Event editor changes
Sometimes you need to shuffle forward just to come back again.
When we rolled out our new Events at the start of 2017 it came with a new text editor for the description. We were so taken away with the editor that Medium had rolled out that we though it would be nice in an area where we didn’t think needed to be overly technical.
That is you highlight some text and up will pop some formatting options to Bold, italicise, link etc. We thought it was pretty neat and would simplify things, it would also make the public facing side much cleaner and better for supporters to get the information they want and get out.
The first little thing we noticed was that administrators weren’t looking for a way to edit like this — they were conditioned to see the formatting options staring at them when they first opened a window. Not hunting for them, some found it totally by mistake.
We also didn’t have the option to drop in images (along with editing source code, tables etc) into the event description. We were willing to sacrifice this in the name of progress. We also had a gorgeous header image where we thought people could drop in additional sponsor logos or whatever else they thought appropriate.
What we instead learnt was that not everyone knew of Photoshop or Canva, nor did they want to. They had several images they had been sent, and they just wanted to upload them. Typically people don’t put in the time to get the high resolution images that make the site look ‘oh-so-good’ — even with Unsplash.com giving a great head start!
So we have, with a big swallow, reverted back to our old editor, although with a big update to make it work and look a bit better.
While allowing more functionality back into the platform will no doubt throw up more support issues for us, with the description blowing out with oversized images and tables amongst other things, ultimately the flexibility it provides over ruled this.
Going backwards from a complex offering to a simple one is much more difficult, so always start simple, learn, iterate. That being said, we’re glad folks are happy with this change.
We are learning that trying to be the one simple place for administration requires complexity. It’s hard to avoid, but it’s also why people enjoy using the platform.
