No longer Salty about Popcorn

A project in service re-design for the Popcorn App.

3 team mates and myself chose the Popcorn app for this project.

The Brief

To demonstrate our redesign through an interactive prototype and explain our solution and how it addresses the needs of our persona(s). Elaborate on how our solution was iterated through user feedback.

What does Popcorn do?

The primary function of Popcorn is to provide movie listing across all major cinemas in Singapore. Their secondary functions provide:

1. News and reviews of movies

2. Movie trailers

3. Movie events such as pop-up cinemas

Primary Research

This discovery stage helped us familiarise with the ins and outs of the app and possible user pain points.

After going through the app, we did a competitive analysis of other cinema apps such as iGV, Cathay and SG Movie Seats. We were interested in what the competitors were doing and possible ideas we could get from what they were doing well and what could be improved.

We also read some customer reviews from the App and Google Play store to get an idea of the users pain and plus points.

We constructed a user flow to see if the problem might be a navigational issue and lastly to dig deeper into interface issues. We conducted a 10-Usability Heuristic Evaluation by Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g).

Our Primary Findings

1. Users feel frustrated when they have to key in information every time they make a booking.

2. As there were no error messages, users frequently encountered issues when filling in their information incorrectly.

3. This leads to problems such as not receiving email confirmation with their booking details and booking incorrect movie dates/timings or location.

4. Users are confused as the information is often cluttered together.

We then moved onto our secondary research to see if there were any possible patterns in their pain points to gain greater insights. While we were able to narrow down some of the possible problems, we wanted to leave room for more discovery through face to face interviews and contextual inquiries.

Secondary Research

"Rolling in the deep"

User interviews and contextual enquiries from 10 people were conducted (5 used the Popcorn app and another movie ticketing app). Using the existing app, we gave them a task scenario. Lastly, we used a Likert style scale to ask the users to rate the Popcorn app. This gave us a quantitative benchmark about how the users felt about the app, which we used later for validation using the System Usability Scale (SUS).

Task Scenario:

1. Find information about Aladdin and purchase tickets

2. Find about upcoming movies

Objectives:

1. What were the main issues with the Popcorn app?

2. Are users aware of Popcorn’s other services?

We synthesised our data using an affinity map and a persona from our qualitative data. Our initial findings were validated and we concluded that:

1. Users used the app for only its primary function only hence they were not aware of “Popcorn Perks” and features.

2. Users do not like receiving their confirmation via email.

3. Users would like a perks/point system.

Bearing in mind the short time span and the 80/20 rule in UX, we ran a Content Prioristation and referred back to our heuristic evaluation to focus on the most pertinent features that would benefit the users the most.

Initial Challenges

1. How do we balance the users need to book tickets quickly without the hassle of keying in credit card details?

2. How do we inform the users about the Popcorn Perks which already exists but the users are unaware of?

3. How do we create an after-app service that is comprehensive and serves a primary user need?

Onboarding

One solution to solve them all.

I decided to include an onboarding process as it would be an efficient way to solve multiple problems stated by the users.

This would be the first touchpoint for the users and it was important not to inundate the users with too much information.

Screenshots of our onboarding process.

View each row from left to right. Click on enlarge.

1. Microcopy is crafted in an active voice for user engagement.

2. Informs users about the points and perks system. E.g, 500 points as a gentle push to sign up for an account.

3. The information from the account creation will be used for the auto-fill during the booking process.

4. Progress bar is used to manage users expectations.

5. Chunking of information also prevents users from cognitive overload.

6. The word ‘journey’ is used in screenshot 5 as it is likened to the users journey with the app.

7. Including popular memes with popular movies added a fun element as it is a movie app.

8. Creating an option for the users to skip the account creation provides user freedom.

We tested with our initial 10 users again and this was their feedback.

Challenges re-visted.

1. Users still found it a hassle to key in their email address for account verification and did not like having to move out of the app to do so.

2. 60% of the users wanted to key in all their information in one go while the others wanted to key in their credit card details when they had more time.

3. Users were hesitant about providing credit card details as they were unsure of its purpose. They felt unsafe providing such sensitive information.

4. Most users still wanted their booking details within the app.

Keeping the users feedback in mind, we adjusted our onboarding process. Our main focus was:

• to keep the user within the app where possible

• still provide user freedom regardless if they are an account user or not

• provide information on why we needed their credit card details.

This was our 2nd reiteration.

Reiterations

View each row from left to right. 1st row is for account users and 2nd row is for non-account users. Click on the image to enlarge.

1. Mobile numbers as verification are more convenient to key in and an OTP was used as an error prevention method.

2. Informed the users the need for the credit card details and asked them for permission to use it.

3. Added the e-ticket and booking details within the app. This ticket can be scanned when they enter the cinema.

4. Consistency in the UI is retained with no change in the footer for non-account users.

5. Non-account users do not get a personalised greeting on the home screen.

6. Non-account users will always have an option to create an account later.

Validation

We validated our reiterations for our final prototype with the SUS survey. We painted consistency using the same 10 users we first interviewed. This is our results.

To summarise

Our users liked

• the onboarding to guide them through this process and inform them about Popcorn's features.

• the e-ticket page as they did not have to access their email to obtain their ticket and a summary of their booking details.

• that general information was easier to find compared to the original app.

To end, I would like to say I was very fortunate to be working with my teammates.

Our different skill sets and complimentary working styles added value to this project. They helped us to spot gaps during our design process, focus on the users need despite conflicting interests, and to always ask difficult questions. Their honesty, hard work, perseverance and kinship was the driving force for this project. I am very proud of our end product. I am always happy to share my experience working on this project with anyone. Not so salty after all, eh?

*I would like to thank freepik for their iPhone mockups, Mockup psd created by graphictwister.