Best Thinkfic Apps for Optimizing Site Design
Written by Casey Botticello
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CASEY BOTTICELLO
Founder, Blogging Guide
The Thinkific app store provides course creators with a wide range of solutions to enhance their offerings. There are platforms that assist with the building of online communities, apps to help streamline business operations, and even email and marketing tools to make it easier to attract students and enhance the learning experience for students.
There are also those apps that serve the purpose of helping you enhance the design of your Thinkific website. What are some of the best Thinkific apps that fall into this category and why are they necessary? Our research has uncovered a number of platforms that can help you add all kinds of useful features to your Thinkific websites and make them more user-friendly. But before revealing the list, let’s explain why site optimization apps are often necessary for Thinkific users.
Importance of Site Design in Thinkific Courses
In the past, Thinkific users would have to search for a third-party solution on their own to add a blog, pop up field, or slideshow to their website. They would also need to have the required coding skills in order to make changes to the website design in order to achieve the desired outcome. The alternative would either be waiting to see if Thinkific adds the functionality eventually or hiring a web developer.
With an app store now offering various solutions that can be used to update or optimize your site design, you can sidestep all that hassle. One only needs to search for the desired app in the app store and follow the instructions in setting it up. In almost every case, you do not need to have any coding skills whatsoever, and many of them can be integrated with your Thinkific website in just a few clicks.
Best Thinkific Apps for Building an Online Community
Having recently launched its apps store, Thinkific keeps adding solutions that can help users offer the best learning experience to their students and members. As it relates to apps for boosting site design, we have compiled a list of some of the best.
1. Flix
Flix is a “Power-Up” app that can be added to the student dashboard section of your Thinkific website. The app’s main purpose is to create an optimal viewing experience for students as they consume your course material. More precisely, Flix organizes your course content into learning tracks that can be streamed from the student dashboard in a similar manner to watching shows on Netflix.
By creating a binge-worthy streaming experience, Flix ensures students are more focused and interested in the material being taught. Flix is easy to install and launch, and allows users to modify the overall colour scheme to suit their brand’s style and design.
The app also comes with built-in themes that you can easily use to customize the app’s appearance so it resembles any of the top streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Disney. In addition, the app makes it possible to create smart tracks that can study student behavior and preferences and then recommend upgrades or what content the student should learn next.
The Flix app is available for a one-time payment of $199.
2. Swiss
At the moment, Swiss is one of the most popular Thinkific apps that can be used to optimize your website design. The app offers over two dozen site builder sections that can be used to personalize the way how students navigate your course website according to their needs. These resources include:
- Smart redirects: There are all of 10 page redirects that can be set up to dictate how visitors traverse and access certain areas of your course website. They include options to guide visitors to an external sales or signup page, page redirects that are based on the enrollment status of students, and page restrictions determined by users’ email address.
- Icon library: Swiss offers an expanded icon library with over 7,800 icons that can be used to customize the sales page of your course website. The list includes icon styles and sizes that are not available in a standard library. There is also more control over icon sizing and color choices.
- Alternative section controls: These include a number of controls that you can use to customize various pages of your course website. You can, for instance, modify specific course card elements, change certain features of the student dashboard so learners can only access content relevant to their individual needs, and add hidden headers.
Swiss is also a power-up app and is available for a one-time payment of $199.
3. Omnisearch
Omnisearch adds a global search function to your Thinkific website, allowing students to find specific information within your course content. The app can locate details related to search terms across PDF and Word documents, as well as audio, video, HTML content, and more. Furthermore, adding Omnisearch to your website allows students to search for information within multiple courses listed on your collections and enrolment pages.
The whole point of the Omnisearch app is to optimize the search functionality for students. It can help them save time trying to recall topics, exact words and phrases in text-based documents, and precise moments in audio/visual content.
Installing Omnisearch adds an advanced search box to your website navigation, complete with filters. All your future course materials are automatically added to the app. There is a 14-day free trial for users who want to try out Omnisearch. Beyond that, pricing for the app starts at $49 per month.
4. Sidenav
Another Power-Up app, Sidenav is a web design tool that can be used to add relevant categories and subcategories to your student dashboard or course pages. The result is a sidebar menu that simplifies navigation for learners or members.
Sidenav is especially helpful in cases where there is a large number of courses or content that needs to be organized. With a more simplified site navigation menu courtesy of Sidenav, users of your Thinkific course or membership website will find it easier to browse your offerings and find information they might be looking for.
Sidenav comes with advanced search and filtering functions to make locating content and materials a breeze. The app also offers a number of features to help you fine-tune your website navigation. For instance, you can create smart navigation groups that are based on student enrolment, and you can group course content using subcategories such as skill level, topic, type of content, etc.
Sidenav can be customized to suit your branding colors and comes with various themes and modes. You can use the app for a one-time cost of $199.
5. Promos Kit
Promos Kit allows you to add a variety of sales and promotional widgets to your Thinkific website. The app comes with an expansive set of features that can help you to optimize each widget to suit any occasion or event. For example, you can design widgets for a Christmas sale event, Black Friday, New Year’s, course anniversaries, and any special offer you may want to use as a promotional tool.
The Promos Kit app also offers a number of components that make it possible to gamify the delivery of your online course. These include countdown timers, disappearing deals, scratch-and-win games, and more.
In addition, users get access to a variety of marketing tools, such as built-in timing controls and Canva templates, to make the widgets more interesting and attractive. Promos Kit is easy to install and fully customizable to suit your brand. As a Power-up app, the tool can be used for a one-time payment of $199.
6. DropInBlog
The DropInBlog app simplifies the task of adding a blog to your Thinkific course website. Instead of trying to configure complex tools such as WordPress, which can take hours, DropInBlog makes it possible to launch your very own blog in as little as three minutes.
The app’s simplicity lies in the fact that it integrates easily with your existing Thinkific website and runs on the same domain. At the same time, it allows you to start creating and publishing blog posts right away, without having to worry about future updates and security tasks.
A main advantage of using DropInBlog is that it helps to boost SEO for your Thinkific site while making it easier for students to engage and connect with your brand. The app is light, packed with useful blogging features, and comes with customizable themes that inherit the look and feel of your brand. There is a 14-day free trial to test out DropInBlog, and paid plans start at $19 per month.
7. Button Builder
Having timely calls-to-action can have a huge impact on the amount of conversions you are able to achieve with your Thinkific course or membership site. Button Builder gives you the option to add a CTA button at any point on your website. The app makes it possible to link to local pages on your website or to external sources.
For example, you can install a button to link to a page displaying all your courses, to help visitors navigate to your signup or login page, or to direct students to your profiles on social media platforms.
Button Builder offers a number of customization options, including button shape, color, icons, animations, and text styles. Furthermore, the CTA buttons can be customized to match your brand’s design. Button Builder can be used with a free plan, but paid plans start at $5 per month.
Conclusion
Thinkific offers various tools that help creators with building their online course or membership website. However, the in-built design options are often lacking certain functionalities that a particular user may be looking for. The solutions listed above are among the best Thinkific apps for optimizing site design, but be sure to do your own research and see what else is available.
