Evening Standard

The Evening Standard is a local, free daily newspaper. Published Monday to Friday in tabloid format in London.

As well as providing up-to-date news, it also provides information on local entertainment.

The London Evening Standard re-launched their website in March 2012. It included a new listings section called 'Going Out'. This gave information about bars, clubs, events and attractions.

This was originally built using their existing CMS. Designed for content publishing and not for hosting complex listing data.

As a result, the section did not perform as well as expected. It often returned out of date listings and errors. Many visitors also experienced a slow search speed.

The London Evening Standard were looking to re-launch their 'Going Out' listings section. With the aim of resolving these usability issues.

The aim of the project was to improve the user experience of the 'Going Out' listings. To create a vibrant directory with a fast search, providing relevant results.

To manage the listings data and the back end of the website our team implemented a Drupal website. Providing the flexible structure needed to develop a unique and responsive listings directory.

We integrated the new platform with the existing CMS. To allow the London Evening Standard team to continue with content driven activities.

Our team also added an Akamai content delivery network to improve the site. Helping it cope during periods of high demand. To improve the speed of the search results, we also added a Solr search.

Thanks to a better performing website. With a friendlier user interface and smooth search functions. Traffic to the site has increased dramatically month by month since launch.

Since that time, we have continued to host and maintain the 'Going Out' site. Due to its increasing popularity a second phase project has been commissioned. The aim of which is to extend the site's current functionality.

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