The Boston Globe Calendar Section Redesign
Event Listings Page Redesign
Redesigning the event listings was the most complex aspect of the Calendar redesign project. Addressing the range of issues raised involved editorial and production changes, as well as shifts in advertising policy. One of the most positive outcomes of the redesign project was the basis for collaboration that it helped establish.
One of the most significant issues with Calendar's event listings had to do not with the typography per se (although there were certainly issues there), but rather with the order and organization of the pages in the section. Let me explain: Prior to the redesign, the order of features was as follows: cover, FYI (the contents page), Dining, Cheap Eats, and cover story. Then the event listings would begin. A few pages in, they would be interrupted by The Week spread (a.k.a. Calendar Choice). The listings would continue for a couple more pages and then you would come to the Recordings (a.k.a. New on Disc) and Nightclubs pages right next to each other. The listings would jump again, but this time they would jump not just over two feature pages but would actually leap frog over other listings. Why, you ask? Because the prior redesign had dictated that music-related listings begin immediately after the Nightclubs page. So what would happen is that the museum listings would jump over as many as eight or nine pages, with Recordings, Nightclubs, and the music listings tucked in between. Worse yet, the listings would have to jump again — this time over four pages of personal ads — before they would finally come to an end. Needless to say, all these jumps made locating event information exceedingly difficult.
Page toppers indicated what category of the listings you were in the midst of ("museums," "music," etc.), but when one category ended and another began, there was no adequate provision for dealing with that. Having a strip all the way across the top of the page also took up an unnecessary amount of space.
The main category headings in the listings were named confusingly and the heirarchy of categories and subcategories was inconsistent. For example, there was a main category heading named "Classical," but another named "Music." Yet a third read "Concerts." To make it more confusing, "Rock," "Folk," and "Jazz" were listed as subcategories of "Concerts." Another case: There were two categories for dance: one named "Dance" and the other named "Dancing." Another case: "Performance art" was listed as a subcategory of "Classical." You get the picture. A clean-up was long overdue.
Previously, museum and gallery openings were placed under a separate subcategory called "Openings." This meant that if the Museum of Fine Arts had an exhibit opening that week, then it would be listed under "Openings," but if it didn't, it would be listed as usual under "Museums." If a reader didn't happen to know there was an opening at the museum, s/he might assume the listing had been omitted.
Solutions Proposed
The first order of business was to reorder the book so that the event listings could flow sequentially and relatively uninterrupted. Leapfrogging of event listings over other event listings was elminated; more flexible design rules were established; and the personal ads were moved all the way to the back of the section, where they benefited from better visibility.
The hierarchical organization of the listings themselves was also addressed so that placement made more intuitive sense. Common topics were consolidated and the titles themselves were reviewed to make sure they were easy to understand. Major categories were broken down into smaller, more logical sections. This made the listings as a whole easier to scan.
Take a closer look at the event listings typography...
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