The first thing your members see in your Community is crucial to their overall experience. Let's take a look at the different options you have.
There are multiple different layout options available for your home screen. Each will impact how your members navigate through your Community, so it's worth understanding how you want members to experience your overall customer journey!
Your members can be initially shown:
Setting your Home Screen Preferences:
To begin, head to the Console, select Configure from the left hand menu, and then select Navigation from the following pop-out menu.
The first section you see is your Home Screen. This gives you the option to set some initial insights that your members will see, and then one of the Activity Feed, a specific Group or a specific Folder as the default Home Screen.
Once you've made your choice, make sure to press Publish!
It's good to know that it can take around 10 minutes for this change to take effect.
Home Screen Insights:
You have the option of setting specific insights for your members to see when they first open your Community:
- Upcoming Events (that the member has access to)
- Recent Posts (from Groups the member is a part of)
- My Groups (shows the Groups the member is a part of)
This is a great way for members to have a quick bespoke journey before then being taken through the curated journey you set for them with the options below (The Activity Feed, A Specific Group or A Folder).
The Groups that a member is a part of now appear on the Home Screen of the iOS and Android App, or on the left hand panel of the Web platform. This makes it easy for members to navigate to their Groups and removes it from the Activity Feed.
The Activity Feed:
When a member enters your Community, their initial landing page will be the Activity Feed.
The Activity Feed shows a general collection of Posts from all the Groups that member is a part of, and puts them in a single feed. It looks like this:
Members can find the Groups they are a member of either by:
- The My Groups section of the Home Screen (if you have enabled this)
- Utilising the search bar at the top of the page to search for their specific Group
- Visiting the Group from a Post in the Activity Feed
A Specific Group:
If you select a specific Group as the Home Screen, the layout will be the same as that of the Activity Feed, however, the Posts that the member sees will be specific to that Group.
If you select this, make sure it's a Group that all members are a part of!
A Specific Folder:
Setting a specific Folder as your Home Screen means that the member will be taken to a more traditional landing page. This is a great way to show members all the different parts of your Community.
We can't wait to see what you come up with!
Top Tips:
- The homes screen insights are only available from the following App versions:
- iOS version 4.43
- Android version 4.104
- The Activity Feed no longer shows a members Groups, consider this when choosing to enable the My Groups setting on the Home Screen.
- Consider your ideal member journey through your Community before making a decision.
- None of these settings are cast in stone, you can always change your mind – so don't worry about a wrong decision.
- Currently, if you select a specific Group as your Home Screen, the new insights page will not show here.