March 22, 2023 - Events Calendar Module V3 Release Note

ITI Digital Announces the Release of New UX Features for Events Calendar Module

We are pleased to announce the release of a new UX design for our events calendar, now available upon request. Every feature and enhancement of this new release is available to all event calendar subscriber levels. The features are designed to improve the website visitor experience with a modern and mobile-friendly design.

Why Make The Change?

Our product and engineering teams always strive to release updated design options and enhanced features to our events calendar. This version is not shy of relevant features our savvy traveler audience expects.

In addition to design updates and options, giving further flexibility to our clients to select a design they like best, this new version also includes important software upgrades. 

New User Features

1. New Event Listing Styles

Two modern and new design options for your list display, including a new look for Featured Events tags and an enhanced mouse-over zoom effect on desktop screens. You can expect the same modern look and feel for mobile phones but specifically designed for those screens.  

2. Powerful Events Map

Switch to the Map View for a new, improved mapping page, displaying a chronological list of events in your destination geo-area with a newly designed scrollable discovery user experience.

3. New Event Detail Page Layout

• Add to Calendar / Save The Date Feature: Visitors now never miss an event with our powered Add to Calendar feature. Visitors to your website can now save the date and add events from your website directly into their calendar tool of preference.
• Event-Specific QR Codes: Event Detail pages are also more visual, including a larger section for event descriptions, a dedicated event-specific QR Code for easy access on mobile devices, and improved page loading.
• Larger and more reader-friendly event description area. 
• Upcoming Events sidebar, allowing for cross-promotion and engagement on site. 
• Ticket and Event Hosts are easily accessible and highlighted. 
• Add to My Trip - for accounts that also subscribe to ITI Digital's Trip Planner DXP Module.
   

4. New Scrolling Events Widget

With the new UX version enabled, users of the events calendar can take advantage of our new turnkey scrolling widget display. This allows destinations to promote most upcoming or featured events in other areas of their website, such as a Homepage featured events promotional section. 

Technical Upgrades

• Faster performance. Built on Angular's latest version (15). Compared with the previous Angular architecture versions, it has improved in functionality, security, performance, and other deployment aspects.
• Improved Lazy Loading technology, fundamentally to improve the program loading speed. With other optimization methods, the module and widget loading speed increased by about 200%.
• Introduced the use of state management development procedures. These procedures make the information flow between the dashboard and frontend widgets more concise and efficient.
• TailwindCSS is introduced to improve the consistency of style and make it easier to control responsiveness on multiple screens and devices.

What You Must Know - FAQ

1. Is the new UX immediately available on my account?

Yes, you will need to change the List style to the new UX (two options) of your choice directly in the client dashboard, as shown below. The event detail page and the map view will be updated automatically, but you can still use any pre-existing listing style of your choice. 

6. How can I use my website's new Scrolling widget format? What are the steps?

This is only available if you switch to the V3 version. Most destinations choose to have an upcoming/featured events section on their homepage. We believe this is a fantastic strategy to promote the calendar and keep visitors engaged on your destination website. 

If you wish to integrate this new available widget format, please let our team know when you request the UX version update. Our support team will provide a dedicated "Scrolling Widget" code that you can use for embed. 

• This is a very similar code to the events calendar widget list. 
• You can send this code to your technical or web team if you work with a web agency. 
• If you have worked with us to integrate your widget, let our support team know so we can assist with this particular integration.