One of the (many) perks of working at Splash is being able to stay ahead of the data curve. We have the luxury of seeing what types of events some of the largest companies in the world are hosting and play a hands-on role in bringing those event programs to life. Having access to the backend of all of these scaled event programs our customers are running, the Splash Creative team has been able to gather copious amounts of data from the most successful events. This data provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what factors really matter when it comes to designing event pages that turn registrations into live attendance.
One of our goals at Splash is to make the event registration process as simple, memorable, and joyous as the event itself. The key to accomplishing that goal is creating aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-navigate event pages that make registering for an event easy. However, this is much easier said than done, so you’ll want to grab a few tips on what it takes to design event pages that convert.
The events with the highest attendance rates nearly all utilized sans-serif typefaces. Some of these were custom fonts for the brand, some were open-source web fonts, and a few were system fonts. Out of all the individual fonts used across these events, 87.9% were sans serifs while only 3.6% were serifs. Additionally, 2.5% were monospace, 3% were scripts, and 3% could only be considered display fonts, though these did not include simple condensed sans serif typefaces used for titling. Those listed as display fonts included typewriter fonts, experimental or avant-garde typefaces, or otherwise decorative types.
Based on these findings, clearly legible sans serif typefaces designed specifically for rendering online are most commonly associated with event sites, and should be considered.
How many questions to ask on a preliminary event registration form can be a contentious topic. Our advice is to collect the bare minimum amount of information from the registration page to achieve the highest conversion rate. If there are additional pieces of information that are absolutely essential, send a follow-up email with a link to a standalone survey. It gives the guest the feeling that they are being specially taken care of, leads to more registrations, and even gives a slight sense of exclusivity. Out of the most successful events, 85% asked 10 or fewer questions, and 87% asked no conditional questions, providing an extremely straightforward registration flow for their guests.
The on-page button is probably the most important element on the event page if a form modal is being used. It needs to be absolutely unequivocal to invitees where and how to click to register for an event.
The actual label text needs to be obvious and clear: Full phrases or sentences are better served as text above a button. For instance, “Be sure to register your spot today!” works better as a line of bold copy above a button than as the button itself. By far, the most common label length is just four characters, appearing in 36% of events, and in almost every case these four characters are “RSVP.” The average button label length for successful events is 10 characters, and the median length is six.
It is important that buttons stand out from their background so that they are easy to find when scanning a page. Hover states help with this, of course, so button colors change when the mouse passes over the button, but color contrast between the button and the background of the page also helps tremendously. Of the most successful events, 65% pass the stringent Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standards for text, which usually measures the difference between the thin stroke of text against its background, not the broad field of a large button against a page background.
On mobile, it is important to ensure the surface area of the button is large enough to accommodate touch interactivity. 59% of top events expand the width of the RSVP button to 100% of the width of their containers (in every case, the width of the screen with just a small margin on the left and right edges). 29% use an automatic width, meaning the button is large enough to contain the label plus some expanded padding on the left and the right to increase its size (just not to the full width of its container, but almost).
One of the factors by which we quantified visual hierarchy was through the distinction between the size of page titles and body copy, creating dynamic page layouts with clearly differentiated sections and obvious, unequivocal importance of information. Type size contrast also contributes to clear page rhythm and well-defined content archetypes. 82% of successful pages used a type size contrast of more than 2:1, and 52% had headers more than triple the size of their body copy.
Splash recommends larger titles and section headers, at least relative to body copy. In order to create accessible sites, it is recommended that body text should be at least 16 pixels (or 1 rem). By this measure, a good title size might be 3 or 4 rems.
In terms of content order, while possibilities for content combinations are endless, 99% of top sites started with either a navigation or simple header content first, displaying the event title, date, and location. The other 1% launched a registration form on a welcome modal as guests arrived to the page.
In short, it is important to consider rhythm when creating event pages. Use type sizes and styles that are clearly differentiated between headers and copy and be sure to include as much of the important “what, when, where, and how” information in the cover block as possible.
We tracked two factors that contribute to legibility: line length and color contrast. The typographer Robert Bringhurst, author of The Elements of Typographic Style, suggests a line length of 66 characters as the perfect readable measure. This is because longer lines cause the eye to become lost when scanning back to the start of the column, and shorter columns result in a staccato reading rhythm. Other factors contribute, such as the space between lines, the size of the type, and even the typeface. The recommended range for web typography is between 45 and 95 characters, as user experience research suggests that reading speed and comprehension actually maximizes at 95 characters per line. To quantify this, we observed line lengths on a 1400-pixel desktop screen, which is relatively large. Only 4% of top Splash sites have a character count that falls below this range, and 27% fall above.
In addition, we tracked trends regarding the color contrast of type. 79% of top sites pass the standard contrast recommendations as suggested by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, meaning that there was sufficient depth and tone difference between the background color and the color of the body copy. The remaining 21% of sites have moderately contrasting type, with only 1% falling below a ratio of 2:1.
Splash recommends setting maximum widths on columns of text, and to consider columns of text or content, depending upon what types of content is needed for your event, and to use colors within your brand that provide the greatest contrast between background and font colors.
Successful events consistently leverage a few key tactics in email design, content, and cadence that are useful in producing effective event programs: email length, fonts, and the usage of a value reminder email.
The average character count of emails for top events is 1,115 characters: almost exactly the length of four tweets. As usual, shorter is more effective. The median length of all emails for the top events is only 638 characters.
Although Helvetica Neue is the default font in the Splash email tool, it is most closely associated with successful events. 79% use Helvetica Neue in some capacity, which is a stark contrast against the second most commonly-used font: Arial, which is only used on 4% of the top events. 12% use image-as-text, which is only recommended sparingly and only with alternative text provided to ensure that emails are accessible to wider audiences.
Value reminders are considered those emails which function to not only remind guests that they have an event coming up for which they are registered or to garner a few extra RSVPs from invitees who are as-yet undecided, but which offer some new information or offering to guests. 67% of top events leveraged a value reminder email, and some examples of this include emails that detail new giveaways or perks, activities, speakers, surprise guests, sessions, and more.
In addition to world-class service, the Splash Creative services team is armed with industry knowledge around best practices for web design. We have a lot more where this came from, so feel free to reach out if you’re ever curious about color theory as it pertains to event websites, or what types of fonts are most commonly used on events.
Special thanks to Aidan Zanders and Mon Liang, both creative designers at Splash, for research assistance.
Alex Zahradnik is an interdisciplinary designer and community organizer, currently working as Senior Designer at Splash, collaborating with others at the Design Activist Institute, and consulting with brands to help them become more future-friendly.
