My biggest problem with the existing Ticketmaster site is that it is way too busy. It is too much information and too hard to scan to find the information you are interested in. Right away I knew that one of my main goals in the redesign was to simplify both the design and the process.
Inspiration Sites
I think finding inspiration really helped during this project. I found that seatgeek.com and viagogo.com were very user friendly and I liked the simple design much better than Tickmaster. I referred back to these sites throughout the process.
Personas
Personal Process Flow
I thought that this step was the hardest in the whole process. It was really difficult to narrow down the whole process into simple and concise steps. However, I think I learned a lot from having to do this. My process was still improved after this step. Below, I tested my process flow on different user situations.
Process Flow based on User Situations
- User visits your new site looking for a concert in the area on March 6th or 7th, they are bringing 5 friends who want to sit together, and everyone wants to spend less than $30 per ticket. They aren't really concered about the artist, they just want something to do for the weekend that costs less than $30 each. Will eventually buy tickets at the end of the process.
- User vitits your new site at 9:58am because tickets for Taylor Swift (or pick someone less amazing if you're doing artsquest) goes on sale in 2 minutes, they know the city, they know the seating area they want to sit because they already did research because they are a crazy fan, but they need to great seats. They are wearing a Taylor Swift tshirt while they are ordering. Buying 2 tickets, willing to spend any amount of money to be close to Taylor. Will eventually buy tickets at the end of the process.
- Users vists your new site, needs 4 seats for a Hall and Oates concert. User is super cheap and has lots of time to research. User really wants to compare to get the "best" seats for the chepest price. Hates sitting in upper levels, and pees a lot so they like to sit at the end of a row. User really deeply compares all options, takes notes on paper as they search for prices/seat locations. Will eventually buy tickets at the end of the process.
Site Map
The site map is the foundation of the Wire Frames. It indicates the separate pages of the site.
Initial Wire Frames
For each page determined in the site map, I created a rough wire frame for the information displayed on each page.
Revised Wire Frames
I then brought these rough wireframes into the computer.
Initial Mockups
I made two options for the design of the site, and a desktop and mobile version for each design. I ended up using combined elements of both designs, seen in the revised mockups.
Revised Mockups
These are mockups of the home page, the results page, and the map page in both desktop and mobile versions.
User Testing
Once the design and site was implemented, we conducted user testing. I came up with five different tasks for the user to complete and then watched as they completed these tasks. I got a lot of interesting feedback from these tests.
User Testing Tasks
Task One
1. Browse all popular events near you. 2. View tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert on May 26th in Philadelphia. 3. Select a floor section. 4. Select section F5. 5. Select seat H7. 6. Submit your ticket order.Task Two
1. Browse all popular events near you. 2. Filter the results by date. 3. View tickets for the Steve Aoki concert on April 10th at the Bryce Jordan Center. 4. You want to buy 4 tickets. 5. You want to buy the tickets quickly, and you just want the best available section regardless of the price. 6. Submit your ticket order.Task Three
1. Search for "Philadelphia". 2. View tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert on May 26th in Philadelphia. 3. Select a floor section. 4. Select section F5. 5. Select seat H7. 6. Submit your ticket order.Task Four
1. Browse all popular country events near you. 2. View tickets for the Zac Brown Band concert on August 15th in Philadelphia. 3. Select the seat in section F9 row D for $103.99. 4. Submit your ticket order.Task Five
1. Search for "Philadelphia". 2. View tickets for the Zac Brown Band concert on August 15th in Philadelphia. 3. You want to buy 2 tickets. 4. Select a floor section. 5. Select section F5. 6. Select seats G4 and G5. 7. Submit your ticket order.User Testing Results
Home Page
On my home page, I realized I probably could have made a few things a bit more prominent. For example, a few users were unable to find 'popular events near you.' To fix this problem, I might separate the title 'popular events' from the slider a little bit, or put it in a color that pops more. In addition, I would make the 'near you' section a bit larger. Some users were able to find the search bar almost effortlessly, which was the point. One user struggled to find the search bar. To fix this, maybe I could center the placeholder text in the search bar. Perhaps because it is left aligned it blends in with the other information in that area. One user when told to "search for Philadelphia" attempted to change the location utility that says "greater philadelphia area." This was very unexpected. Maybe a small location pin icon could help change this.
Results Page
The results page went over very well. I think it presented the information well, and made it apparent what the appropriate actions and steps were for the page (see tickets for selected concert). The filtering methods seemed to be apparent to all users.
Seat Map Page
I found that on this page the right hand side may have been a little too busy. When users were told to select a floor section, they purely focused on the right hand side of the page when the section menu was on the bottom left under the map. I think users generally looked at the actual map way less than I would have thought. Maybe this was because they weren't really browsing because the steps indicated what section they were supposed to choose. I also think that the 'best available' button could be more prominent. I didn't think it would really be used to often in the actual site because people tend to care a lot about how much money they are spending, but it still gets lost on the page. Finally, I realized that the number of tickets sorting bar looks like a tab. Users didn't seem to have trouble with it, but maybe it could look better.