JAISON MAFRA
Case Study
Summary
Event Cinemas is one of the biggest theatre chains in Australia with over 140 cinema complexes but their online presence is still discreet. The project started with the following question: How Might we improve the Event Cinemas Online experience?
My Role
This project was made during the immersive UX course at General Assembly. I was part of a group of two people in a sprint of two weeks. I had a part in the whole project, from research, synthesis, ideation, paper prototyping up to Hi-fi Mockup on Figma.
Results
The new app provides some advantages highlighted by our users and observed in the usability testing:
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Friendly Interface
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Easily to find items in each product categories
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Learning curve reduced
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Tickets bought intuitively more accessible
DESIGN PROCESS
Mobile has the worst rating
Event Cinemas has four tickets purchase channels: In-cinema (box-office and totem), Desktop website, Mobile adaptative website and Mobile app. We had some assumptions about the Event Cinemas online presence and due to the short time of the project, we had to decide which online channel would be the most relevant and focus on only one platform. After a survey with Event Cinemas users and non-users, we analysed that 66% of users consider the app experience Very bad, bad or normal. There was the highest rate between platforms. Based on that we decided to start the online changes by the app. Others numbers came up when we started the desktop research, proving the information that reinforced the idea the app has the worst experience:
Event Cinemas app has a rating of 3.0 at AppStore and 3.3 at Google Play.
Hoyts has a simplier design
Competitive Analysis
Hoyts Cinema is Australia is the second largest movie exhibitor, only behind the Event Cinemas. Hoyts had a poor online experience, but everything changed recently when they developed a whole new online experience, releasing a new app in March 2019. Hoyts app is lighter and bets in a lean experience. The homepage is clean showing highlights (promotions and experiences) and it has “now showing” and “coming soon” movies shown in the same carousel of products.
New App from the main competitor: Hoyts Cinemas.
Current App: A bad experience
Contextual Inquiry | Affinity Mapping | Card Sorting
The competitive analysis has shown us a huge difference of homepages and experience between Event Cinemas app and the main competitor, but we still had to test it with our users to understand what makes the experience good or bad and why. We created 3 main tasks for each user. Each user was filmed using the app developing their activity and every observation was organized by groups of “pain points”. Also in this stage, we tested the categories and reorganized during a card sorting session. Based on the contextual Inquiry and the competitive analysis we had some observations of the current app:
Current App Analysis.
Affinity mapping and Card Sorting
Personas
Personas | Value Proposition Canvas
We collected all the findings and condensed in 3 personas: Hannah, Leo and Ana. The persona of Leo was used as primary because he had a goal more clear for this project and encompass other three personas. Leo is a cinema connoisseur. He is always reading about directors, actors and new movies. Usually, he is the guy that people go after when they need some tips about what to watch in the cinema or Netflix. He uses to buy tickets for himself and his partner. All three personas were used for the development of the value proposition canvas, but just Leo persona was considered in the feature prioritization.
FINDINGS
Location First
Survey | Contextual Inquiry
The result of the survey was that users would pick a location first and then select the movie, but during the contextual inquiry, we observed that users didn't select the cinema location as the first option. We decided to add an overlay menu in the main page to prompt users to select a location as the first action. The location icon then stays in the screen allowing users to change the cinema option at any time.
OBSERVATION
When purchasing a movie ticket online, which option would you choose first?
SOLUTION
• Overlay menu that prompt users to select a location first;
• Cinema Location Icon on the home screen.
Tickets still visible but just when needed
App Analysis | Contextual Inquiry
During the current app analysis and contextual inquiry, we observed that the current app has a section in the main area of the home screen for Tickets and food & Drinks bought. It is accessible in cases you bought tickets but useless when you are still trying to find a movie to watch. Our new feature is a ticket tab on the screen that appears just after you complete the purchase. The digital ticket also has a barcode that allows users to access the cinema without the need of exchanging it by a printed ticket in the box office.
OBSERVATION
The main area of the home screen is used for tickets and Food & Drink even if users do not have any purchase yet.
SOLUTION
• Ticket tab appears on the screen after the confirmation of purchase;
• A barcode on the digital ticket gives direct access to the cinema.
Hamburger menu - The last hope
Contextual Inquiry | Card Sorting
Although the Hamburger menu is always accessible it was not used by users to complete the tasks during the contextual inquiry. Instead of that, users tried to find movies posters on the home screen. The visual appeal of movie posters makes people opt for this feature. We decided to remove the hamburger menu and provide all options of movies on the home screen after reorganizing the categories. It makes the browsing task more attractive and intuitive for users.
OBSERVATION
Users prefer looking for movies using its posters. The hamburger menu is the last hope when they can't find what they want.
SOLUTION
• Reorganized categories;
• Remove hamburger menu and provide movie posters in categories on the home screen.
Searching the search button
Contextual Inquiry | App Analysis
In cases users are looking for a specific movie, a significant number suggested that they would use a search button, but they couldn’t find it because it was hidden in the hamburger menu. We then decided to add the search option in a floating action button. The FAB is always visible in screen and easily reachable by users even in cases they are using only one hand to handle the device.
OBSERVATION
A significant number of users couldn't find the search button cause it was hidden in the hamburger menu.
SOLUTION
• Search in a floating action button always on the home screen.
"I don't buy food & drinks on app"
Contextual Inquiry | Survey
One of the steps of the online purchase is Food & Drink but, the contextual inquiry and survey has shown that a significant number of users do not buy food and drinks using the online platform. When users are in the cinema they are immersed in a whole experience and the smell of popcorn is everywhere. The online experience is cold what makes the purchase more logical. Quotes like “is too expensive” or “I prefer to buy in the cinema” came up during the usability testing, justifying the option of not buy food and drinks online. Based on that we decided to replace the catalogue of standard products in this section by a Combo Promo, making it more attractive and appealable.
OBSERVATION
Do you pre-purchase your food & drinks online?
SOLUTION
• Food & Drink combo promo related to the movie user selected.
SOLUTION
Sketching
Sketching | Figma | Moodboards | Usability Testing
We developed a Lo-Fi prototype to run some tests with users. After that, we developed a design studio workshop which gave us ideas for our main solutions.
Moodboard - Inspiration
For this project, we used an iconographic collection as inspiration. After some evaluation, the images collected were grouped in a moodboard.
In this stage our group collaborated together to develop a hi-fi mockup in Figma and usability testing, updating continuously to have the main features and design definitions in the shortest time. The main design created on Figma was used then as a guideline for the interactive mockup on Axure.
1- Location First
Overlay menu that prompts users to select a location first.
2- Location Icon
Cinema location icon on the home screen.
3- Search F.A.B.
Search option in a floating action button always on the home screen.
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4- Ticket Tab
Digital ticket on the screen after the confirmation of purchase.
5- Barcode
A barcode allows direct access to the cinema.
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6- Select your seats
All seats are available in the screen no needing scroll the page.
Current app
HI-FI Mockup
7- Food & Drink
Combo promo related to the movie user selected.
Current app
HI-FI Mockup
Screen-flow - Purchase Process
Next Steps
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Test prototype on the market. An A/B testing to prove the efficiency of the Food & Beverage solution.
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Improve the ticket system allowing people to enter in the cinema using the digital ticket without the need to collect a printed ticket on the box-office.
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Develop research about the login page. This section wasn't covered by this project and probably needs to be improved, based on some answers we got on interviews and contextual inquiry.
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Run more tests to prove the acceptability of the hamburger menu removal.
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Next Feature:
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Events organization - A new feature based on the secondary persona that allows people to create events, coordinate best dates and split payments with their friends.
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