Performance Platform Interface Updates

What’s Changing in the User Interface

A guide to visual and behavioral changes following our framework upgrade

Overview

As part of ongoing modernization of the platform, we have upgraded the underlying interface framework. This is the foundation that controls how buttons, tables, menus, and other on-screen elements look and behave. This upgrade brings improved accessibility, a more modern look, and better long-term support. Because the new version makes some design decisions differently from the older one, you and your users will notice a handful of small changes in everyday screens. None of this changes how the platform works — they affect appearance and minor interactions only. This document walks through each change: what you’ll see, and why it’s happening.

At a glance, the changes fall into these areas:

• Links — when underlines appear
• Widget expand control — the icon used to open details in a table row
• Pagination — new “First” and “Last” buttons
• Table sorting — a new third sort option and a shifted indicator position
• Alert colors — messages now follow the active theme more consistently
• Confirmation pop-ups — button order has flipped
• A refreshed look — major areas of the platform have been visually modernized
• New feature — self-service branding

Links and Underlines

In the previous version, links inside content areas (such as the Training Summary widget) appeared underlined only when you hovered your mouse over them. In the new version, some links are underlined by default.

This is an intentional accessibility improvement built into Bootstrap 5. Accessibility guidelines recommend that links be distinguishable from surrounding text by more than just color, so that people who are colorblind can still identify them. Underlining links inside blocks of text satisfies this.

We have applied a thoughtful, context-aware approach rather than underlining everything:

• Links that sit inside paragraphs and body text are underlined by default — this is exactly where the accessibility benefit matters most.
• Links that sit in lists, cards, and navigation areas (where every item is already obviously a link) are underlined only on hover, keeping those areas clean and uncluttered.

This mirrors the approach used by modern, widely respected applications such as GitHub, Stripe, Linear, and Notion, and remains fully aligned with accessibility standards.

Widget Expand Control

On tables that can expand a row to reveal more detail, the small control used to open the row has a new appearance. Previously it showed a green circle with a plus sign. In the new version it appears as a small triangle/arrow.

This is the standard icon provided by the updated table component we now use. The behavior is unchanged — selecting the control still expands the row to show additional information.

Pagination Controls

Tables that span multiple pages now include dedicated “First” and “Last” buttons in addition to the previous page-by-page navigation. This makes it quicker to jump to the beginning or end of a long list.

You first noticed this on widgets, and you can expect to see the same improved controls across the platform as the upgrade rolls out everywhere.

Table Sorting

A new third sorting option

Previously, clicking a column header toggled only between ascending and descending order. The updated table component adds a third state, so each column now cycles through three options:

• Unsorted — the column’s original order (both arrows appear faint)
• Ascending — sorted low-to-high (up arrow highlighted)
• Descending — sorted high-to-low (down arrow highlighted)

Clicking a third time returns the column to its original, unsorted order. Previously the only way to clear a sort was to sort by a different column, so this is a genuine convenience improvement — it simply looks a little different from what users are used to.

Position of the sort indicator

The small sort arrows are now positioned based on how a column’s text is aligned. For normal left-aligned columns, the arrow appears on the right of the heading, exactly as before. For right-aligned columns (typically numeric columns), the arrow may appear on the left of the heading, following the text.

This is standard behavior of the updated table component and is widely considered acceptable, since numeric columns are conventionally right-aligned. If a consistent right-side placement is preferred to match the old look, a small styling adjustment can enforce that — it is a design preference rather than a defect.

Alert and Message Colors

On-screen alert messages (information, success, warning, and error notices) now draw their colors directly from the active visual theme. In the previous version, each message type often had a fixed color regardless of the theme.

The benefit is consistency: change the theme, and alerts update to match automatically. The one thing to be aware of is that because alert colors now follow the theme, a theme that defines an unusual color for a message type will carry that color through everywhere that type appears.

Confirmation Pop-ups

Confirmation dialogs — such as the “Are you sure?” box shown before deleting something — now place their buttons in a different order. Previously the confirm button (e.g. “Yes”) appeared on the left and cancel (“No”) on the right. Now cancel appears on the left and the confirm/primary action on the right.

This follows the modern convention of placing the primary action at the far right of a dialog, with cancel on the left. It applies consistently to every confirmation dialog across the platform, including all delete confirmations.

A Refreshed Look Across the Platform

Beyond the individual behaviors above, several major areas of the platform have been visually modernized as part of this upgrade. Your day-to-day workflow and where things live stay the same — what changes is a cleaner, more current appearance.

Navigation, banner, and page frame

The “shell” is everything that stays on screen no matter which page a user is on. Every part of it has been rebuilt on the new framework for a consistent, modern appearance:

• The top banner and the main menu/navigation bar across the top of the screen.
• The header search bar.
• The user-settings menu (the panel that opens from the account area) and the sign-out/exit options.

The most notable change is a new navigation option. Alongside the traditional menu that runs across the top banner, a left-hand vertical menu is being introduced. Campuses will be able to use this side menu as an alternative to the top/banner menu, giving users a familiar, modern sidebar-style way to move around the platform. The top menu remains available — the left-hand menu is intended as an option, not a forced replacement.

The menu’s drop-down behavior has also been rebuilt on an updated menu engine, so expanding menus and their sub-items continue to work smoothly. Further refinements to the main menu, the bar above it, and overall theme defaults (such as fonts and font sizes) are continuing as part of the broader modernization effort.

Home consoles and widgets

Consoles are the main landing and working screens, and the widgets (sometimes called “bricklets”) are the individual content blocks that make them up. These are the screens users interact with most, so this was the first and most extensive area of the modernization.

Every console and widget has been rebuilt to the modern look, with consistent layout, spacing, and styling throughout. Because these are the highest-traffic screens, this is where users will notice the refreshed appearance most in their day-to-day work. The widgets continue to do exactly what they did before.

Dashboards and reporting

The dashboard — the visual, at-a-glance view of key metrics and data — has been rebuilt on the new framework, and its rendering is complete. Specifically:

• The dashboard filters (the controls used to narrow down what data is shown) have the updated styling and behavior.
• All chart widgets have been migrated and confirmed working in the new look, including standard charts and pivot-style charts.

The underlying data and results are unchanged — only the appearance is refreshed. Please note that the shared report-management screens (the report listing page, scheduled reports, and the save-report dialog) are handled separately and may be modernized in a later phase, so those screens can temporarily look different from the dashboard itself.

Development plans

The Development Plans screens have been migrated to the new framework, so they pick up the modernized styling, layout, and controls used across the rest of the platform. The way development plans are created and managed is unchanged — the update is to their look and feel.

New Self-Service Feature

Self-service campus branding

A new branding wizard (currently in Beta, within the Admin area) lets campus administrators customize the look and theme of their campus directly, without needing to request changes.

Dedicated login-screen logo

Branding now supports uploading a separate logo for the login screen, independent of the banner logo — so the sign-in page can display a different logo if you choose.

Summary of Changes 

If you have questions about any of these changes or would like to discuss preferences such as the sort-indicator placement, please reach out to support or to your account contact.