A visitor who lands on your timed ticketing page has three questions: can I come on the day I want, at what time, and what will it cost my group? A good page answers all three before they scroll. A weak one makes them pick a ticket type, then a date, then find out the 11:00 slot is full, then start over.
The layout matters, but most of the work happens in Altru before anyone touches the website. Below is how we think about it, in the order the decisions actually come up.
Get the Altru side clean first
Whatever sits on your website reads from how timed admission is set up in Altru: your scheduled programs, their events (the individual time slots), capacity, and price types. If those are messy, no page design will hide it.
- Name programs for visitors, not staff. “General Admission” reads better online than “GA-Timed-2026.” If the online form shows program or price type names, those names are your copy.
- Keep price types short and few. Adult, Child, Senior, Member is easy to scan. A list of eleven price types with near-identical names is where people stall. If some price types exist only for the front desk, check whether you can keep them off the online sale.
- Decide slot length and capacity deliberately. Thirty-minute slots with modest capacity spread arrivals out; hourly slots are simpler to read. Either works, but pick based on how your entrance actually handles a line.
- Create events far enough ahead. An empty calendar three weeks out looks like you are closed. Make sure events exist through the window you want people to book.
If you are not sure which settings flow through to your online sales form, buy a test ticket in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support before you build copy around them.
Lead with the date
For timed entry, the date is the first real decision. Put a calendar or date picker at the top of the page, not below a paragraph about parking. Once a date is chosen, show the available times for that day right away.
A few details make a big difference:
- Show availability before the click. Gray out sold-out days and slots. “Few left” on a nearly full slot nudges people to commit; a slot that looks open and then fails at checkout does the opposite.
- Show closed days as closed. If you are closed Mondays, say so on the calendar instead of showing an empty day.
- Use real times in plain format. “10:30 AM” beats “Slot 3.” If entry is a window, say “Enter between 10:30 and 11:00.”
- Put the price near the time. People budget per group. Showing per-person prices next to the quantity selectors avoids surprises at the last step.
Design for a phone
Plenty of timed ticket buyers will be on a phone, sometimes already on their way to you. Check your page on an actual phone, not a resized browser window:
- Can you tap a date without hitting the one next to it?
- Do the time buttons wrap cleanly, or run off the screen?
- Are the quantity controls big enough to use with a thumb?
- How many screens does it take to go from landing to paid?
Embedded forms inside an iframe are a common trouble spot on mobile. If yours scrolls inside a box within the page, visitors will lose the “Continue” button. Test it.
Handle members without a detour
Members tend to visit often, so a clumsy path costs you their goodwill more than anyone’s. Decide your policy first: do members reserve a free slot, pay a reduced price, or just walk in? Then say it at the top of the page in one sentence, with a clear path for members. If members need to log in or enter a member number to get the right price, tell them that before they pick a time, not after.
Write the page copy that sits around the calendar
Keep it short, and place it where the question arises:
- Above the calendar: hours, closed days, and whether timed tickets are required or just recommended.
- Near the times: what happens if they arrive late, and whether they can stay past their slot.
- Near checkout: refund or exchange policy, and what they will receive (an emailed ticket, a barcode to show at the door).
Anything longer, like accessibility details or group bookings, belongs on a linked page, not stacked above the calendar.
Test the whole path, then check Altru
- Buy a ticket on a phone for a slot that has limited capacity.
- Confirm the sale shows up in Altru on the right event, with the right price type and constituent.
- Confirm capacity dropped by the right amount and the slot looks correct on the website afterward.
- Open the confirmation email and make sure the date, time, and arrival instructions are clear.
- Scan or look up the ticket the way your front desk will on the day.
Repeat this whenever you add a new program or change price types. Timed ticketing pages tend to break right after a change nobody tested end to end.
When the built-in form is the limit
Sometimes the Altru setup is right and the page still feels clunky, because the online form controls the layout and you cannot put a calendar where you want it or match your site’s design. That is the gap Calendar Builder is built for: it gives you an embeddable timed-ticketing calendar for your website that shows real-time availability from Altru, so the date-first layout described above is something you can put on your own pages. Altru still holds the programs, events, and capacity.
Quick answers
Should I show a month calendar or a list of dates?
A month calendar works when people plan ahead; a short list of the next several days works when most visitors book same-day or next-day. Look at when your timed sales are actually made before choosing.
How small should time slots be?
Small enough to spread out the line at your entrance, large enough that the page does not turn into a wall of buttons. Your entrance staff will have the best sense of how many people they can admit comfortably at once.
