If there's one thing we're regularly praised for, it's the depth of our events calendar. We have nearly 3,000 local events a week, all neatly categorized -- everything from the big show at the AAC to the elementary school spelling bee.
But, if there's one thing we're regularly criticized for, it's that it gets increasingly hard to separate your wheat from my chaff when trying to use such a broad and deep calendar.
Solving this problem is tougher than it sounds. We've been working at it for some time. And, frankly, we still haven't completely licked it.
But, we think we're making some steps in the right direction with our new event search, and we'd like to ask you to help us take it the rest of the way by experimenting with it and helping us understand what will better help you plan your evening and/or weekend.
We're working on a screencast to better explain it, but the general idea is that in addition to searching by keyword or browsing the full list, you can narrow by:
- A date or range of dates
- A geographic radius
- A broad or narrow category or categories of event
Used right, this is a very powerful tool. For instance, you can search for jazz, family and dining events near your house next Sunday.
It's that "used right" that we're still concerned with. The new interface is powerful, but complex. We're not sure that it's intuitive enough. But, we're not sure how to simplify it without neutering it.
So, we're doing something we've shied away from in the past -- We know it's not "done," but we're punting it out there anyway. We're hoping you'll play with it and give us some feedback on what works; what doesn't; and what, if anything, is confusing.
A few things we already know we need to do: We're going to create some deeplinks to the most commonly-sought event types like concerts and plays. And we need to make the map feature a little more intuitive.
But while we tinker, please kick the tires. We could use some fresh eyes and ideas...
Comments
Scott Doyle Verified
Mike, goofed off with it just for a couple of minutes. Immediate things I believe would be nice (if attainable):
It's good to see the proximity of my search hits relative to my location. Also, I typically plan with other people in mind, so it'd help to be able to email them the results and point out ones I would like to try out. Not sure how feasible this stuff is - like I said, would simply be nice.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Thanks, Scott:
The results displayed on the map is something we have in the works.
The email thing can be made more elegant. If you do a search and copy the results page URL up top from your browser, you can email that to a friend. But, an email button with a less ridiculously long link would be good.
So here's the URL for a search for country music or jazz or family events near my house for next weekend:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/sea...
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
oic, then I'd say simply note on the page to copy and paste URL in order to share. Peeps can create a hyperlink in their email if they're that worried about length, imo.
Might consider including Pegasus Picks as one of the categories...I wouldn't mind seeing anything and everything y'all endorse that's going on during that time-frame.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Catte_Nappe Anonymous
Cool tool! It's pretty good. Tried all events with "Halloween"; and events in Arts with key word "theater".
Only problem I had was looking for "business" events. It wasn't clear whether I could look at all business related events, or had to choose one of those on the second menu that popped up.
No matter what I did I got a lot of arts related events - galleries and such. Who decides what category an event falls in? I'm sure to a gallery owner the current show is definitely "business" for him; but it isn't "business" if I'm looking for seminars to help me in my business.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Catte_Nappe: Can you post an example link of a business-arts crossover? Thanks!
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jeremy Dunck Staff
I suspect Catte_Nappe ran into a bug; sometimes the category selections from the previous search sort-of stick right now. I just need to deploy an update; David fixed that earlier.
But I'd gladly accept an example of how I'm wrong.
As for results on map, no, actually I hadn't been thinking of doing that. I think the map would have to be much bigger for that to be useful. I guess we could do it, but what would the markers need to convey, other than simple location? Times? Cost?
And yeah, a checkbox for only peg picks would be an obvious improvement.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jeremy Dunck Staff
OK, the new code is out, so the category sticking should be fixed.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Jeremy, any reason you couldn't have results display on a map with larger dimensions but zoomed at the same level of the one being searched? I have no clue, you're the expert - just an idea.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Oh, to address your actual question, I don't even see a need to identify the marker until you hover (similar to the garage sale and drink special maps). The text details currently retrieved do the elaboratin', simply need to see how things layout relative to your origination. If instant identification is a must, might try numbering results and display those. Seems unnecessary, though, especially if it could be setup to where there's a button in the event details that finds it on the map (basically exactly how you search locations on Google Maps).
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Rather, how you search businesses on Google Maps. Sorry, had a few and it's past my bed-time.
11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Collin Gouldin Verified
I never used the old event search, So i don't really know how this is different... But its very in depth and very easy to use / get around....
Great job guys!!!
11 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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