experience + brand designer
carol-anne ryce-paul
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S
FILM FESTIVAL
THE CLIENT:
New York International Children’s Film Festival
The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) is a non-profit organization based in NYC that focuses on providing educational short films for children aged 3 to 18. Established in 1997, its mission is to promote thoughtful, compelling, and intelligent film entertainment for young audiences.
The festival is designed to foster an appreciation for the arts, encourage critical viewing, and spark engaging discussions among children, families, and the film community. One of their main initiatives is the annual film festival, which aims to enrich the film culture for families and to support filmmakers creating sophisticated films suitable for all ages.
THE CHALLENGE:
One of the major concerns expressed by the New York International Children's Film Festival was the difficulty their customers faced in scheduling based on the information provided in the printed and online festival program brochure. At present, the NYICFF's website only allows users to search by film, category, country of origin, and keyword. Additionally, customers expressed difficulty in purchasing tickets and viewing trailers on mobile devices.
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.
THE PROCESS
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, and quantitative and competitive research. The team used our testing to find out:
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Did users know about the festival
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How the users find 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 JOURNEY MAP
HOW MAY WE
…make it easier and thus more fun for festival goers to schedule, book, and attend screenings at the film festival, which would increase visitor frequency.
The Product helps festival goers find venue information for local screenings and film schedules and 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
USER PERSONA STORIES
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 it may be separated into filters and 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. During a search, multiple filters and categories within each filter may be selected.
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 are exciting
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Venue information and directions helpful
PAIN POINTS
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Too many clicks to get to the program detail page
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The ticket purchasing process is confusing; I want to see ticket pricing upfront.
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The cart page needs to be simplified
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Don’t want to log in 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 the ticket buying process within the app and eliminate redirecting users outside of the app to the 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 and 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-fidelity prototype designs to understand how and why the app helps the user.
Test with a more diverse, larger user set, perhaps while the users are attending the festivals.
MY ROLE
Research, UX wireframes, User interface (UI) design
DESIGN TOOLS USED
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe XD
Microsoft Office
Google Workspace
Pencils, paper, and pens
Sticky notes, dots, and Sharpies
MORE UX DESIGN