<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">Hi all,</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">I have been tasked with evaluating the /events section of webmaker.org and deciding whether it is in need of a rewrite or not. I've been speaking with some people throughout the week regarding the current state of /events. There are two big problems with /events currently:</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">1) Some basic CRUD functionality isn’t working, which is (understandably) frustrating people who use the page often</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">2) The map has major usability issues, especially on mobile devices</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">The first point can be fixed pretty easily without requiring a total rewrite. The usability of the map, on the other hand, is a bit more troublesome to fix. There has been feedback from maker party hosts and partners which states that the map is very difficult to use. It’s pretty much impossible to navigate on a mobile device unless it’s a tablet with a large screen. There isn’t any way to just get a list of events that are upcoming, near my location, or both; all data is displayed via the map and its tooltips. As a method of searching for events, the map is kind of useless. Plus, how do we show virtual/non-physical events on a map?</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">I was thinking that instead of trying to make the map work for us, we ditch the map as the main event interface. Instead, we can show a list of upcoming and/or nearby events. The inspiration for this design is taken from ‘Find nearby stores’ that many retail store websites seem to have these days. For example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/1l45bwx23dw5ub5/2013-11-08%20at%201.58%20PM.png (of course, it wouldn’t be this ugly on wm.org!)</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">I think featuring a more usable method of searching/listing events on the /events page would be much more valuable to people who make regular use of our event system. All the location data is already stored in our database, so listing the data in a list rather than on a map should easier to accomplish and maintain than dealing with Google’s API and its many quirks.</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">We can also change our data entry for events to allow for easier sorting. Currently, we take the event location as a street address. If we split the event location between fields such as city, country, postal code, etc, it would be easier to sort & search events by those fields.</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">Another benefit of removing the map would be having more screen space to highlight more important content. Amira suggested featuring things such as blogs/pictures from events, upcoming events in your area/upcoming features events, more visibility to event guides, and the like.</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;">Just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts/opinions about this! If you couldn’t tell, I think this is a great idea!</div><div id="bloop_customfont" style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial;font-size:13px; color: rgba(0,0,0,1.0); margin: 0px; line-height: auto;"><br></div><div class="" id="bloop_sign_1383928643454753024"><span style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:13px"></span>-- <br>Dale Karp<br><br></div></body></html>