Wow… there is nothing like spending a few hours with a room full of cycling enthusiasts on a cold dark day in Daventry to pick up warm vibes – the energy is amazing and there is a wealth of constructive feedback too! There must be a name for an event organiser collective but I am not sure what it is but they are definitely a power group of willing volunteers who are not afraid to say it as it is – a great test bed for a demo for some XN Creation new software.
XNCreations founder Aaron Bird recently had the opportunity to present to 60 event organisers and members of the Cycling Time Trial Association (CTT) – the Governing Body of Time Trialing at the Hellidon Lakes hotel. The aim of the day was to offer insight into how CTT event organisers can interact with the CTT commissioned Event Time Trialling website (XNCreations exclusive build).
The brief was to give an instructive presentation that was engaging and informative and that made the task of listing an event and attracting event participation less onerous and less labour intensive. The challenge was that the potential audience held a broad spectrum of knowledge that ranged from those who are IT savvy to who “know nothing and are not engaged with technology”. The solution was to present a series of online tutorials (built in advance and incorporated into the new website build - designed and constructed by XNCreations), that provided an engaging visual and audio learning resource. The session proved to be really productive both for the user and the designer.
XNCreations have produced 15 tutorials so far and Aaron signposted the audience to these. The visuals were helpful in demonstrating the simplicity of, and benefits of, online event listing. There are now plans to design more tutorials which will be annexed on the main CTT website, based on the feedback from the audience. What also came from the day was to provide a “sandbox” test site to allow organisations to test events and provide them the confidence to use the system.
Aaron says “with over 20,000 users, 2,000 events listed and more than 500 organisers listing, it can be a little daunting for new users. The website we have designed has the user needs at its heart. The CTT does not want new users to feel intimidated and our aim is to develop an ongoing interactive site that offers every user benefit, support and collaboration. Presentation days like this are so helpful and permit us to showcase the essence of the ethos of XNCreations – talk, listen, understand real world problems, absorb user feedback and provide the technical solution. It was a useful day – as a keen cyclist myself I found it invigorating- the CTT are great clients and by designing the website with the user in mind, I look forward to helping this worthy organisation and their volunteers increase their membership and contribute in a small way to encouraging time trialling participation.