University Event Calendar System
We designed and prototyped the Columbia University Events Calendar System.
The University Event Calendar System (Bedework) is Columbia University's primary listing of university events. The backend was customized, and we partnered with the Office of Communications with Public Affairs and Academic Services to improve the functionality and accessibility of the product.
From there, we set out to show how the product functions from one page to another through designing and prototyping. We used Columbia's style guide to update the aesthetic, and improved navigation and accessibility.
The old University Events Calendar System had an outdated aesthetic that was not in line with Columbia University's branding style guide.
Furthermore, the user had to go through a long series of actions in order to create an event. Creating an event was a significant hassle for users, who had to navigate through winding sections of text and options that may not be applicable to their event (for instance, ecommerce or promotion).
Improvement: Creating an event is directly accessible from the homepage. The event creation and management process is broken down in chunks.
This way, users can enable which features they want and more easily navigate the process.
We specifically created different tabbing for Event Details, Registration, Ecommerce and Promotion to account for different event needs.
Another issue users had with the old system was difficulty accessing guest lists and registration. The user had to go into their events, go into the system and navigate just to see the event guest registration or make modifications to the list.
In the improved design, the user has easy access to registration via a separate page. Accessing the guest list is streamlined so that the user can view, add and download with minimal clicks and navigation.
We made words larger, made the system easier to scan and increased accessibility. Events and calendars are crucial, rich aspects of the university life experience, and it's important for the event calendar backend system to be easily usable and streamlined.