FANDANGO — event/concert section
Guest Contribution
UX DESIGN PROJECT 2
Today having a social life is crucial. It is almost part of our identity. Without a social life it is hard to appear successful and modern. Not only are we expected to have hobbies and interests outside of our professional and family life, we are also expected to share them with the world. If you go to a concert and not share your experience on social media, did you even go to that concert.
Lucky for us there is a ton to experience out there and many ways we can share our escapades on social media. The problem is that we don’t always know how to take advantage of what is offered. What if there was some way to fix that?
UNDERSTANDING OUR USER
Fandango is a company that sells movie tickets to its customers. It sells about 36 million movie tickets per year mainly thorough its mobile application. So the question is, why limit this loyal community to just movie tickets. Why not offer them even more?
The company wants to expand their market to offer event and concert tickets to give their users a full experience of what is out there. In order do that in the best way possible, we have to first understand our target user.
EMPATHY ASSUMPTIONS
We assumed that our users are older than 18 and possibly younger than 50. They are social and have at least an average income.
What are they thinking
They want to experience various experiences, to socialize and they are not sure if they can commit to an exact date of an event.
What are they seeing
Our users are at social events, bars, concerts, family dinners.
What are they hearing
They are reading reviews, seeing advertisements, hearing stories form their friends and family about their experiences.
What are their pains
Our users need access to information about events in their area, they do not want to print out tickets or remember dates once they purchase a ticket. They may may be hesitant to committing to something that has no refund option.
What are their goals
Our users want to be able to share their plans and experiences with their social circle, they may want discounts and rewards programs. They want to spend as little time on the process as possible.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To even further understand the needs of our users we compared 5 other mobile applications that offer event and concert tickets. Competitive analysis was helpful to determine which features these apps provide as well as to identify the gaps in the industry.
Every app offered:
- Check-out
- Share before paying for event
- Share after paying for event
- Recommendations of events
- Venue info and pictures
- Filter/Sorting option
- automatic calendar
These features seem like the bare essentials for an event app. They have a good balance of what the user might need like venue pictures and filtering options as well as what Fandango might want, like the obvious check-out feature as well as the possibility of attracting more business through sharing.
None of the apps offered the full experience though, VIP package sort to speak. Imagine if in addition to these features a mobile application also offered an interactive seat map, an option to sign in through social media and not having to go through the tedious registration process, or even better, an option to sign in with your finger print. To go even further, imagine you could split your payment between your friends right there in the app instead of one person paying for everyone and then going through the awkward process of collecting money from friends.
TARGETING OUR USER
27 screener surveys
Based on this analysis and our empathy predictions, we created screener surveys to recruit users for our research. We asked them for information such as their age, income, location, what kind of events they go out to and how often, how do they order their tickets and their preferences while doing that. Out of 27 surveys we picked the ones that use mobile applications the most. Originally we ended up with two user groups. Our primary group were users ages 18–25, and our secondary group were users ages 26 and up.
However! After we analyzed our results we made a very interesting discovery.
The rate of using mobile applications for buying tickets to events went up with the amount of times our users went out to events.
Which meant that we now had new user groups for our research.
primary
users who buy event tickets 10+ times a year
secondary
users who buy event tickets from 5 to 10 times a year.
USER RESEARCH
14 research surveys
We had 14 recruiters that matched this criteria, 7 for each user group. These are some of the questions we asked them in our research surveys.
- How do you prefer to share events with your friends?
- Do you like to get suggestions about events from a mobile application based on your preferences?
- How do you prefer to show your tickets when you enter the venue?
We transferred their answers to an affinity map and then arranged them into obvious categories. After labeling which users were primary and secondary in each group, we made another discovery. Three groups that had the most primary users wanted quickness of use when buying tickets, they wanted quality as well as being able to rely on technology. Our task was pretty clear at this point.
PROBLEM
Mobile app users that buy tickets 10+ times a year need a way to find events and purchase tickets easily and quickly because they are looking for a comfortable experience with as little effort as possible.
HYPOTHESIS
We believe that by creating a flawless process of purchasing event tickets for mobile application users, we can offer them exactly what they are looking for. We will know this to be true when users are able to navigate through an events section and purchase their ticket smoothly and without hesitation.
SYNTHESIS
We decided to concentrate on our primary users because they are the ones that make use of mobile applications the most. Based on our hypothesis we put together a phycological sketch of an average Fandango events section user.
Chad Schaffer is a young man who works full time and goes to school part time. He also has an active social life. His needs are to be able to make plans quickly. He is sharp and tech savvy. He likes comfort and quality and is willing to pay for it.
So what does a guy like Chad need in his life that would make him feel absolutely comfortable with his app experience? And even more importantly, what do Fandango and Chad need to feel satisfied with their experiences of each other?
Based on our persona and competitive analysis chart we figured out which features would be the most important for our users.
Originally we assumed that people hesitate to buy tickets online because they are afraid to commit and wanted to offer them a refund or a resell option. Interestingly, according to our research, they don’t care much for those options.
We then graphed all of the musts according to the amount of effort and how essential they are to the app and figured out our MVP, three most important features without which the events section cannot exist.
MVP
- Check-out
- Recommendations
- Information and pictures of the event
SKETCHING, WIREFRAMING AND MOCKUPS
USER TESTING
A simple scenario and a user flow of the events section gave us a clear picture of how we need our testers to perform in order for us to consider our job successful.
Based on all the data we created a prototype that we can use for user testing. We asked users to imagine that they are a busy professional with an active social life. They are an existing user with Fandango and needs to buy tickets for a date on Saturday through their events section and then make sure that there is a QR code for those tickets.
USER TEST 1
3 users
iterations
- Recommended Events Added to Spotlight
- Event Info Text Layout Changed
- Share Option Added After Purchasing
- Date Added to Specific Events Page
- Added Ticket Info to Ticket Page
- Changed “Apple Wallet” to “Fandango Wallet”
USER TEST 2
6 users
iterations
- Deleted Search Button From Specific Events Page
- Added “Maybe Later” Button to Share Pop-up Page
- Dates and Hours are added to Info of the Events Page
- Dates and Hours are added to Info of the Specific Event Page
- Buyer Details Font Size Changed
- Transaction Info + Share Button Added
- Changed The Color of Buttons in Transaction And QR Page
- Info Added To Transaction Page
USER TEST 3
5 users
iterations:
zero
COLOR MOCKUP
Our final design and brand identity was very similar to the original design of the app with a few changes for a better experience.
CONCLUSION
Success rate of finding Events page from spotlit page went up from 0% to 100%.
Success rate of exiting from the share pop up went up from 16% to 100%
During the last usability test 100% of users were able to complete the task with ease and satisfaction without any negatives feedback.
as one user has stated:
“It was very straight forward, I wish I had more feedback”
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FINAL PROTOTYPE
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NEXT STEPS
short term
- Redesigning Navigation Bar
- Bookmarks/Wishlist
- Credit Card Scanner
long term
- Finger Print Sign-in
- Interactive Seat Map
- Sharing Payment with Friends
WORKING TOGETHER
Working in a group is like dancing. When one person takes the lead, the other one has to trust enough to let go and follow and let that person shine in his element. Following is harder than leading for human nature because we always want to be in control. However, it is important to remember that in a few moments that person will trust you as well, he will take a step back and follow your lead this time. It is a subtle game and I was fortunate to work with someone who plays that game well. It was an amazing experience.
Team work is working together and having each other’s back but also parading each other to let everyone show off what they are best at. A solid graph that illustrates evidence well is like a few seconds of intricate footwork during a dance. Its where you show that you are not simply faking it but you have technique and a level of expertise and understanding of the subject. Where as a well written opening statement is like a sexy move during that dance, it makes the dancers stand out. It’s like a cherry on top. When all components gracefully work together, they create an appealing, effective and convincing experience for the audience.
Understanding how this process works is the first step to a perfect pitch. After that it’s simply practice-makes-perfect.
Project Manager/Tech/Analysis: Melih Bagdatli Research/Content/Design: Sofie Akhmetshin
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