white (for better accessibility).
- Reduced the clutter of links on the navigation (we previously had 7 links!)
- The Home and 'My Courses' links have been removed. (They were not being used)
- The 'Student Support' link has been moved into a new dropdown called 'Support' (this keeps everything less busy)
- A link to the Learning Skills Guides site has been added under the same 'Support' menu. (This is the site you're currently reading this on now)
- A link to the IT Service Desk has been added under the same 'Support' menu.
- The order that the links are in has been changed.
- Previous order: Dashboard, Student Support, Search, MyUni Portal
- New order: Dashboard, MyUni Portal, Support (Dropdown menu), Search
- This now means there are only 4 links instead of 7.
- Fixed the alignment of all links, icons, and buttons, etc. so
everything now sits level and inline with each other.
(Previously, the notification and messages icons for example were pinned to the top as opposed to being in line with everything else.) - Moved the 'Accessibility' link to the right side of the navigation menu, and added an icon to make it clearer / stand out more. (We also renamed it to 'Accessibility Tools')
- Added a 'Cymraeg' button to the right of the 'Accessibility Tools' link to allow for fast switching to Welsh.
- Previously, you would have to click on your profile, then 'Language', and then choose 'Cymraeg'.
- Navigation menu item names will now translate to Welsh, and navigate to the Welsh sites (if available) when changing your UI language.
More and more courses are starting to teach bi-lingually, so you may start to see more course pages containing Welsh in the future.
Here is what it looks like now: (Click on the image to see a larger version)
Font changes
Sticking to the theme of branding, we wanted to also make sure that we are keeping up with our other university sites / systems by ensuring the branding fonts are being used. So both headings and regular text have been updated to be displayed in the appropriate fonts.
Previous Font:
New Font:
Background Colour
A lot of users have mentioned that they felt the white background was either harsh on the eyes or made the page feel empty. So we've changed the background colour to a light purple / blue colour, and also made the main content wider.
Old Background Colour:
New Background Colour:
Footer
The final thing to talk about is the addition of a new Footer.
Previously, there was a little question mark icon in the bottom-right, which contained some additional links and information. To make this clearer and in-line with the new branding / theming, at the bottom of the page you will find a footer that contains a link to the service desk software, accessibility statement, Welsh language statement and more.
Moodle 4.5 Upgrade
Our upgrade to Moodle 4.5 is just around the corner, and along with that upgrade, you will see some additional interface changes, so lets list some of them here.
Slimmer interface design
You may find that scrolling through your content is a much nicer experience, as Moodle has made everything tighter / closer together, making pages shorter.
Previous Content Page:
New Content Page:
More rounded and clearer buttons
Everything in modern web design is 'softer' with rounded corners and cleaner interface designs, and in 4.5, you will find that everything has a 'softer' look, with less 'sharp' lines and everything being displayed in clearer buttons and separated with a few colours.
A perfect example is back in the course content. Previously, to collapse a section, you would have a singular arrow next to the heading, and a lot of empty space.
In 4.5 you will find that each section is contained in a rounded box, with the collapsible arrow appearing in a light blue circle next to the heading.
Previous Design (a lot of empty white space with a singular arrow):
New Design (a more contained design, with a clearer defined arrow):
Collapse all items in the course index
If you have studied with us before, you may be familiar with the course index, this is the menu that lives to the left of your course pages and contains a list of all sections and content available to you.
The issue with the course index previously is that you would have to manually collapse or expand each section in the course index, in 4.5, you can now expand or collapse all items at once by clicking the three vertical dots in the top right of the course index.
Closing words
Please don't worry about the upgrade to 4.5 as there are no major changes, and if anything, the changes are more visual improvements, and behind the scenes improvements for staff, everything that you have been used to up to this point will remain the same.
