Sometimes when I’m making changes to a website, I feel like I’m diffusing a bomb. In my head I’m wearing the gear. I’m praying. I’m hoping things go well when I commit the changes. And click! If I see a white screen, I’m dead. Well, not exactly. I know how to recover from the white screen of death.
But my clients don’t.
Asking them to make changes in the code is like handing them a pair of pliers, with the code being several wires. You never know what could go wrong.
A simpler option would be to give them a button. A button in the admin panel is good enough for some. Especially for site owners. But not for the client’s site visitors.
Most clients would prefer providing visitors/users options only in the front-end. They feel it’s an simpler option for visitors and helps improve their experience. And I’d have to agree. An option in the front-end is like a remote control. Visitors can comfortably grab the remote and get work done.
Heck I’d grab the remote given a chance.
In the above three options, the functionality you provide might not be different. The difference is the user experience. A remote in this case would be a simplified user experience. And for clients who offer an e-service, experience is directly proportional to customers. The better the experience, the more the customers.
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Improved User Experience = More Customers
Let’s take the case of an Event Management Service website. We know a top-notch event management service website on WordPress can be built with the Event Espresso plugin.
Event Espresso is a really awesome plugin. And we recommend it often to clients looking to build an event management website. It offers many features to easily manage event registration and attendees.
Most clients focus on adding functionality. And while that’s swell, we often recommend certain features targeted to simplifying the event management process. These features are especially needed for clients offering event management as a service to others.
Based on the client feedback we’ve received, we’re sure these features would help you too.
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Event Espresso Tips to Simplify Event Management
#1 Limiting User Roles and Capabilities
Event Espresso adds several options in the admin panel. These options, which include ticket and attendee management, can be set by the site admin. But for an event management service website, the site owner would want to allow several other users to set up and manage their own events.
In such a scenario, each user can’t be created as an Admin level user. Instead a new user role has to be created with defined capabilities. The Event Espresso Roles and Permissions Basic add-on can be used here. It adds an ‘Espresso Master Admin’ user role. You can limit the capabilities of this user role and assign this role to each registered event manager.
This feature is needed more so to improve security. But it improves user experience as well, because the options in the admin panel are fewer for users to work with.
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#2 Allowing User Details to be Edited in the Front-end
When a users registers on your site, the only way the user can change his/her personal details is by going to the back-end. Using a Front-end user editor plugin, you can allow users to edit their details from the front-end.
The website’s front-end is well within a user’s comfort zone. And a user is sure to be happy with having such an option.
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#3 Allowing Events to be Created in the Front-end
(Need I say more 🙂 )
A necessary feature on an event management service website, is the option to create and events from the front-end. Event Espresso has an add-on for this- the Front-end Event Manager add-on.
This add-on allows a user to setup the event, add event details, add a venue, create tickets directly from the front-end. I’d say this is a must-have add-on.
But yes, if you want to use this add-on, be sure to add a membership plugin to restrict event creation to registered members.
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#4 Auto-filling Event and Ticket Details
An event management service website has several users who create and add events. Every user generally has a preference for event settings. For example, Event Registration options, e-mail templates, ticket ranges, and so on.
By default a user has to fill in these details each time he/she creates an event. But instead, a better option would be to allow each user to save these settings as a template. The values present in the template would then be auto-filled each time the user creates a new event.
This can surely save a user’s time, thus improving his/her experience.
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These features may not seem vital. They are not actually. But they are important. Ask an iPhone user. They’ll tell you. 😀
Meanwhile if you’re looking to get these features implemented on your event management website, you’re on the right track. But for those of you still have your doubts, or questions, or suggestions (even better), be sure to leave them in the comments section below!
