Rethinking Event Discovery
Context
Platform:
ontariocolleges.ca
Users:
Prospective students exploring post-secondary education opportunities in Ontario
Scale:
Serving Ontario’s 24 public colleges and supporting
millions of student interactions annually
Role:
Product Designer
My Contributions
- Product Design Lead
- User Journey Mapping
- Information Architecture
- Event Discovery Strategy
- Calendar Experience Design
- Interaction Design
- Wireframing & Prototyping
- Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- Design Systems Integration
- Stakeholder Collaboration
Team:
Product Manager • Developers • Content Specialists
Challenge
The primary challenge was information density. Traditional calendars place event information within the confines of a date cell, creating a scalability problem as the number of events grows. I needed a solution that could clearly communicate the presence of events on a given day, indicate event volume, and provide access to event details without overwhelming the calendar itself.
Approach
Rethinking the Calendar Experience
The initial event calendar concepts followed a traditional calendar pattern. While familiar, they required users to repeatedly navigate between dates and event details, making exploration feel fragmented.
Rather than treating the calendar as a collection of dates, I reframed it as an event discovery experience. Selecting a date surfaced available events within a dedicated panel, allowing users to browse multiple opportunities without losing their place in the calendar.
The resulting design combined the familiarity of a calendar with the efficiency of a content browser, reducing navigation overhead while improving discoverability and supporting future growth.
Reimagined a traditional calendar as an event discovery tool, helping users explore opportunities without sacrificing context.
Scalable Event Components
The calendar experience required more than a way to display dates. Users needed clear access to event details, registration actions, audience restrictions, and event-specific information across a variety of scenarios.
To support this, I developed a flexible event card system capable of adapting to different event types while maintaining a consistent user experience. Standardized patterns for metadata, calls-to-action, notification states, and audience-specific messaging ensured that new event formats could be introduced without requiring additional design work.
The system also accommodated days with high event volume by surfacing events within a dedicated content panel, allowing users to browse multiple opportunities without overwhelming the calendar itself. By treating event cards as reusable components rather than individual screens, the platform gained a scalable foundation for future growth while preserving consistency and usability.
Outcomes
The concept received strong support from stakeholders and team members, who responded positively to its balance of usability, scalability, and visual impact. The design successfully demonstrated how a traditionally dense calendar experience could evolve into a more engaging event discovery tool while accommodating future growth.
Ultimately, project priorities shifted toward rapid MVP delivery. Given competing development timelines and broader platform requirements, the team elected to implement an out-of-the-box calendar solution to reduce implementation effort and reserve resources for other critical launch features.
While the final product followed a different path, the exploration remains one of my favorite solutions from the project. It demonstrated an alternative approach to event discovery that balanced information density, accessibility, and scalability without sacrificing user experience.