Project overview
The product:
Movie Snacks is a app that makes the movie theater snacking experience easy and convenient. This app provides pick up and seat-side delivery options so that users can enjoy the movies without all the hassle of purchasing food at the theater. Movie Snacks target users who are busy movie lovers and families who would benefit from an efficient pickup process or seat-side delivery.
Project duration: June 2022 to July 2022
The problem:
Families with children and movie lovers don’t want to leave their seats or spend too much time waiting in line to get food at the theater.
The goal:
Create an app that will allow users to easily order movie theater snacks for pickup or seat-side delivery.
My role:
Ux designer and UX researcher from conception to delivery.
Responsibilities:
User research, paper and digital wireframing, conducting usability studies, low and high fidelity prototyping, iterating on designs.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
User research: summary
I conducted research and created personas and user journey maps to understand the needs and perspectives of the users that I am designing this app for. Research identified our target users as busy moviegoers and families who would benefit from convenient and time saving features.
Initial assumptions were that seat-side delivery would benefits mostly movie lovers who don’t want to miss a thing or just plain lazy people but research revealed that parents of small children and those with mobility issues would also use the app features. Families with children don’t want to leave the kids alone to get food and risk losing their seats.
User research: pain points
Missing Out
Movie lovers don’t want to miss any part of the movie to get food
Time
Busy movie goers don’t want to spend time waiting in concession lines and then wait some more for pick up
Safety
Parents of small children don’t want to leave them alone in the theater while they get food
Losing Seats
People don’t want to leave their seats for the fear of losing them
Persona: Clara
Problem statement:
Clara is a busy professional and a mom who needs to order and receive movie theater snacks without leaving her seat. She wants to get food without risking losing her seat or leaving her kids alone.
User journey map
Clara’s user journey reflects on every step of the process from entering the theater and getting food to settling into the seats. It shows how helpful the features of the Movie Snacks App would be for someone in Clara’s situation.
STARTING THE DESIGN
Paper wireframes
My design aimed to prioritize ease of use and through iterations, identified elements that would give the digital wireframes a good starting point.
Digital wireframes
My goal was to make the menu item easy to identify and find with multiple options of getting there. Research indicated that users want options in getting to their objective.
How the users receive their order is a key feature of this app. I wanted to clearly show the three options and confirm payment method and amount before finalizing the order.
Low-fidelity prototype
The user flows of finding and selecting a menu item and completing an order are shown in this low-fidelity prototype. This was used in the usability study.
Click on Movie Snacks Low-fidelity prototype link
Usability study: findings
The first round of the usability study helped to shape the layout and prioritized navigation as the project went from wireframes to mockups. The second round of study guided the refinement of the tested high-fidelity prototype and clarified a few elements.
Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
Users want simple navigation and easily locate the home icon
Pick up and Seat-side delivery options and additional info were not clear to some users
User want to use the search feature
The Pick up/Seat-side delivery options and the payment section needs to be visually grouped better
Accessibility options need to be easy to locate
REFINING THE DESIGN
Mockups
The first usability study found that locating the home icon could be easier. Navigating back and to home from any part of the user flow should be simple and intuitive. The revisions include a prominently located, bright home icon with the back icon next to it.
The Pick up/ Seat-side delivery and payment options and were not clarified by the first revision according to the second usability study. Options are shown in rectangles with borders that highlight when chosen. Payment is in a separate area.
Key Mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The user flows of the final high-fidelity prototype clearly shows different options in finding menu items and completing the order. It also provides the pick up and seat side delivery.
Click on Movie Snacks
Accessibility considerations
Language options will be available so that the user can place an order in non-English languages.
Larger text option will be available so that users with visual impairments can see the text better.
Icons with text labels were used for easier navigation.
GOING FORWARD
Takeaways
Impact:
This app tries to understand the perspective of a busy snacking moviegoer. The user can benefit from the conveniences and the time saving features and the app makes the user feel like the pain points of the theater going experience were considered.
What I learned:
What I learned from designing this app is that everything revolves around the user and so much more research goes into a design than I ever imagined. I thought of this process as like being a sculptor. You carve away a bit by bit with each study, feedback, and iteration until the final masterpiece is revealed.
Next steps
Reevaluate the the design elements, icons, and photographs for improvements
Do another usability study to see if the revisions from the second round sufficiently addressed all the issues
Step away from the project for a bit and then reevaluate to see if further refinement is needed.