doindublin.ie - new event guide for Dublin

kobay

doindublin.ie

Yeah, I know. Another event guide! Buuuut we think we got the mix right after looking at the alternatives out there.

We felt that answering the question 'What's on this weekend in Dublin' is harder than it should be so we came up with doindublin.ie

What makes us different from what's out there?

• Clutter free. Focus on what the user wants - events, dates, cost, location.
• Minimal. Again reduce friction between "I want to do something" and "I found something to do!"
• Submissions should be easy. We believe we made them so.
• Visuals. Images are mandatory and we think this policy is win-win. For us it makes for a nicer site, for the event owner having an image increases interest 3000%*. (*I made that up, but a lot!)
• Up to date and relevant. There's nothing more frustrating than clicking 'events this weekend' and getting some exhibition on viking ships that started 8 months ago. We're building filters so you seperate what's on now with longer running events and categories that appeal to broad demographics.

Did we get it right? Would really appreciate your feedback.

(NB: Privacy policy and cookie notice are in the pipeline).

jebuz

Nice design, feels fresh but to be honest the homepage is way too busy and far from clutter free. The golden rule "Don't make me (the user) think" needs to be applied because I really didn't know where to start, the "Do" and "Go" menu options, whats the difference? Don't you have to "Go" somewhere to "Do" something? either merge them or rename, confusing. You could just simplify the landing page, display a simple form where you enter a date (or range) and then find me events in X category, that's all the user is there for.

You said it will be up to date and relevant but the first thing I clicked on was DO > FREE EVENTS and I see 4 events that have already happened in the past. It should be very simple for a developer to ensure past events not being displayed.

Good luck with the venture, I like your mission and I believe there is a gap there because too many event sites over-complicate. I think if you keep your goals focussed as above but simplify, there's no reason why it can't succeed.

kobay

Cheers for the feedback, jebuz!

We've changed the homepage about 4 times already and we're probably poised for a 5th. As we add new features - blog, discussion board etc - we run into the problem of where to place them relative to everything else.

On your points:

> The naming was based on the idea that we "Do" something as opposed to "Go" somewhere. But then we thought, as you did, hey sometimes we "go" to see a film and we "do" coffee. Confusing, you're right. Changed to something clearer.

> The first few results in the Free events category are ongoing exhibitions. So the start date is September etc but they run until January. This is the bit we're trying to get right. We know users usually aren't after these long running exhibitions (although sometimes they are) but we don't want to exclude them from the list. One way we've mitigated this is with the What's on 'This week, 'This weekend' menu options, this filters for events happening now and excludes these type of long running events.

> We'll get to the clutter. Right now the slideshow at the top of the page is really just a rehash of 'Do in Dublin' picks further down the page. It just links to events. What this should be is a portal to other areas of the website, similar to how entertainment.ie and others do it. So the Blog and discussion modules on the front page could be replaced with links to each sections, freeing up the home page. This change is in the pipeline.


Thanks for taking the time to reply, we'll keep optimizing until we get it right.

uglybunz

Firebug Net tells me that the homepage is 3.7MB in size... you are using lots of LARGE images as thumbnails, stuff like 850px × 315px (scaled to 80px × 80px). Your site will be a dog for people using 3G or slower feeds.

Your theme does some weird things when adapting to smaller screens.

For an events site to work it needs to fly on mobile devices, imo, as you're going to be in demand by those who are out and about?

kobay

Hey uglybunz. On mobile the site should render a 'light' version averaging about 1130kb. Better, but still an area we can improve on.

On smaller screens - when the screen is rotated the full site should render on *most* devices but we're noticing a disjointed layout on smaller devices (iPad mini etc). Should be fixed shortly.

Thanks for the feedback.

bdo

Guys,

Like what you have done, it is very bright and snappy.

Two things:
- I think you are wasting the above the fold space with the gi-normous (only) two rotating banner ads. These could be much smaller.
- The most prominent area of the homepage that my eye was drawn to was: "Who does the best cup of coffeee in Dublin?" I clicked on it ... and nothing happens! Again this is wasted precious real estate ... why don't you fill it with interesting/popular questions that people will ask ... but click through to an answer!

jebuz

Good to see you taking feedback so well and being proactive about it, it's really refreshing.

On the "ongoing" events situation, it is a tough one alright but how about (if you know the end date) just displaying the date as a range, e.g Sept 23rd - 30th, it's pretty clear that the event is still ongoing and also lets the user know when it's ending.

Best of luck tackling the clutter, first step is realising it's there and accepting it so I'm sure you'll sort it out. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress and really hope it works out for you. These things take time to get right, you're working incrementally and asking for feedback which a good logical and pragmatic approach, it's something I would definitely use if you got it right.

kobay

Hey, checking back in after yet another facelift. Took a lot of feedback from above and other sources and focused on bringing the focus to the events and added some filtering on the homepage.

Would be great to get some input to see if we've got something you guys would use.

Cheers!

jebuz wrote: »

Good to see you taking feedback so well and being proactive about it, it's really refreshing.

On the "ongoing" events situation, it is a tough one alright but how about (if you know the end date) just displaying the date as a range, e.g Sept 23rd - 30th, it's pretty clear that the event is still ongoing and also lets the user know when it's ending.

Best of luck tackling the clutter, first step is realising it's there and accepting it so I'm sure you'll sort it out. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress and really hope it works out for you. These things take time to get right, you're working incrementally and asking for feedback which a good logical and pragmatic approach, it's something I would definitely use if you got it right.

smcelhinney

More of a technical criticism, but you have a LOT of inline javascript and CSS in your source code, which is not good practice for caching.

Also, the "Feedback" button messes with other links when your responsive breakpoints kick in, making it difficult to select things like the drop-down menu (which I personally dont like and behaves erratically across mobile OS) and other page links.

From a visual perspective, on the homepage there seems to be a 2 level hierarchy. Most prominent: that which is in the carousel (for carousels in general, read this), and those content spotlights most of which appear below the fold on standard resolutions. While the fold is becoming less and less important in terms of highlighting content, giving equal weight and prominence to all of the content spotlights on your homepage, makes it very difficult for a user to discern logical groupings of content. Consider maybe using coloured backgrounds to segregrate content that is logically grouped together, even a subtle gradient similar to the Stripe website.

Think about how your users view the content, what is most relevant, and how you create logical groupings of content. Otherwise, the page becomes overloaded with objects of, seemingly, equal relevance.

kobay

Solid feedback smcelhinney!

Fixed the feedback button and will get to the inline script.

We're introducing something a little prettier and more useful than the carousel shortly - agreed that it's occupying valuable real estate.

Any more suggestions appreciated.

smcelhinney wrote: »

More of a technical criticism, but you have a LOT of inline javascript and CSS in your source code, which is not good practice for caching.

Also, the "Feedback" button messes with other links when your responsive breakpoints kick in, making it difficult to select things like the drop-down menu (which I personally dont like and behaves erratically across mobile OS) and other page links.

From a visual perspective, on the homepage there seems to be a 2 level hierarchy. Most prominent: that which is in the carousel (for carousels in general, read this), and those content spotlights most of which appear below the fold on standard resolutions. While the fold is becoming less and less important in terms of highlighting content, giving equal weight and prominence to all of the content spotlights on your homepage, makes it very difficult for a user to discern logical groupings of content. Consider maybe using coloured backgrounds to segregrate content that is logically grouped together, even a subtle gradient similar to the Stripe website.

Think about how your users view the content, what is most relevant, and how you create logical groupings of content. Otherwise, the page becomes overloaded with objects of, seemingly, equal relevance.