As Craig mentioned we're about 8 weeks out from the launch of Community Manager version 6. It has many great new features and we'll be doing sneak peaks over the next few weeks. In this entry we'll be taking a look at my personal favourite - the redesigned admin interface.

Our customers spend a lot of time on the admin pages and we really wanted to make it fast and simple for them to get their jobs done quickly. With this in mind our goal was to improve performance and provide better usability.

We started by removing the unnecessary weight of the front end banner and menu wrapper that was carried through into the admin area. Theoretically the wrapper makes it easy to navigate between the live site and admin pages but in reality this increases page weight which results in a slower performance .

In place of the wrapper we've implemented a low bandwidth design with consistent navigation and improved cross browser compatibility and accessibility.

Usability testing showed that it was important to maintain fast access between the admin and live site so we've revamped our admin tool bar. It now has a view site link and users are free to add their favourite links. The admin toolbar stays with users across all pages for quick access back to any of the functions, it also has access to the Elcom Forums and Reference site.

Implementation of consistent global navigation and section relevant menus means less round trips and faster access directly to the function or set of functions needed to get the job done quickly.

Stay tuned for more version 6 sneak peaks over coming weeks....