Case Study - Metaphys Cinemas’ Ticketing Site
Project Overview
Metaphys Cinemas is an exciting Nigerian film and cinema company based in Lagos. With big plans to expand its business and open new locations across Lagos and beyond, Metaphys is dedicated to providing an outstanding customer experience. One area that customers have consistently expressed frustration with is the ticketing process, which can be slow and inconvenient. To address this challenge and make things easier for moviegoers, Metaphys is looking to create a user-friendly website that allows ticket purchases to be made online. This digital solution not only benefits customers by offering a more convenient way to buy tickets but also saves costs on traditional ticketing systems and related logistics. The envisioned website will provide a hassle-free ticketing experience, where customers can browse movie showtimes, choose their favorite seats, and securely complete their ticket purchases—all from the comfort of their own homes. By embracing this digital transformation, Metaphys aims to improve operational efficiency, reduce wait times, and empower customers to have greater control over their cinema experience. With this exciting move towards a digital ticketing system, Metaphys Cinemas is set to revolutionize the way customers engage with their movies, making it easier than ever to enjoy a night at the cinema.
Project Goals
- Develop a user-friendly website that offers a seamless and efficient ticketing process, allowing customers to easily browse movie showtimes, select seats, and complete ticket purchases online.
- Enhance the overall experience by providing a user-friendly interface, intuitive navigation, and clear information showtimes, seating availability, and ticket prices, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
- Implement features that allow customers to personalize their movie experience, such as choosing preferred seating options and providing feedback, to create an enjoyable cinema journey.
My Responsibilities
- Developing user stories, personas, and storyboards to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience, their needs, and the scenarios in which they will interact with the website.
- Creating wireframes and prototypes that visually represent the layout, structure, and key functionalities of the website.
- Performing comprehensive usability study to evaluate the website’s user experience and identify any areas for improvement. Gathering feedback from users through observation, interviews, and surveys to refine the design, and address any usability issues or pain points.
My Design Process
User Research
Metaphys Cinemas caters to a diverse customer base, with a significant portion of its customers being young individuals residing near higher institutions and vibrant areas. To gain insights into their preferences and pain points, I conducted a questionnaire survey over a period of three days.
The questionnaires revealed valuable information about the challenges customers commonly face, including:
- Difficulty in Purchasing Multiple Tickets: Many customers expressed the inconvenience of purchasing multiple tickets physically, as it can be time-consuming and tiring. They sought a more streamlined and efficient ticketing process.
- Missed Movie Opportunities: Customers often missed out on movie screenings due to not knowing the exact start times. They desired a reliable source of information to plan their cinema visits effectively.
- Desire for Movie Ratings and Reviews: Customers expressed an interest in accessing movie ratings and reviews before purchasing tickets. They wanted to make informed decisions and ensure an enjoyable movie experience.
Using the insights gathered from the questionnaires, I developed user personas that represent the different customer segments. These personas provided a deeper understanding of their needs, motivations, and behaviors, allowing for more targeted and personalized design solutions.
User Personas
Furthermore, I created an empathy map and user journey map based on the personas. These visual representations helped empathize with the users’ thoughts, feelings, and actions throughout their cinema experience. They provided valuable insights into pain points, opportunities for improvement, and moments of delight, guiding the design process towards enhancing the overall customer journey. By leveraging the findings from the questionnaires, user personas, empathy map, and user journey map, Metaphys Cinemas can gain a deeper understanding of its customers and tailor its website and services to better meet their needs, ensuring a satisfying cinema experience.
Empathy Map
User Journey Map
My Insights
During the empathize phase, I gained valuable insights into the needs and pain points of their customers. Through questionnaires and interactions, I discovered that many customers, like Solomon, desired a simpler and more convenient ticketing experience. They struggled with purchasing multiple tickets physically, missing movie showtimes, and wanting access to ratings and reviews before making a purchase.
These insights highlighted the need for a digital ticketing solution that would streamline the process, offer better information about movie screenings, and provide an easier way to purchase tickets. By addressing these pain points, Metaphys Cinemas could enhance the overall customer experience, attract more moviegoers, and reduce costs associated with traditional ticketing systems.
The key takeaways from this research phase include:
- Customers face challenges in physically purchasing multiple tickets and finding seats together for group outings.
- Moviegoers often miss showtimes due to a lack of timely and accessible information.
- Customers want access to movie ratings and reviews to make informed decisions before purchasing tickets.
- The implementation of a digital ticketing system would simplify the ticket purchasing process, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce operational costs.
These insights will guide the subsequent design decisions as I strive to create a user-friendly digital ticketing solution that meets the needs of Metaphys Cinemas’ customers.
Problem Statement
I distilled the insights gained from the empathize stage to define clear problem statements and establish project goals. Key insights highlighted four crucial areas for improvement:
Problem Statement 1: Many customers of Metaphys Cinemas struggle with the process of purchasing multiple tickets physically, resulting in inconvenience and potential errors in ticket allocation during group outings.
Problem Statement 2: Customers often miss movie showtimes at Metaphys Cinemas due to a lack of timely and accessible information about movie schedules, leading to disappointment and missed movie experiences.
Problem Statement 3: Customers express the need for movie ratings and reviews to be available before purchasing tickets at Metaphys Cinemas, as they want to make informed decisions about the movies they choose to watch.
Problem Statement 4: Metaphys Cinemas faces challenges related to the cost and logistical issues associated with traditional ticketing systems, including manual ticket sales and seat allocation. There is a need to reduce these costs and improve efficiency in the ticketing process.
Project Goals
- Develop a user-friendly website that offers a seamless and efficient ticketing process, allowing customers to easily browse movie showtimes, select seats, and complete ticket purchases online.
- Enhance the overall experience by providing a user-friendly interface, intuitive navigation, and clear information showtimes, seating availability, and ticket prices, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
- Implement features that allow customers to personalize their movie experience, such as choosing preferred seating options and providing feedback, to create an enjoyable cinema journey.
With these defined problem statements and project goals, I was poised to enter the ideation and design stages, where I generated solutions to address these insights.
Ideation
I embarked on a creative journey to generate innovative solutions. I brainstormed a multitude of ideas, exploring various possibilities and concepts to address the identified customer needs and pain points. Engaging in mind mapping, sketching, and concept creation activities.
After gaining deep insights into the needs and preferences of users and brainstorming necessary screens and possible layouts, the next step was to lay the foundation for the application. To accomplish this, I focused on creating the fundamental information architecture that will serve as the backbone of the site, setting the stage for the upcoming design process.
Basic Sitemap
With the foundation of the site’s basic structure in place, I started sketching ideas. Armed with a pen and paper, I began sketching out my initial concepts, bringing them to life through hand-drawn sketches. Sketching allowed me to freely explore different design possibilities and visualize how the site’s interface and features could come together. Here are some of my paper sketches.
My Initial Sketches
As I progressed in the design process, I transitioned from initial sketches to digital wireframes. These wireframes provided a visual blueprint, showcasing the app’s layout, content organization, and user flow. I focused on simplicity, usability, and hierarchy, setting the stage for collaboration, feedback, and iterative refinement. I first created wireframes for the desktop version of the site, then subsequently made the mobile versions of the screens.
Low-Fidelity Desktop Digital Wireframes
Low-Fidelity Mobile Digital Wireframes
Prototyping
Next, I refined the low-fidelity designs. This involved adding more details to mirror my vision for the completed version of the site. With a clearer vision in mind, I proceeded to create a working prototype using these low-fidelity designs.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Study
With the basic wireframes of the main user flow in place, it was time to put them to the test. I conducted a usability study to gather valuable feedback from users. Armed with a research plan, I set clear research goals, defined key performance indicators, and prepared a script of questions and tasks for the participants.
Objectives:
- Evaluate the ease of completing key tasks: The primary objective of the usability testing is to assess if users can easily accomplish important tasks related to ticket purchasing and seat selection.
- Observe user behavior and task completion paths: By observing the diverse paths users take to complete the same tasks, we aim to gain insights into their decision-making process, navigation preferences, and potential areas of confusion or friction.
- Identify areas for improvement: Through user feedback and performance data, we seek to identify specific areas where the design can be enhanced for future iterations. This includes identifying pain points, usability issues, and opportunities to streamline the ticketing process.
Participants:
I engaged with 5 participants in the usability testing sessions. The selection criteria for participants were as follows:
- Age range: Participants were between 18 and 30 years old, ensuring a mix of different age groups for diverse perspectives and experiences while staying true to Metaphys’ regular customer demographic.
- Prior experience with going to a cinema: Participants must have prior experience with watching movies at cinemas, and understand the traditional ticketing system.process.
Methodology:
- Task-based Testing: Participants were given a set of tasks related to ticket purchasing and seat selection. They were asked to complete these tasks while thinking aloud, sharing their thoughts, and expressing any difficulties or observations.
- Observation and Note-taking: I moderated the sessions and took detailed notes on participant behavior, interactions, and challenges faced. Key observations and user feedback were documented for analysis.
- Data Analysis: The collected data, including task completion rates, user feedback, and observed behavior, were analyzed to derive actionable insights. Patterns, common issues, and areas for improvement were identified to inform design iterations.
Affinity Diagram
My Insights
Based on the findings from the usability study, I gained valuable insights that could be integrated into the next iteration of designs. These insights provided valuable direction for enhancing the user experience and addressing identified usability issues. With these insights in mind, I returned to the drawing board for another round of design ideation. By leveraging these insights, I was confident in crafting designs that would better resonate with users and further refine the app’s interface and functionality.
Prototyping
Next, I made the high-fidelity prototype with decisions informed by insights generated from the the usability study.
High-Fidelity Prototype - Desktop
High-Fidelity Prototype - Mobile
Insights & Improvements
Design decisions I made during the creation of the high-fidelity prototype were informed by insights I gained from the Usability study. Here are some of the improvements I made:
Insight
Participants expressed frustration with the seat selection options, indicating a need for clearer and more intuitive approach. In response, I redesigned the seat selection process to provide a seamless and straightforward experience, ensuring users can easily understand and choose their desired seats.
Solution
Insight
Participants faced challenges while navigating the ticket purchasing process, highlighting the need for improved usability and clarity. To address this, I revamped the user interface, breaking down the process into a multi-step process, simplifying the steps and providing clear instructions at each stage. The result was a more intuitive and user-friendly ticket purchasing journey that enhances the overall user experience.
Solution
UI Design
Areas for Improvement
- Enhanced Personalization: I would implement personalized movie recommendations or genre preferences to cater to individual user preferences. Alos, I would leverage user data and past movie selections to provide tailored suggestions that enhance the user’s movie-going experience.
- Streamlined Checkout Process: I would continuously refine and streamline the checkout process to minimize friction and reduce the steps required to complete the ticket purchase. Simplify the payment options and ensure a smooth payment process to enhance the overall user experience.
- Clear Communication of Policies: I would also provide clear and transparent information regarding ticket cancellation and refund policies. Ensure that users have a comprehensive understanding of the terms and conditions related to ticket changes or refunds to avoid any confusion or dissatisfaction.
- Feedback and Rating System: I would implement a feedback and rating system where users can provide their thoughts, reviews, and ratings for movies they have watched. This will not only encourage user engagement but also provide valuable insights for future movie selections and improvements in the overall movie-going experience.