Summary
Page Composer arranges My Workspace — the page your team opens to see its numbers and act on them. You choose blocks from a catalogue of live numbers and panels, arrange them on a grid, preview the result with your real data, and publish it to everyone in the workspace. Nothing changes for your team until you press Publish.
Who This Guide Is For
- Administrators and operations managers setting up what staff see first
- Executives who want a focused view of headline numbers and exceptions
- Quality and compliance leads who want readiness indicators on the first screen
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have:
- Permission to edit your workspace design (administrators and operations managers usually do)
- A short list of the numbers and actions your team uses every day
Tip: Ask two or three colleagues what they check first each morning. Their answers are a better starting point than any preset.
Step 1: Open Page Composer
Go to Design OS → Page Composer (/sdp/design-os/composer). You can also open My Workspace
(Operate → Overview → My Workspace) and click Arrange this page.
The bar at the top shows how many blocks are on the page and whether you have unsaved changes.
Step 2: Start From a Preset (Optional)
Open Start from a preset… and pick the closest match:
| Preset | Suits |
|---|---|
| Executive | Headline numbers and exceptions. Little detail, no data entry. |
| Operations | What is overdue, what is blocked, what happened — plus quick actions. |
| Compliance | Readiness and record quality: the things an auditor asks about. |
| Delivery | Teaching and attendance, for people running classes. |
| Getting started | A new workspace — setup progress and the first few numbers. |
Choosing a preset replaces whatever is on the canvas, so skillSYMS asks you to confirm first.
Step 3: Add Blocks
The Add a block palette on the left lists every block you have access to. Use Search blocks… to filter. Click a block to add it to the canvas.
| Group | Blocks |
|---|---|
| Headline numbers | Active learners, Enrolled this month, Active programmes, Pending assessments, Overdue assessments |
| Rates | Completion rate, Attendance rate, PoE coverage |
| Readiness | EISA ready, EISA blocked, Statements of Results ready, Incomplete portfolios |
| Data quality | Missing ID documents, Incomplete learner records |
| Panels | Needs attention, Recent activity, Overdue by age, Getting started |
| Design | Brand health, Experience health |
| Furniture | Quick actions (Add learner, Take attendance, Capture assessment, Run a report), Note |
A page can hold up to 40 blocks.
Step 4: Arrange and Resize
- Drag a block onto another to swap its position, or use the ↑ and ↓ buttons.
- Use − and + to make a block narrower or wider on the 12-column grid. Blocks wrap to the next row automatically.
- On a Note block, click ✎ to write up to 500 characters — a reminder, a contact, a deadline.
- Click × to remove a block.
Every drag action has a button equivalent, so the composer works fully from a keyboard.
Step 5: Preview With Real Numbers
The canvas is not a mock-up. Each block shows your workspace’s live numbers, rendered by the same code as My Workspace. Check that the page reads well with real values — a block showing 0 or a very large number can change what looks balanced. Click View live to open the current published page in a new tab for comparison.
Step 6: Save a Draft
Click Save draft at any time. Drafts are not visible to your team. If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, your browser warns you first.
Step 7: Publish
When you are happy, click Publish. skillSYMS saves the draft and publishes it; a confirmation appears with a link to Open the workspace. Everyone in the workspace now sees the new arrangement.
How Permissions Affect What People See
A workspace has one published arrangement. Each block carries the permission needed to see it, and anyone without that permission simply doesn’t see that block. The top of My Workspace tells them, for example: “2 blocks hidden for your permissions”. If no arrangement has been published, people see the default arrangement for their role.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Totals before exceptions: put exceptions such as Overdue assessments and EISA blocked above headline totals — they are what needs action.
- Too many rates: two or three progress blocks are readable; six are wallpaper.
- Forgetting to publish: a saved draft changes nothing for your team.
- Designing for yourself only: blocks you can see may be hidden for others. Check with a colleague in a different role after publishing.
Verification Checklist
Before moving on, verify:
- Exceptions (overdue, blocked, incomplete) sit at the top of the page
- Quick actions includes the tasks your team does most
- The preview reads well with your real numbers
- The arrangement is published, not just saved
- A colleague in another role has opened My Workspace and it makes sense to them
Next Steps
- Design OS — Themes, branding and accessibility
- Analytics Dashboards — Deeper reporting
- Audit Readiness Checklist — What the readiness blocks help you prepare for