Remove the left navigation bar when viewing the aggregated schedule
This will buy all users real estate when coming to the landing page of Learning Suite when it eventually becomes the main page (which is my understanding is the eventual goal once performance issues are ironed out--it'll be great. Very few know about the aggregated schedule still. :). This might mean some customization away from existing templates, but I think it's well worth the value added to students in making the calendar more usable.
The biggest issue I see is finding a home for 'Course List', 'Announcements' and 'Assignments'. As the Schedule already exists in its own 'class'* with these other menu items, change the paradigm for these 'global' pages. Put Schedule, Course List** , and Copyright on tabs along the top of the page and then remove the left light-blue column altogether for these pages. As an added potential bonus, I personally think this might actually draw more attention to the Copyright pages (I think stylized tabs draw more attention and scanning than non-bold plaintext menu items).
The extra 1.5-2" of screen room would be tremendous when viewing the calendar, would probably simplify viewing on mobile devices or devices with screens under 9-10", and might allow for the addition of other content that would be great on this page. Thank you for the consideration and the amazing product!
(The other content that first comes to mind is puffing out the row headers for each class with a select number of heavily used items to quickly contact professors, view syllabi, move straight to content tabs, etc. without needing to move into the individual class pages. I'll post one possibility as another idea right now (changing the drop-down arrow for settings into a drop down to move straight to a given tab in that class and moving the settings to another place). Doing this would really make the Schedule the home page for Learning Suite and decrease navigation in even more ways. This calendar makes for a great way to make Learning Suite almost into a single page application which would be miraculous)
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- The class would be "My Courses"; I'm speaking in a sense of navigation. It has its own side bar, its own tabs along the top (just one tab, 'Home', right now) much like a class does once you click into it. Econ 110, for instance, has content, schedule, and grade tabs along the top along with other tabs
** - IF 'Course List' is even still necessary at that point...I believe I've posted about this, but if you haven't yet resolved this yourselves when reading this and it's not itemized, get in contact as I have thoughts here
- The class would be "My Courses"; I'm speaking in a sense of navigation. It has its own side bar, its own tabs along the top (just one tab, 'Home', right now) much like a class does once you click into it. Econ 110, for instance, has content, schedule, and grade tabs along the top along with other tabs
