Why Splitting Ticket is Important for Moviegoers? — a UX Case Study
Exploring the possibility for a better experience on watching movies at the theatre.
Is there anybody that never went to the theatre to watch movie? I believed most of us have been there for at least once in our entire life. For those of you who never go to theatre, I tell you a secret: you should try!
And for those moviegoers what is your worst thing that you ever experienced? Me, personally, missing the movie because I have to wait my late friends outside the theatre. I was the one who bought the ticket, I cannot enter the studio because my friends’ ticket is on me.
For the one who took watching movie is more than just an entertainment it’s like a nightmare if we miss some part of the movie, even if it just a tiny part, it can ruins the whole story. Which it can ruins your whole experience to come to the theatre again with your late friends.
The moment where we should have a good time can be ruined.😭
My personal experience above made me wonder, is there anybody out there that experience the same pain? So, I initiate this UX case study to find out whether any of us had something in common.
First thing first: Research
Intro: The relation between human and movies
First, I look for a reason why we will always can enjoy movies. I found out the answers are varies; it can be because movie is a complete form of art, we can learn anything from movie, and escapism or giving a break for a real life for a while.
Because somehow, as a human, storytelling is all we need. It is a basic need for us.
Then, I do some research on why if we miss some part of movie it can changed the whole story, and why the beginning part is vital.
It is because most of the movies that screened in theatre is using this called three-art structure story method. Where the timeline story divided by three parts:
The first act is usually used for exposition to establish the main characters. The second act, also referred to as “rising action”, typically depicts the protagonist’s attempt to resolve the problem initiated by the first turning point. The third act features the resolution of the story and its subplots, here is where the climax happens or we can call it resolution.
This is why if we miss some part of the movie — which is the beginning part can changed our perspective on the whole story, because that is where the intro happens, the characters are being established. That’s why the beginning part is crucial.
User Research
Moving on, in this user research part, I conducted an online survey on my instagram. The majority of the research outputs come from qualitative research that I did, but qualitative research respondents are based on quantitative research that I did earlier.
The aim of this survey is to:
1. Find out who are the moviegoers,
2. Get to know how their experience as a moviegoers so far,
3. Define their pain points and needs,
4. Determine a set of actionable solutions to improve their experience.
Based on a sample group of 25 individuals. I summarised the general overview below:
- People still go to theatre, because the experience is just different from watching it at home.
- Less distracted when they watch movies at theatre.
- The production house/entertainment company still released their movies at the theatre first despite there are some web streamer available nowadays.
- Don’t want miss the hype! We like it or not since the internet and social media existence people are more afraid when they missing something. Yup, the FOMO of the individuals are increased.
- Buy their tickets collectively.
The Important Stage: Define
Next step is to compile feedback from user research to become the basis for every possibility to improve the experience. Referring to survey answers, the pain points have become visible and the user needs can be identified.
Please be noted, that today we can buy our ticket theatre online. We don’t need to queue anymore. With this online booking existence it should solved all of our problem, right? We can buy ticket seamlessly, just within taps or clicks. But wait, let see pain points below that might give us new insight about how easy this booking online become.
Pain Points
- 72% missed their movies. From 25 individuals, 18 of them had experience missed their movie because they have to wait for their late friends outside the studio.
- Gave their friends’ tickets. The rest 6 had no experience missed their movie because they have to wait for their late friends outside the studio. But the interesting part is, 5 of them were entering the studio ahead and gave their friends’ ticket to the theatre’ employees. Only 1 that was faithfully waiting.
- Buy tickets collectively is sucks. Somehow, with the online booking solution the number of people who bought their ticket collectively are increased because how easy it is. Nevertheless, this made the possibility risk of the late company also increased because the group doesn’t have to be present at the theatre at the first place to buy the tickets.
- I’m done!😤 I prefer to watch alone. Some of the people decided to watch alone after they had a bad experience that mentioned earlier, because they don’t want to repeat the same experience again. There is nothing wrong with going to the theatre alone, but this is should be taken as a concern if you decided to go to the theatre alone after had a bad experience watching with your friend. This shouldn’t be happened, because everything is always better when it shared, and watching movies with your friends is no exception.
Needs
- No more missed a movie because of an external factor. They really hope to not miss another movie because something that is nothing to do with them.
- Worries free when watch movies as company. They felt the difference when it comes to experiences watching movies as a group rather than alone. It is always better. People are enjoying it, until somebody ruin it.
Main Focus
After looking at the research outputs, I come up with the idea to the possibility of splitting the tickets for all the moviegoers to improve their experience.
Why we should split it?
- Watching movie at the theatre can be categorised as a collective activity that include more than 1 individuals. This makes most of the moviegoers buy their tickets collectively. That’s why splitting tickets can give big impact to them, because it can reduce the dependency number to other people.
- By splitting their tickets, moviegoers don’t have to deal with the external factor that can be causing a possibility of their bad experience. So, no more worries for them.
Sometimes I wonder why in the online booking app (tickets) there is no feature to split their bookings?🤷🏻♂️
The Exciting Part: Design
I feel equipped with my background research, now I can start working on the design. In this design process I used Sketch.
The color composition of this app will be white and red.
Why red? because it can have meaning: excitement, which it reflects how we feel when we are waiting for the movies.
Why white? because It looks clean and I want user to feel the simplicity and minimalism when they use the app.
I should only design the splitting part, but I add some screen for other features also:
Homepage
Homepage screen design in details:
In this homepage there will be several information and action that user could do.
Features:
- In Theaters Now. User can see what movies that now showing at the theaters.
- Coming Soon. User will be informed what movies that will be released soon.
- Trailers. User can see what the latest trailer that has been released by production house/entertainment company.
And other information that exist are user location and notifications. The location will automatically update based on the GPS device if user give permission to the app. Next, notifications will contains promo information etc.
In this homepage screen there will be 4 buttons on the menu: Movies, Theaters, Chat, Ticket.
Buttons:
- Movies. This is where user will be informed what movies that are now showing, coming soon, and trailers upcoming movies.
- Theaters. This is where user will get the information about movie theaters.
- Chat. Because watching movie at theatre I considered as a collective activity why we are not add chat room for the user, it can be used to discuss a movie, appointment, and splitting their tickets.
- Ticket. This is where user can see their purchased tickets whether it is upcoming tickets or history.
Booking
Booking screen design in details:
In this booking screen user can watch the trailer by clicking the header. There will be details about the movie underneath the header which contains rating, genre, duration, rate category, synopsis, director, and even cast.
The available schedule will be the white box and the unavailable scheduled will be the grey box (disabled). The chosen scheduled will be the red box. After user select the schedule there will be floating button at the bottom contains the selected movie and selected theater. User have to tap the button to continue to the next step — select seat.
Checkout
Checkout screen design in details:
Like the usual checkout form, this checkout will contains information of the items that user will buy and needed to pay.
Splitting the ticket
There are 2 ways for user to split their ticket. First, user can send it from their chat room like picture below:
Second, user can split their ticket from the Ticket section like picture below:
The explanation of splitting ticket feature:
This is the feature that can be used as the answer all of the problems that have been mentioned earlier.
This ‘split’ feature can help moviegoers to prevent from having an unpleasant experience because of an external factor and worries free when they watch movies with company.
In this app user can split their ticket into two ways:
- From the chat room. User can send their friends’ ticket just like they sharing image or anything else on the messaging chat they used daily. Just tap the “+” button and the ‘Send Ticket’ will appears, then choose the ticket that they want to send. And that’s all of it. The ticket seamlessly split and sent to their friends.
- From the Ticket section. User just picked their ticket and in the ‘Ticket Details’ section all they need is to swipe right send the ticket, then choose the recipient. Finished. Eventually, problem solved!
My Learnings
In this mini-project, there are so many things that I have learned. Conducting a research is a very important because it can be used as a basis of our hypothesis and build our empathy so it can help us to know the context of the problem that our user is facing, this is where we defines our user pain points, needs, etc.
Stay curious and always exercise your critical thinking, it can help the way we see and solve the problem.
I hope in my future project I can do more extensive research and deeper analysis need to be in order to define and validate the design solutions.
Don’t let bad experience stop you from having a good time.
Thank you for reading!
Sorry if I caught you in this long case study. If you have any feedback don’t hesitate to contact me through my twitter (@nrendiansyah) or my dribbble (dribbble.com/rendiansyah). Cheers!🍻
