Community Forums

In redesigning our community homepages (see blue attachment) I went down the rabbit hole of working on our forums page. After interviewing users and observing them through HotJar I think this should be our "home page." Currently, we have no category or tag system in place. I wanted to make sure that was included. We currently don't include photos in our post feed. I wanted to include photos so that the page felt more friendly. After talking with users I made the choice to remove icon-only buttons in favor of menu items with words. This way users could easily read what the button was. This is a sketch exploring layout and color. Feedback is welcome.