*Scroll to bottom of featured web address to see the BBC Things To Do news widget integrated to the BBC news page on the right hand column.

BBC Things To Do is an activity finder enabling users to discover local activities offered by the BBC and its partners. The site contains thousands of activities and events listings – a number which is expected to grow as more partners come on board.

This part of the project involved creating a portable widget which could be embedded across other bbc.co.uk sites. The Things To Do widget is currently included across all 38 BBC News region indexes, every news story page for each region. The widget can show activities from a range of categories, and includes a location search box, BBC Hands on History and BBC Nature UK. The BBC Things To Do news widget is the highest-traffic project that Aerian Studios has released to date, with up to 1,000 users per second expected at peak times.

Technically the Things To Do news widget development involved the following steps:

1. Multiple layers of caching to protect the Things To Do website from potentially dangerously high levels of BBC News traffic

2. Comprehensive phases of unit testing and load testing to ensure stability and performance of the widget

3. A staged monitored release involving multiple groups across the BBC