Here’s what I can do in just under 4 hours!

It’s Saturday afternoon, and the weekend is finally here, when I receive a message about a group activity from my mentor Anudeep Ayyagari . So, I get in touch with my teammates and we wait for our briefing.

At around 3pm we receive a message with our brief, which was to enhance the user’s experience in a theatre. We were also given clear instructions via message prompts on how to proceed with each step.

So, here’s how it went.

Empathise

⏰ Time allotted: 15 minutes

The first prompt in this activity was to write down the journey of going and watching a movie in a multiplex theatre up until returning home.

Attached below is a flow diagram showing the user’s journey of the same. The goal was to keep the journey as linear as possible without making any deviations, as the main focus was on the experience within the theatre.

User journey

Define

⏰ Time allotted: 20 minutes (+10 minutes bonus)

Once we were done creating our user journey within the given time, the next step of the activity was to define usability problems with respect to each stage of the journey. The goal was to come up with a list of 20 problems as a whole.

We decided to split this stage into two parts. We first started by going through each stage of the user journey and noting down the multiple problems that a user would face at each stage.

And, as you can see, by the end of this, we had accumulated well over 20 problems.

First step in the process of noting down problems from the user’s journey

But the idea was to filter out the weak ones so we could pull out 20 problems that were strong enough to build upon.

Then came the process of narrowing the list down to the 20 problems that we felt made the most sense from the above notes. And, here’s what we decided on.

Narrowed down list of problems

Now, after coming up with our list of 20 problems we were asked to:

1. Further narrow down our list to only 3 important problems and explain each problem in detail. The main focus while explaining these problems was to focus on the root of the issue and not think about their solutions.
2. Secondly, we had to write down why we felt each of these 3 problems were important issues that needed to be solved of the users.

The amount of time given to us for this part of the activity was an additional 10 minutes.

So, in order to filter out the 3 most important problems, we decided to dive into the root problem from each of the 20 problems from earlier on. From this exercise we found that most of the problems were surface level problems and could easily be clubbed into a few main problems, which was what we decided to focus on.

From these problems, we then decided to take a team vote on what we felt would be the most important to solve for the users and these were -

1) Uncomfortable seating and rows

The seats in the theatre are not comfortable for people of different heights and weights. A common hand rest also makes the viewing experience uncomfortable as it leads to a disturbance. Sometimes the seats are dirty as the theatre as not been cleaned from the previous movie, and in some cases seats are even broken as they haven’t been maintained. It is also difficult to find the seat numbers and rows due to poor illumination in the dark. All these problems lead to a poor viewing experience.

2) Inconvenience of ordering food

In theatres, food can be pre-ordered which does not come at a specific time but comes randomly. If in case a user wants to order food during the movie, it is very inconvenient as they would have to leave the theatre and go to the food counter which would interrupt their experience. There are multiple counters located at different corners of the theatre, and hence this consumes time to walk around and decide. Majority of the people are unaware of all the options they have because they are in a hurry to get back in. It is a hassle to wait in long lines when ordering food even during interval. There are also times when theatre staff bring your order to your seat, and fail to bring the exact amount of change or even the correct order, so they spend time standing/speaking and hence causing an inconvenience to you and to the people who do not want to order anything. These are some problems we noticed when it came to ordering snacks at theatres.

3) Difficult to determine exact interval time

Absence of timers during the interval and also before the movie starts, makes it somewhat difficult sometimes to keep track of how much time you have left before the movie starts, especially when you have left the theatre during the interval.

Ideate

⏰ Time allotted: 30 minutes

So after narrowing down our list of problems from a large list of vague and random issues to 20 problems, we finally had 3 problems that we felt were the most important and encompassed all of our other previously listed surface issues.

The next part of the activity was to ideate a minimum of 5 ideas to solve each of the 3 problems that we had settled on. The important part was to keep in mind the practicality of these ideas so that they could be implemented with the existing setup of a theatre and easily be integrated within the current ecosystem.

Here’s what we came up with for each problem:

1. Solutions for uncomfortable seating and rows

The goal here was to make the viewing experience as easy and comfortable as possible. Right from the moment you enter into the theatre, it becomes difficult to find your seat, especially if you reach late once the movie has started and the lights are off. Also, looking for your row can be a hassle as they are hardly ever clearly marked and very can be easily missed. Solutions for these problems were luminous markers, larger markings, and essentially anything that can clearly make text stand out. Another main problems was the hygiene of the theatre itself, which we figured the clear solution was to ensure that regular maintenance is done before every movie, with proper intervals, ensuring that the users are aware of the safety and hygiene standards.

2. Solutions for food ordering

In our second problem, we provided solutions to make the process of ordering food more convenient for the users. We came up with a few different solutions such as a food based app for the theatre that would allow the user to order food at any time once they have booked their ticket.

We also thought about allowing users to pre-order their food, so that they can have it delivered to them at any time during the movie. Another solution we thought about was having all the food counters use a standard menuinstead of having separate menus in order to reduce over crowding.

3. Solutions to determine the exact interval time

Some users often end up missing the first few minutes of a movie after an interval because they are unable to keep track of time. Although most theatres mention the amount of time that is to be given for an interval, it is never usually tracked and depending on the length of the movie the interval time varies. Some solutions we came up with for this problem were to sending out push notifications at the start and end of the interval. This could also be used to inform users when a movie is just about to begin. Another solution to this would be to ensure that the intervals of no two movies overlap with each other, so as to avoid overcrowding at the food counters and restrooms.

Prototype

⏰ Time allotted: 25 minutes

Now comes the fun part of the activity where we get to sketch and prototype any one solution from the above 15 ideas, and make a rough prototype, explaining the solution in detail.

For this phase we decided to go with our second problem as the one we wanted to tackle, which was the inconvenience of ordering food.

So to re-iterate, below are the problems we are a aiming to solve:

• Food can be pre-ordered, but the time at which it arrives cannot be specified.
• Getting food in between the movie becomes inconvenient as users would need to leave their seats to go to the food counter.
• There are multiple food counters located at different corners of the theatre, hence walking to different zones, and making decisions, while waiting in queues is time consuming.
• Majority of people are unaware of the different food options, as they are often in a hurry to get back to the movie. People are also unaware about unavailable options and may spend a lot of time deciding about an option only to find out it is not available.
• Servers who enter the theatre often do so without the amount of exact change and hence make multiple trips or spend a lot of time standing while obstructing the view of the other viewers.
• In some cases servers are unsure about the exact seat numbers to which the order needs to be delivered and again, spend time looking around, while disturbing other viewers.

Solution

A responsive food ordering app for theatres which allows users to order snacks by scanning a QR code placed on the seat in front of them or by visiting a link on their purchased ticket. Users can order at anytime once they have purchased their ticket, schedule the time of delivery for their snacks, pay online, or even enter in the exact amount of change that is required if they are pay COD. This solution helps solve overcrowding at food counters, unnecessary wait times and confusion about availability of items. It would also help incentivise users who wish to order food but do not do so because they might miss the movie as they would have to get up from their seats in order to do so.

Sketch wireframes for snack ordering app in theatres

Low fidelity wireframe with descriptions of features

Above are our initial rough sketches and low fidelity wireframes of the homepage, product page, and the cart page.

Testing

⏰ Time allotted: 30 minutes

Once we were done with our above prototype, came the test phase, when we had 2–3 of our seniors join in to see if our problems and solution was really translated in our prototype.

The session lasted for 30 minutes, wherein we were asked critical usability questions about the functioning of our prototype and the process followed.

The feedback we received was as follows:

1. Once the payment is done how do we ensure the order does not go to the wrong seat?

The user will get a unique verification number once the order has been placed. When the server reaches the seat with the order, they would ask the user to reconfirm the unique code. Another alternative could be a QR code which is generated and this could then be scanned to complete the verification process.

2. How will cash and card transactions take place?

Cash transactions can be made once the server delivers the order. The user must select the COD option and input the denomination or exact amount of change required to avoid any confusions. For card payments, the user can pay online using net banking or UPI.

3. How would the app work since different theatres have different menus?

The answer to this would be that since the app is not strictly downloadable and would follow a scannable QR based model, it could be customisableaccording to the theatre it is based in.

4. How will the server deliver my order to me if my seat is in the middle of a lengthy row, without causing a disturbance?

Unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be easily solved for now, without redesigning the seating layout of the theatre, which is out of our current scope.

After we received the above feedback on our initial wireframes, we re-iterated some of the features to include the following, as these were some areas that were included in our initial problems but not targeted in our solution.

Re-iterated homepage and product page

Re-iterated cart page and confirmation page

Key Realisations

• Most of our initial problems are most likely a cluster of problems related to the same issue. Hence, it is easier to find the root of the problem and solve it, rather than solve each problem at a surface level.
• Importance of the design thinking process and how much one can achieve in such little time by following the process.
• Working within a strict time limit, I learned to determine which problems are most relevant and which ones should be set aside, as we can’t solve all the problems we want to address. So, it’s important to prioritise and manage your time efficiently.

I’d like to thank my team mates Travis Saldana, Ishy Srivastava , Chetanya Batra, Udit Sindhwani, Devansh Vashist, Ankita Halder and Meenakshi S. for all the ideas and effort that went into this. Also, would like to thank my mentor Anudeep Ayyagari for pushing us through these 4 hours and keeping us motivated.

The purpose of this case study is just a representation of what we can achieve by working with a clear process and under definite timelines as a team. None of the results obtained are certain and most of the problems we based our solution on, stem from assumptions. If you do have any feedback I’d be happy to hear about it.

Thanks for reading!