Last week we launched a new design for RSVPs in the Special Events calendar. The ability to create RSVPs has been open to the campus community for a while now so we thought it was time to examine the process again.

Problem with the old design

Most RSVPs that went through Special Events had their own complete look that took over the page and matched the print or e-mail campaign for the event. Recently that has not been the case and we noticed a lot of events going out with the plain linear template. The template wasn't very scannable and was frankly confusing to users at times because the form was below the fold.

Benefits of the new design

The new design has many benefits over the old, if you would even call the old template "designed". The new template has two columns, one for the event description and the other for the form. We found that most often the description and form length are about even which results in a balanced page. The layout of the form is about the same except we styled a few default elements like the first and last name fields to make the form a little shorter. Lastly we changed the submit button to be green and larger. This created an anchor for the eyes at the bottom of the page and a defined call to action.

Benchmarking

There is no way to measure the success of the new design since the number of RSVPs that go out are variable and all have different audiences. Through a brief survey we have found that people using the new RSVP form find it more inviting and have a better overall experience.