OVERVIEW

“Movie theaters aren’t dying — they’re evolving”

PROBLEM

Rise of Streaming

Streaming services have made it effortless to watch a movie anytime, anywhere. Today in 2024, theater attendance remains far below pre-pandemic levels².

PROJECT

Punk Cinemas

A mobile ticketing app for a movie theater chain mirroring the ease of use found in streaming services while promoting offerings that make the cinema an experience like no other.

ROLE

Product/UX Designer (team of 1)

SOLUTION

SOLVING PAIN POINT 1/6

"Selecting seats on a phone feels so difficult."

Accidentally tap on the wrong seats?
‍
Prevent this by expanding your screen for a larger view and just in case you'll also see a helpful warning modal.

SOLVING PAIN POINT 2/6

"Not sure when I can buy tickets for upcoming releases."

Set alerts for when your most anticipated movies have released tickets.

SOLVING PAIN POINT 3/6

"Finding parking adds a lot of anxiety and time to their commute."

Find directions to the theater and parking info directly on the ticket itself. Access useful details about the theater’s parking structures, parking fees, validation and more.

SOLVING PAIN POINT 4/6

"It’s difficult to look through all the seats and showtimes at once."

Filter by seat availability and other offerings to quickly find the best quality tickets for you.

SOLVING PAIN POINT 5/6

"Coordinating tickets with friends can be a hassle."

Invite more friends to join your booking and reduce back and forth communication about time, location and seat numbers.

SOLVING PAIN POINT 6/6

"Purchasing tickets takes too long."

Clean UI to make checkout fast and simple.

EMPATHIZE

First, I needed to understand my users.

I ran one-on-one user interviews with 5 people to understand their current experiences.

What motivates people
to head to the movies?

What runs through their mind while booking tickets?

What issues do they face from booking tickets till they're in their seat?

View all interview questions

My users had a lot to share with me.

Observing patterns in their responses and behaviors, I synthesized my findings into 6 key pain points:

The mobile view of the seat selection feels difficult to use.

Hard to tap on correct seats, especially when there’s no zoom capability.

Unsure when to purchase tickets for upcoming movies.

End up missing out on popular releases they wanted to see.

Finding parking adds a lot of anxiety and time to their commute.

Unexpected parking fees, full lots and traffic are all good reasons for them to just stay home instead.

It’s difficult to look through all the seats and showtimes at once.

Clicking on each showtime at each theater to view available seats can get tedious.

Coordinating tickets with friends can be a hassle.

There is a lot of communication that needs to happen to find a movie, time, place and seats that everyone agrees on.

Exhausted looking through long texts and snack offerings

Even if they plan on buying concessions, skipping through pages of promotions while booking tickets makes the process feel arduous.

INSIGHTS

People are driven to theaters for the contagious community energy.

More likely to watch a movie everyone seems excited for in theaters than at home.

Word of mouth was the most persuasive reason to buy a ticket.

Will check ratings and values the audience score but word of mouth takes the cake.

Let’s take a look at the user journey of Lauren Cho -

An avid moviegoer looking to watch a movie with her friends this weekend.

I identified opportunities to improve the user journey every step of the way:

DEFINE

I had my findings, so it was time to specify the user issues with problem and goal statements.

View problem and goal statements

I began to define the direction the app was heading:

IDEATE

Before I got to brainstorming specifics, I took a look at the competition.

View full competitive audit

What did they get right?

1. Logical Booking Flow

After selecting a movie, most apps had a clear set of steps to follow to purchase tickets.

2. Key features

The ticketing apps included useful features such as pre-ordering concessions and filtering through movies.

3. Information abundance

Details about movies, theaters, showtimes and rewards are all present on the app.

What needed improvement?

1. Dense and overwhelming UI

Too many details at once, distracting the user from the main objectives.

2. Accounting for accessibility

Small touch targets, images and text on key icons and movie posters.   

3. Social component

Limited or unclear features and incentives for group orders.   

I now had enough context to start building.

I began ideating with rough sketches on features, layout and user flows.

I kept referencing my user research to form informed solutions to pain points.

The Graveyard

There were some ideas I kept and even more I scrapped. Here are a few:

Pitch a time, date and seats to a friend and once they accept the request, the ticket is automatically purchased and confirmed.

This feature was to simplify communication and expedite booking.

But what happens when someone want to edit the time, place or movie? I felt it may lead to a similar amount of back and forth communication.

Time related reminders such as when to leave the house and when the movie was about to begin.

This feature was to help users reduce stress by helping them arrive to theater on time.

The users I interviewed said this would likely add to their stress especially when they are late due to unforeseen circumstances.

Have your friend’s seat preferences available when you are selecting seats.

This feature was to allow people to quickly pick seats without sending each other multiple screenshots.

While this is still a valid user issue, I felt this solution caused more confusion in the app’s UI than clarity - making it easier to just communicate directly.

Having seat selection be two steps - select section then seat.

This feature was to provide users larger touch targets for seat selection.

It seemed visually excessive for an auditorium that is much smaller than the size of a concert hall.

TEST

I conducted 2 rounds of usability testing with the same 5 participants.

View all usability study questions

I consolidated feedback and observations that were repeated by a majority of users in order to decide what changes to make:

FEEDBACK

“I’m not used to typing in my seat so I’m likely just going to try zooming first.”

CHANGE

I removed this option and inferred one of the underlying user concerns with “tap to select” was mistakenly booking seats that are not together so I added this warning modal which had positive reception.

FEEDBACK

“I don’t think I’d ever click into the coming soon section”

CHANGE

I repositioned this section as part of the continuous vertical scroll on the home page.

FEEDBACK

“Not sure about the difference between the share icon and ‘share ticket’ button.”

CHANGE

I made changes in the copy to communicate the “share ticket” CTA is a way to invite a friend to their booking by quickly sharing details such as seat info, screening time, and location.