Feat: Better navigation

[L0STE]

Problem

Our rapid content release schedule has outpaced our navigation design, creating a cluttered user experience that makes course discovery increasingly difficult. The current system lacks the structure and guidance users need to navigate our growing content library effectively.

Core Issues

1. Poor Content Organization and Visibility

Our course categorization system (General, Rust, TypeScript, etc.) provides insufficient filtering granularity. The "Continue Learning", that happens even when somebody is referencing back a lesson of that course, section compounds this problem by keeping previously accessed courses visible, pushing new releases to the bottom of the page where they're easily missed.

2. Missing Learning Pathways

We lack structured course sequences that guide users through logical learning progressions. For instance, users completing "Tokens on Solana" should be naturally directed to related courses like "Token 2022," "NFTs on Solana," "Introduction to Anchor," and "Tokens with Anchor," but currently have no guidance on their next steps.

3. Insufficient Course Information

Course cards provide minimal context about content scope and objectives. Users cannot easily determine if a course matches their needs or skill level without clicking through, creating friction in the discovery process.

Solution

We propose a comprehensive redesign of the course homepage interface that prioritizes discoverability, structured learning paths, and personalized navigation to address current user experience challenges.

Proposed Approach

1. "New Releases" Section

Implement a dedicated section highlighting courses released within the past two weeks. This requires adding publication timestamps to our i18n implementation to automatically surface fresh content and ensure users don't miss recent additions.

2. Learning Tracks System

Create curated learning pathways, with an interface similar to this that guide users through structured course sequences with automatic progression. For example:

• Solana Developer Roadmap: Introduction to Blockchain → Introduction to Anchor → Tokens on Solana → Token 2022 → NFTs on Solana → Tokens with Anchor

Each track includes progress tracking and "Next Course" recommendations to maintain learning momentum.

3. Enhanced Course Information

Add course descriptions that appear on card hover, providing users with clear expectations about content scope, prerequisites, and learning outcomes before committing to a course.

4. Optimized Layout Structure

Reorganize the homepage with a hierarchical approach:

• Row 1: "New Releases" (past 2 weeks)
• Row 2: "Continue Learning" (user's in-progress courses)
• Subsequent Rows: Courses organized by category (each category shows only one row)

The row will have horizontal scrolling

This structure prioritizes fresh content and user progress while maintaining category organization.

5. Intelligent Course Discovery

Implement a search and recommendation system through either:

• Blueshift MCP Integration: AI-powered course recommendations based on user queries
• Advanced Search Function: Natural language search that understands learning intent and directs users to appropriate content

[dhl]

Some design references

[L0STE]

Adding @arihantbansal suggestion: Add an LLM widget like here https://copypagebutton.vercel.app/docs/intro on the top right, which allows anyone to use the markdown content with existing LLMs.

[adlonymous]

1. Also an llms.txt for the whole webpage so you can just use the knowledge here as context for Cursor, Windsurf, etc

2. Another navigation issue within each course is that within each course, you can't see what different lessons there are and you can only see the contents of each lesson. For example, in the Anchor for Dummies course, you can only see the current lesson (Anchor 101) and the next lesson (Anchor Accounts), but you can't see how many lessons there are and navigate easily between them

[Shubbu03]

@dhl , @L0STE is this still under consideration?? i can try to do this

[L0STE]

@dhl , @L0STE is this still under consideration?? i can try to do this

Hey @Shubbu03 thanks for wanting to contribute! This is still under consideration but since it's a major rework of the current dashboard we're not accepting any external PRs

[Shubbu03]

ohh sure @L0STE