After: Redesigned event page highlighted premium editorial events and differentiated design from sponsored client events.
Before: 2021 event page lacked differentiation and interest.
My experience redesigning the Events page (a blog)
The Industry Dive Events page houses in-person and virtual events within our sites. Over the years, our newsroom reevaluated Events product strategy and increased in-house virtual events, such as panel discussions, roundtables and etc. The goal of this work was to redesign the Events page to drive traffic and signups while accommodating a wide variety of event listing types.
Expand project goal to support all editorial Events
We learned that the most crucial pain point was we lacked differentiation between event types. This is because over time our event product has evolved. Initially, the main goal of the event page was to list all relevant events in the industry. Due to the amount of maintenance this required, we shifted to primarily promoting sponsored events. While the content strategy changed, the design did not. This led to a design that was lacking in event detail hierarchy and indistinguishable event types.
We kicked off the discovery phase of this project by interviewing two editorial team members; this step was essential to understanding the vision for an upcoming editorial event. The conversation focused on understanding the current workflow and identifying user frustrations.
Now with the product focus shifting to editorially driven events, the new design solution needs the ability to emphasize in-house events and provide clear distinctions from sponsored events.
From these initial conversations, we quickly realized that the value of this project was far greater than a single event facelift. This was an opportunity to redesign the events page to align with our new product strategy across all 26 Dive publication sites.
The prospective stakeholder count grew six-fold
By expanding the scope of this project to include all events, our target stakeholders grew from two editors to involve six departments, including Sales, Editorial, studioID, Ad Operations, and the Lead Promo team.
Speaking to department heads at VP and Director level was daunting, but eye-opening at the same time. I found it fascinating to read beyond what was listed in product tickets and get high-level insight into how they evaluate business impacts.
We used our conversations to learn about their roles, and understand how they work with Events. Based on all stakeholder needs and priorities, a successful redesign would need to answer the following:
How might we differentiate event types so readers can clearly distinguish in-house from client-driven? We need to define and provide a design solution that clearly distinguishes the options for our readers. Doing so would improve readability and generate more interest from our readers, as a result, lead to more engagement.
How might we elevate and promote high-priority events? Our previous design for promoted events only accounted for sponsored vs. non-sponsored listings, our new solution needs to accommodate all types of events. The ability to promote high-priority events gives us greater visibility with readers and gains leverage when speaking to prospective clients.
How might we Increase the utility of the events page and provide more value to our audience? Other than hosting event listings, we wanted to figure out how to provide additional values and avoid user dead-ends.
Design outcome:
With the user problems defined, we ideated the design components with the goal of solving our central “how might we” statements. The new design introduced updated features for all Event components, including the event landing page, sidebar boxes, and newsletter callout slot.
Differentiate event types
The design iterations started with improving the event listing hierarchy from the Sidebar Box component. I chose this approach because I’m inspired by the mobile-first design philosophy; designing the component with the most demanding screen size forces me to prioritize event date recognition over event name as a core user need.
Introduce new components
Featured event spot – I added a featured spot to give us the flexibility to promote high-value events of our choosing. This spot is given the prime real estate of the page, it is much larger in scale and lands above the page fold.
Date callout with styling differentiation – I introduced a new date callout component to our design library. I created two variations for this component, one with higher color contrast to highlight editorial events, and the other with a softer touch for client-driven events.
Increase the utility of the page
Library content – To ensure value no matter the quantity, I added previous webinars from our Library at the bottom of the page.
Share event CTA – I added a call to action to urge prospective clients to promote their events with our publication. Previously, this was merely an email link underneath the page title, now we have a dedicated spot to funnel prospective clients to our Advertising department.
As a first-year product designer at Industry Dive, the complexity of this project challenged me in more ways than I could imagine. Navigating the delicate balance of business goals and user needs helped me make decisions rationally and move forward with user needs in mind.