Making movie reservations more enjoyable.
Overview
Movies+ is an online movie ticket booking application for iOS that aims in making searching for a movie, ticket booking, learning about movie, actors, etc a lot more easier.
Role
Duration
Nov 2021 - Jan 2022
Project Type
Personal Project
The Problem
Like most people, I like watching movies. Especially at a movie theatre. However, every time I tried to buy a movie ticket via one of my local cinema's apps or websites, I discovered that they all had dated and confusing designs. Furthermore, if I didn't know which movie I wanted to see, I had to visit Google or other websites to learn more about it.
That’s why I decided to explore how I could improve the experience of searching for a movie and then buying a ticket for it using an iOS App.
Desk Research
After doing extensive research, I discovered that many individuals experience the same issues while purchasing movie tickets, which made it easier for me to comprehend the issue. The following are some issues that users encounter :
I am aware of the films I should see in theatres, but I am unaware of the times they will be playing nearby.
I'll open a movie app when I'm bored and look for any good movies that are now playing.
There's a good chance I'll buy it if the trailer is good.
I'll check a movie's Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB rating before I buying a ticket.
Since every theatre is quite close to where I live, I typically choose a theatre based on the screen time, etc.
User Interview
For the second part of the discovery phase, I interviewed 10 to 12 people. This helped me better understand their pain areas and how they used the items that were presently accessible. But, before I began doing the interviews, I made a list of the many questions I needed to address with the survey.
Interview Questions
What factors influence your decision on which movies to see?
How do you learn more about the film?
How many movies do you see each month?
Why this many?
Who are you going to see the movie with? Are you alone, on a date, or in a group?
Are you having trouble when:
Searching for a cinema
Searching for a movie to see
Using the available websites to buy movie tickets
Selecting seats
Buying and paying for the tickets
etc.
User Interview Findings
I discovered from the user interviews that individuals :
Consider the cost of cinema tickets and snacks to be expensive.
Would considering going to more movies if the theatre offered deals or discounts.
Feel that the visual design might be better.
Use google o services such as imdb.com to get reviews for the movie.
They miss having a tool that actually tells them the movies that are available at a given hour or on a given day.
Consider it difficult to find information about the theatre (the types of seats that are available, services, etc).
etc.
Gathering More Data
It ’s obvious that collecting data from about 10–12 individuals at most was insufficient to obtain a comprehensive picture of the issues the user was facing. As a result, I decided to publish multiple Instagram polls to acquire additional information, and I received about 150 responses.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the audience is not diverse enough and that the findings can be biassed because, most likely, most of our Instagram followers are friends and family. We can live with that, though, as this is just an experiment.
Affinity Diagram
After compiling a list of all the research-related findings, I created an affinity diagram to aid in organising and identifying the common paint spots.
Problem Statement
Finding the problem statements was the next step after reviewing the affinity diagram. I choose to concentrate on the following issues :
People would like a way to assist them in choosing which movie to watch.
People are encountering problems with the checkout process.
People believe that prices are excessively high.
How Might We!
After Identifying the problems I used HMW’s to help find solutions for each of the problems.
Problem Statement :
People would like a way to assist them in choosing which movie to watch.
How Might We :
Create an application that recommends movies depending on the user's intrests.
Problem Statement :
People get annoyed when the checkout experience is not easy and quick.
How Might We :
Improve the checkout procedure so that people can pay without getting frustrated.
Problem Statement :
Over 60% of the people I polled believe that ticket costs are too expensive, preventing them from seeing as many movies as they would want.
How Might We :
Create a subscription model for individuals who see movies on a regular basis.
User Personas
I created two user personas based on these problem statements and the research findings. I used them to assist me in designing the app's features.
Possible solutions for cody :
Adding thorough search and filtering capabilities so Cody can discover a movie on a specific date and time based on user ratings and reviews.
With UPI and Apple Pay, introduce simple one-tap payment choices.
Provide a guest checkout option.
Possible solutions for Arelene
Including membership plans with a set monthly charge.
Option to share her own reviews
Allow her to follow reviewers she believes in?
Impact - Effort Matrix
I opted to use a Impact - Effort Matrix to select what features to include in the initial MVP based on the value it would bring to the end-user and how difficult it would be to construct.
Features for MVP
Design Language
I followed apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to make the application more consistant and memorable. Accesibility and inclusivity were the key factors taken into considerations while deciding upon the the language. All the icons used in this design are SF Symbols and the sizes are also consistant with the standard sizes that apple provides by default like title, body, footnote, etc which will save a lot of time while developing the application.
Designing the Application
The Home screen
While designing the homescreen the idea was to provide users an efficient way to search and filter as most users have a hard time deciding which movie to watch, so this aims to help them find movies based on genre, duration, user ratings, or duration. So that the user doesn't have to use any other product or service to learn more about movies.
Below the search menu I have added a trending movies carousel but as I am not sure how many movies will be playing at once in a city/area, I thought that the approach to stack the movies sliding to the right and left might be quite painful if there are quite a lot of movies.
In order to tackle this I decided to limit the carousel to just a 6 movies and list all the other movies in a separate list so that it’s easier for the user to find them all.
See the functional prototype here.
The Movie details screen
I wanted to keep the movie details screen clean and simple, so the user can get all the important details at a glance. From the user data collected, most users wanted to know the basic details about the release date, movie rating, user ratings, cast details, and watch the trailer.
So in the top section of the screen, I placed the main trailer for the movie, as well as a play button with the duration indicated below. Then I have included all the necessary details about the movie in a card that includes the movie name, director, genre, overall user rating, release date, movie duration and user rating.
In order to make the movie screen less cluttered, I decided to use a segmented picker that allowed me to place all the additional movie details like the additional trailers, synopsis, and cast. Since most users usually go to other services to get information about actors, I decided to include this information right in the app.
In the other section of the picker, I have the entire user reviews section, where I have the overall user rating summary and the option to add a review. Also the user can see other's reviews.
See the functional prototype here.
The Movie Ticket Booking screens
While designing the booking screen the main goal was to enable the user to select the right movie session and provide a way to book tickets without registering as one of the main issues people had in the interviews was that they didn’t like the fact that they have to register before they can pay for the movie ticket. Most of them felt that they would receive a lot of spam, especially if the overall design of the website / app isn’t that up-to-date.
Even though guest checkout flows are usually designed for users which don’t have an account yet, they are also useful for users that have forgotten their password and don’t want to go through the password-reset-process at the moment.
See the functional prototype here.
The Memberhip screen
In the interviews, most users stated that, while some cinemas had membership plans, they did not provide good value.
The majority of them rewarded users with points for every ten rupee spent. These points might then be redeemed for a movie ticket or bar snacks. However, if you want to swap them for a ticket, you'd need roughly 200 points, which means you'd have to spend more than 2000 to obtain a free ticket, so it's not really worth it.
This app feature was my attempt to see how I might improve the experience so that people feel it is worthwhile and realise the value it delivers.
See the functional prototype here.
Usability Testing
My final step was to test the app. For the testing, I had 10 individuals and assigned them tasks to perform using the app.
The following were the questions I hoped to answer during the interviews:
Is the app useful in choose which movie to watch first?
Does the app assist users in learning more about each film?
Will people join the membership plans?
Can people complete the checkout process without any assistance?
Is the guest checkout process useful?
The results
The membership plan was taken up by 9 out of 10 users.
To look for a movie, each user used the search bar and the filters.
All participants agreed that it is significantly easier to learn more about a film without leaving the app.
7 out of 10 users used the guest checkout flow and 5 of them signed up at the end.
Conslusion
In the real world, there are many more factors to consider when developing an app. This case study is simply a streamlined version of the method. A couple things I didn't think about in general, including :
Are the graphics too busy? Will it add weight to the app?
How much effort will the developer go into creating such an experience?
Testing the prototype with a large number of people to determine whether the UX is appropriate for a big audience.
Overall, I had a terrific time working on my personal project. Instead of forcing users to sign up for an account, I discovered how crucial it is to focus every design decision on the objective they are seeking to achieve. By involving users early in the design process, we can produce better products that people are more likely to use.
Despite the fact that this project began with an assumption, by validating it with real consumers, I knew I could help them if I produced a better experience.
Furthermore, the early research assisted me in determining the pain points individuals were experiencing so that I could better understand what I needed to work on and which features I could build to try to alleviate them.
I had a lot of fun working on this project since I learnt about the minute details required in developing a searching experience and a checkout flow, but alas, my local cinemas' apps and websites will continue to have the same user experience.
Thank You
Hope you liked the project.
