Update: New Assignments and Mastery information on exercises, videos, and articles!

Why such a large design change?

And why is the video questions and answers section gone? Are they going to come back?

I agree with Stephen. Why did you remove comments? I just got help with my question, and I can't even see it! And G. Tarun, you're lucky. 

Because this update was even worse then the background-removing one- not that that was acceptable or appreciated- and you have literally no benefit with making this.

I liked the previous format better before this, and I liked hopping on another one to help out confused people. I liked the big screen, and all the different modes, and being able to upvote helpful comments that would help people a lot and give confused people answers to they're questions.

I don't like this one at all, though.

Hope you fix this,
Ponyta303

I actually like this overall! But I think there are a few problems:

• Having the video and assignment title above the content also distracts from the actual content itself and provides less effective screen space. (I believe people are more likely to look at the top of the page than the bottom.)
• Another thing is that there needs to be more work on consistency, which I assume is coming. Some tips:

1. The blue bar that only has the "assign" button should just be moved somewhere else.
2. The top and bottom margin on the left panel assignments without an assignments panel is inconsistent.
3. The video player's aspect ratio adds black bars that look more akward in the redesign.

• It would be nice if the navigation sidebar could be moved to the right as a user preference since people are more likely to pay attention to the left of the screen than the right. This is even more relevant since the sidebar is much larger now.
• The assignments page has a lot of the same issues, in addition to the actual assignment being given very little percentage of the actual screen, and again the title of the assignment is distracting and a waste of space since I already know what assignment I am on from the sidebar.
• Please temporarially add an option to opt out of the redesign since it is actually missing features and can hurt the exprience.

Also, you might want to bold the point about discussions and standards info coming back.

G. Tarun Some of the issues I have mention have bothered me since I've first seen them, but it's only now that it really bothers me enough to complain. The "assign" button - with the navy background - and the black bars - now with white on either side - just look completely out of place in the new deisgn whereas they at least fit in with the old design.

With the old black bars, it look like YouTube's theatre mode and sort of felt inline since the bars strech to either side, but now that there is extra padding it feels wrong. It's similar with the assign button since it's taking up more space in a UI that really needs as much space as possible - plus, the background still doesn't fit everything else!

Also, I really should have clarified that I only felt having the title wasn't needed on extercises.

I should also note that I am only in teacher mode becuase of the "Individual Student Skills" report that rolled out the other day. I feel like that should be available to non-teachers too, but I guess it is more valubale to teachers.

I agree with @Ponyta303 #TeamYellowLeaf in that I preferred the previous format of the separate widgets and lesson pages and also the accessibility of the discussion section. It would be a pain to have to go to another site each time, and sometimes it really helps to just scroll through the answers already posted, which can give me better understanding of the topic when I didn’t initially have a question.

However, I also want to point out the bar at the top of the screen that has the logo and profile. The color change to permanent white is more harsh on the eyes than the navy blue, which I feel added a shaded border for the site.

I strongly support @knot126 ‘s suggestion to add a feature to temporarily opt out of the redesign, while the transitioning bugs can be worked out. With the design, the larger sidebar is a bit in the way, shrinking the margins makes the screen seem to have less room. I believe users will prefer the previous design for multiple reasons including accessibility and yes, nostalgia for the old look, but while I do appreciate any new educational features to improve our experience on Khan, such a large design change is unnecessary.

Thanks.

Good call on making the information on adding discussions back more prominent - I bolded that in the original announcement. 

As to the "why" behind this move, the main reasons are covered in the "Why are we making these changes?" section of the announcement above - essentially, the team is hoping that this redesign will make things simpler, more useful, and provide helpful learning context as we continue to develop the student and teacher experience on Khan.

I'll also be passing along the design feedback that y'all have shared so far (both here and in the linked form). In the meantime, if you don't want to see the extra information presented in the left-hand sidebar you can always condense (and expand) it using the arrow button on the outside of the menu.

Laurie @KA Thank you for progressing to make the update a little bit for natural. However, I have a question: How did the KA team manage to make a few hundred lines of code they hadn't made before in hours, but not bring back a few easy-to-find lines of code that everyone wants back?

Laurie @KA Thanks! Also, on another minor note, I initially thought the arrow was to move to the last video. Perahps the team could consider adding a tooltip to that explain that the arrow collapses the mastery view?

Ponyta303 #TeamYellowLeaf I can say that G. Tarun is probably right about the codebase.

In general software development, a lot of features are removed because they were implemented poorly in the first place. So if you want to readd the feature, you need to rewrite it instead of just porting it. That takes time and might not be a priority over something else.

Also, keep in mind this interface rework likely took a month or two between the initial design, implementing it and making sure it was ready to rollout for testing. You can even see that the screenshots of the interface are from before the 8th of July. A seemingly simple change in interface can have a lot of things going on around it.

Though rebuttal to this new design may still arise, it does feel simpler and easier to use. Like knot126 and G. Tarun pointed out, I still think there are a few minor design problems that could be tweaked. Keeping the video titles at the bottom, adding the explanation on the compressing arrow as knot126 said, they seem like good improvements to the design and will add good visual impressions for the users. I still think that top bar color could be changed back to blue. And another idea, maybe the arrow that collapses the mastery bar could just shrink it down to a menu bar instead of fully disappearing.

Thanks to the Khan team for patiently listening to critiques.

P.S. I reeeelly need that discussion section back.

G. Tarun To be honest, I prefer the white bar to the dark blue bar. Though I am not opposed to the bar being coloured, I think the dark blue wasn't really the best choice of colour. Plus, I think the bar being the way it is has to be temporary anyways.

I personally prefer the one of the older site designs where the colour matched the subject and the colours were brighter but still muted enough not to be noticeable (though note that I didn't really know about KA then, so I didn't use it; maybe it was annoying):

knot126 The magenta is a bit intense for me, though.

I would like it if you could at least customize some stuff, like the course color, and maybe a NOT trashy dark mode? 

Edit: Hey! Someone edited my comment! And now your comments have to be approved?!?

G. Tarun Alright, I will do that! :)

I really hate the the rollout thing with the modules because it sometimes glitches my screen so that the color dots are in the middle of my math question so I would really love if you could be able to remove the rollout in settings

Hey all - I wanted to let you know that the team is continuing to work on this experience behind the scenes, and one update you might have already noticed is the header - the color has been changed from white to dark blue, to match the rest of the content library. This also makes the "Assign" bar more subtle, for the teachers and coaches who have it (shoutout to knot126 for the feedback on that part of the design).

pavel.bonov - the situation that you're describing sounds like it could be a technical issue, can you contact the support team? Once you submit a ticket someone will be with you shortly: khan.co/KA-support

I've been using Khan Academy as a tutor, homeschool educator, teacher and/or trainer/ support person for ESL adults since 2012.

The appearance of ease on the newest rollout is incredibly deceiving and I just wanted to pipe in to say everything is so appreciated! Looking forward to a new educational opportunity where I get to rekindle the love of learning, and can't wait until the new roll out reincorporates color coding of subjects as this is a hugely beneficial tool for the ESL & HoH communities I work with, as well as the ASD adults deciding to take a risk and try the academic community again with ADA accommodations for sensory needs in hand to make the experience more enjoyable this time around.

Thank you Laurie @KA for your patience, follow up & follow through with the design team.

(Yes, this is a new account for a long time user, now that I am completely autonomous in the work I am doing, so I can better serve my communities without the red tape negatively impacting students & parents alike).

I wanted to pop in to update y'all that discussions have been added back to this design! Thank you all for your patience while the team worked out the details.

The new designs and features are really cool! I took a break from KA and came back to some really awesome stuff! Neat! Thank you for all your hardwork! I am very interested in finding out what the future holds for Khan Academy. :D