carol-anne ryce-paul
OUR SOLUTION
HOW MAY WE
…make it easier and thus more fun for festival goers to schedule, book, and attend screenings at the film festival so that visitor frequency would increase?
The Product helps festival goers find venue information for local screenings, film schedules and to buy tickets via a mobile app.
The NYICFF app will:
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Simplify searches
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Provide trailers
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Offer multiple filters
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Make scheduling and
booking a film program easy
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE PROBLEM
One of the New York International Children's Film Festival’s major complaints was the difficulty in customer scheduling based on the information provided in the printed and online festival program brochure.
The NYICFF’s website only currently allows for searching by the film, category, the film’s country of origin, and keyword.
The ability of the festival's customers to purchase tickets and view trailers on a mobile device was also a client concern.
THE CLIENT
New York International Children’s Film Festival
The NYICFF is a non-profit in NYC that promotes education through short films for children ages 3–18 years of age. The NYICFF was founded in 1997 to support the creation and dissemination of thoughtful, provocative, and intelligent film entertainment for children and teens ages 3–18.
The film festival experience cultivates an appreciation for the arts, encourages active, discerning viewing, and stimulates a lively discussion among peers, families, and the film community. Their annual mission is to present a more dynamic film culture to families, and support filmmakers that are making complex films appropriate for all ages. The annual film festival is one of their many programs.
CLIENT’S NEEDS AND BUSINESS GOALS
The client had usability issues on their existing website. They proposed a website redesign or the creation of a festival mobile app integrating curated program and ticketing content for festival customers.
After our initial research, and that the project was time sensitive, the team focused on the client's problem of a festival mobile app.
The assumption is that the app is supposed to increase ticket sales by increasing the frequency of festival visits from three visits per family to five times per family.
To capture data on sold out programs in order to book additional times, if possible, at the festival's venues.
We had users test the current festival website to gauge the usability and identify any user pain-points.
MY ROLE
Research, UX wireframes, User interface (UI) design
USER JOURNEY MAP
USER STORIES
OUR RESEARCH
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Identify the strengths and weaknesses of usability on the NYICFF website, and provide opportunities for improvement.
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Understand how website visitors can have a more interactive experience through a festival mobile app
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Investigate whether the app could have a functioning ticketing process and understand how it would function.
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Understand the user’s main tasks and which tasks visitors should be conducted successfully on the app.
The team conducted client interviews, testing of the current website, qualitative questionnaires, quantitative and competitive research.
We used our testing to find out:
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Did users know about the festival
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How the users found information about the films
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How the users bought tickets to their chosen films
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How venues and locations were chosen and directions found
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What questions were asked or queried while testing
SECONDARY RESEARCH
A visual survey of other global film festival and children’s film festival websites (and apps if there were any) was conducted. We conducted competitive research of other global film festivals and festivals in the United States, and other children’s film festivals. A survey was conducted to gather more information on the festival's users’ pain points with the current website, how they browse and find information. Three questions were asked. 20 people responded to the survey. We created a Qualitative Questionnaire to gauge a picture of our user and to create our personas.
THE USERS NEEDS
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Moms want apps to help them manage tasks
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Users want movie trailers to review
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Quality leisure activities with their children
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Easier search and filter options
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A simple ticketing purchasing process
USER TASK MAP
IDEATION
The client’s promotional materials and website were analyzed for the crucial information useful to NYICFF’s customers.
This data has been organized into a spreadsheet so that the data may be separated into filters and then categories.
The filters are Age | Borough | Country | Date | Genre | Program | Special Categories | Venue.
These were the client’s parameters.
Filters can be adjusted or changed. Multiple filters may be selected during a search and multiple categories within each filter.
Users would be able to see trailers by accessing the program detail page.
The app would include a function to capture the overflow of movies that are sold out for scheduling additional screenings and gauging the festival films’ popularity.
WIREFRAMES
UI DESIGN AND PROTOTYPE
We used the brand documents the clients gave to the team.
We wanted a seamless yet unique look for the app’s visual look and feel.
We created a clickable prototype from our wireframes and user flows for our initial user testing. Click the play icon on the image to the right.
An online version of the initial prototype may be accessed here
INSIGHTS - NEXT ITERATION - RECOMMENDATIONS
USABILITY TESTING
HIGHLIGHTS
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App functional and logical; easy navigation
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Search and filter by age button a plus
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Videos and trailers exciting
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Venue information and directions helpful
PAIN POINTS
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Too many clicks to get to program detail page
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Ticket purchasing process confusing; want to see ticket pricing upfront
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Cart page needs to be simplified
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Don’t want to log in just to see the programs
PROPOSALS BASED ON THE PROTOTYPE FEEDBACK
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Iterate, remove and add design layout changes
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Contain ticket buying process within the app and eliminate redirecting users outside of the app to TicketWeb website.
FUTURE IMPLEMENTATIONS
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Film Archive
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Membership Accounts
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Festival Voting System
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Interactive game for children
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The voting system to review films: scan code on printed or e-ticket to vote
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Member sign-in: this will archive cc information, prior tickets bought and suggest recommendations for the upcoming festival.
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Rewards program based on how many programs screened. Screen five or more get a% off. (As with season tickets for opera, ballet etc.)
FUTURE STEPS
Conduct further user testing with higher and higher fidelity prototype designs to understand how and why the app helps the user. Test on more users, perhaps at the festivals.
DESIGN TOOLS USED
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe XD
Pencils, paper and pens
Sticky notes, dots and sharpies