From Quell to Quell Gen 2.0: How Zendesk Help Center Themes Have Evolved

Zendesk themes have changed a lot as businesses have wanted more control over how their Help Centers look and work. Diziana's Quell theme was created to give Zendesk Guide users a way to build a branded support experience that adapts to different devices and screen sizes. It provided a foundation that businesses could adapt to their content, navigation, and branding requirements.

Quell Gen 2.0 builds on that foundation. Instead of just thinking about how a Help Center looks, the new generation has introduced extra tools for managing the visual experience and meeting the needs of customers. Features such as Diziana Creative Suite, four customizable theme colors, advanced customization controls, performance improvements, and AI-focused capabilities expand what businesses can do with their Zendesk Help Center.

Quell and Quell Gen 2.0 are very different. This shows how Zendesk themes have changed a lot. They used to be all about basic visual customization. Now they are more flexible, and you can find content more easily. They also have technology-ready support experiences.

Key Takeaway:

• Quell provides a responsive, multipurpose Zendesk Guide theme that businesses can adapt to their branding, content, and support structure.
• Quell Gen 2.0 expands on the original theme with features such as Diziana Creative Suite and advanced customization controls.
• Gen 2.0 offers four handcrafted theme variants: Cobalt, DeepSea, ReefGlow and Nocturne. These give businesses different options for how their website will look.
• The newer theme adds a stronger focus on performance, SEO, content discoverability, AI discoverability, LLM readiness, and API v4 compatibility.
• The evolution from Quell to Gen 2.0 reflects the shift toward more flexible, visually customizable, and technology-ready Zendesk Help Center experiences.

What Is the Quell Zendesk Theme?

Quell is a Zendesk Guide theme that can be used for many things. It helps businesses to create a Help Center that is more customized and branded. Instead of using the usual Zendesk Help Center look, businesses can use Quell to create a support environment that better matches their brand and organizes their content for customers.

The theme is designed to adapt to different devices, so customers can access support content easily on any device. This is important because customers may use different devices like desktops, tablets and mobiles to look for information. Quell can be used in all sorts of industries and businesses, so it's great for companies that have different products, services, and knowledge needs.

Key Features of the Original Quell Theme

The original Quell theme focuses on the most important parts of a custom Zendesk Help Center.

Responsive Help Center Design

These days, knowledge bases have to work on all types of screens. Quell's design adapts to different devices, so the content and navigation work well on desktops, tablets and mobile devices.

This means that customers can use support resources for any device.

Multipurpose Theme

Quell is a multipurpose theme that can be used in many different ways.

Businesses can adapt the Help Center to suit their own products, services, content structure, and branding requirements.

Branding and Customization

A Help Center is often considered part of a company's overall digital experience. Using a custom theme helps businesses make their website, product and support portal more consistent.

Logo and branding elements help customers see that they are still in the company's official support environment.

Structured Support Experience

The way customers use a knowledge base is also influenced by the theme.

If your website is easy to navigate and your content is organised, customers can find the information they need without having to contact you for help.

What Makes Quell Gen 2.0 Different?

Quell Gen 2.0 is the latest version of the Zendesk help center theme.

The first version of Quell was all about making a Help Centre that you can adapt to suit your needs. The new version, Gen 2.0, has more tools and features to help support teams in the modern world. The new generation focuses on areas such as modern user interfaces and controls, customization, performance, content discoverability, and whether it is ready for artificial intelligence.

Two new features are the Diziana Creative Suite and the ability to customize the color of your themes.

1. Creative Suite: More Control Over Visual Design

One of the most interesting new things in Quell Gen 2.0 is the Diziana Creative Suite.

The Creative Suite provides a visual environment for working with Help Center design elements. It makes it easier for teams to create and edit visual content used in their support experience.

This can be useful when a business needs to update images, visual elements, icons, or other design components as its products and branding change.

For teams that work on support and content, having visual editing tools in the theme ecosystem can make everyday design tasks easier. Teams can make visual changes more efficiently instead of relying on development resources for every small design adjustment.

2. Four Handcrafted Theme Color Variants

Another important customisation feature in the Quell Gen 2.0 theme is the option to choose from four handcrafted theme variants. Colour is important for Help Center branding, especially for businesses that want their support portal to have its own look and feel.

This Zendesk help center comes in four colors: Cobalt, DeepSea, ReefGlow and Nocturne. Each version has its own color combination and design, giving businesses different options for their Help Centre design.

Instead of having a single fixed look, teams can choose the version that best matches their brand and then make further changes to the theme as needed. This makes it easier to create a Help Center that matches the company's branding without having to build the color scheme from scratch.

The four versions also give businesses more flexibility when deciding how their Help Centre should look, while keeping the same design structure across the theme.

3. Modern UI and UX

The Diziana help center also focuses more on the user interface and experience. A modern Help Centre should make it easy for customers to understand where they are, what information is available, and what to do next.

Things like where the user can click to go to the next page, how much space there is on the page, the font style and size, how easy it is to search for things, how the page is organized, and how it looks all make up the experience. The goal is not just to make the Help Center look modern. The interface should also help customers find the information they need more easily.

4. Advanced Theme Controls

Another way Gen 2.0 is different from the original theme is that it allows you to customize things more.

Businesses can change how their Help Center looks and is arranged using theme controls. This makes it easier for teams to adapt the theme to their brand and support structure.

Depending on how it is set up, businesses can work with things like:

• Header and footer layouts
• Colors
• Fonts
• Search elements
• Static content blocks
• Custom content blocks
• Homepage elements
• Social media links
• Navigation elements

This level of control can be useful for businesses that want their Help Center to feel more closely connected to their main website.

5. Performance and Content Discoverability

A Help Center should be useful when customers reach it and when they are trying to find the information they need. Quell Gen 2.0 focuses more on performance, SEO basics, indexing, and making content easy to find.

This is especially important for businesses with a lot of knowledge. As more and more support content is added, customers need easy ways to find the information they're looking for. A well-designed Help Centre can help with this by making it easy to find your way around, keeping content organised, offering a search function, and using a theme that helps people find the content they're looking for.

6. AI Discoverability and LLM Readiness

One of the main differences between traditional Help Center requirements and newer support environments is the growing role of AI.

More and more, customers will find answers to their questions using search engines that use artificial intelligence (AI), as well as tools that allow them to chat with the computer and get help automatically, instead of going through a list of questions and answers.

It has features that make it easy to find things using AI and get ready for LLMs. The plan is to make Help Center content easier to find using modern technology, but keep the Help Center as the main source of support information. This is a big change in how knowledge-base design is done. Content now needs to be useful for people and computers.

7. API v4 Compatibility

Quell Gen 2.0 works with Zendesk's newer API standards. If your organization uses integrations or plans to expand its Zendesk environment, it is important to consider API compatibility when choosing a theme.

It can provide a stronger foundation for businesses that want their Help Center to work alongside other tools and services within their support ecosystem.

Why Help Center Themes Are Evolving

The things that customers expect from a company that provides support for its products and services have changed a lot over time. Customers now expect websites to be modern. They want support experiences to be simple, quick, and easy to use. At the same time, businesses are dealing with more information and using technology such as AI-powered search and automated support.

This means that Help Center themes now need to think about more than how they look.

Important areas include:

• Responsive design
• Navigation and usability
• Brand customization
• Theme flexibility
• Performance
• Search and content discoverability
• SEO
• AI-supported content discovery
• Integration and API compatibility

These changing requirements created the need for newer approaches to Zendesk theme development.

What Does Evolution Mean for Businesses?

The move from Quell to Quell Gen 2.0 shows a bigger change in the role of Help Centres. A knowledge base is more than a collection of articles. It can be an important part of the customer journey, brand experience, and self-service strategy.

Businesses may therefore need to consider questions such as:

• Is the Help Center easy to navigate?
• Does it provide a consistent experience across devices?
• Can the design reflect the current brand?
• Can support teams make visual changes efficiently?
• Is there enough control over theme colors and visual elements?
• Can customers discover relevant content quickly?
• Is the knowledge base prepared for AI-powered discovery?
• Does the theme support the organization's current Zendesk setup?

These questions can help businesses see if their current theme still meets their needs.

The Future of Zendesk Help Center Themes

The change from Quell to Quell Gen 2.0 shows how Help Center design is changing. In the past, there was a lot of focus on things like how websites look on different devices, branding, navigation, and how content is presented. Newer themes need to consider those fundamentals while also addressing performance, advanced customization, AI discovery, and evolving customer expectations.

Features such as Creative Suite and customizable theme colors also show that theme customization is becoming easier for teams that manage Help Centers regularly.

As customer support teams start to use more AI and other digital technologies, Help Center themes will probably become more important in how customers and technology interact with knowledge content.

Conclusion

The way Zendesk Help Center themes have changed over time shows how customer expectations and support technology have evolved. The original Quell theme gave businesses a flexible, multipurpose, and customizable base to create a Zendesk Help Center that reflects their brand.

Quell Gen 2.0 builds on that foundation with more features, including Diziana Creative Suite, four customizable theme colorsf, a modern user interface and experience, advanced theme controls, performance and content discoverability improvements, AI discoverability, LLM readiness, and API v4 compatibility.

If you're a business looking at Zendesk Help Center, understanding this change can help you work out which features are most important for your current support, branding, and content management needs.

FAQs

1. What is the difference between Quell and Quell Gen 2.0?

Quell is a responsive, multipurpose Zendesk Guide theme focused on branding, customization, and content organization. Quell Gen 2.0 builds on this foundation with additional capabilities such as Diziana Creative Suite, advanced theme controls, four handcrafted theme variants, AI discoverability, LLM readiness, and API v4 compatibility.

2. What color options are available in Quell Gen 2.0?

Quell Gen 2.0 offers four handcrafted theme variants: Cobalt, DeepSea, ReefGlow, and Nocturne. Each variant provides a different color combination and visual style that businesses can use as a starting point for their Zendesk Help Center design.

3. What is Diziana Creative Suite in Quell Gen 2.0?

Diziana Creative Suite is a visual design tool included with Quell Gen 2.0 that helps teams create and edit visual elements for their Help Center. It can make tasks such as updating images, icons, and other design components easier without requiring development work for every visual change.

4. Is Quell Gen 2.0 designed for AI-powered Help Centers?

Yes. Quell Gen 2.0 includes features focused on AI discoverability and LLM readiness. These capabilities are intended to make Help Center content easier to discover and work with through emerging AI-powered search and support experiences.

5. What customization options does Quell Gen 2.0 provide?

Quell Gen 2.0 provides advanced theme controls for elements such as colors, fonts, header and footer layouts, search elements, content blocks, homepage elements and navigation. It also includes Creative Suite and four handcrafted theme variants for additional visual customization.