Redesigning Fandango’s iOS App
Making Movies an Event Again
Going to the movies has always been an exciting, anxious, joyous experience. We bring our friends, our families, our dates, sometimes we just bring ourselves. Over the years, making a plan to go see a new flick on a weekend has become irritating. One of the first solutions for this was using online services to buy your tickets, print them out at home, and go right on through to your movie. Since then, smartphones have dominated the world. Everything we do is on our phones. Whether it’s shopping for shoes, buying a cup of coffee, or talking to someone.
Approximately 70% of consumers make purchases through their smartphone.
Fandango jumped on the smartphone boom opportunity and attempted to provide more than just a ticket-buying experience. They thought they could add the idea of exclusivity to their product, and have “VIP account” features. They were missing the whole point. They crammed useless features into their product, applied an aesthetic that is only acceptable around Halloween, and buying a ticket is similar to jumping through hoops on fire just so you can go see a romantic comedy with that girl you met at the bar the other night. Fandango forgot what going to the movies was all about, what it truly is. A movie is an event, a gathering, a night out, an experience, and that’s what I believe people want it to feel like again.
Why the iOS App is a Bad Experience
Before I dive into this, I’d like to say I’m a big fan of using a tab bar. I think it’s the way to go with most iOS apps, and can provide a great experience if you organize your content correctly. That being said, Fandango did the tab bar wrong. They did it wrong by repeating their categories. The first tab we see when we launch the app is called Spotlight. Spotlight shows us current movies available in cinemas around us. This is fine. I am more than ok with this. The next tab is called Movies, and it’s exactly what you think it is. It shows us current movies available in cinemas around us. It’s exactly the same as the previous tab. There’s no use for a duplicate, and making it for the sake of filling up the tab bar is confusing, unnecessary, and lazy.
Moving down the tab bar, “Theaters” is the next one we see. This tab simply shows us theaters around us and lets us decide which one we’d like to check out. Nothing wrong with this, yet not enough to justify an entire tab bar. I’d like to move on to the most useless and pointless tab. The Go Now tab. This tab shows you the next available movie showings at the closest theaters possible. Honestly, this should just be the entire app with more times. It’s really not a bad feature by itself, but in combination with the first three tabs surrounding this product, it’s a repetitive burden. I’ve used the Fandango app for a while now, and not once have I ever used this feature.
I’d like to move on to the final problem I have with this product. The whole point of using this app is to buy a movie ticket. That’s priority number one. That’s why I’m using this product. It should be the developer’s and designer’s goal to move us through an easy, quick, painless, seamless process of purchasing a ticket. This does not happen, and honestly I rather wait on a line or use a kiosk. It takes too much time between choosing the number of tickets I want to buy, and having to enter my card information at the end adds more frustration.
How It Can Be Improved
When approached with the challenge, “Choose an app to redesign”, my mind went to Fandango. I’ve been going to the movies a lot recently, and was frustrated with how tangled up the process was when buying a ticket. I had a concept in mind. I’d trim off the useless fat on the product, realign the checkout and ticket purchasing process, and polish it until I had a clean, minimalistic product that did it’s job. In addition to this, I wanted to add compatibility with Apple Pay. It bewildered me that I’m not able to purchase a ticket via Apple Pay, and can’t add my movie ticket to Passbook (now just called Wallet).
What you see above is my end result. From the get go, much like the “Spotlight” feature from before, you see current movies open in theaters. There’s no tab bar to distract you. Here you can scroll through movies you’d like to check out, when you’re happy with one, simply tap it to proceed to the next step.
Next, it’s up to you to decide when you’d like to go. A simple, clean calendar is presented in front of you. Choose a date you’d like to go, and you’re on your way to the next step: Finding a theater.
On this map, you’ll automatically see theaters closest to you. All you have to do is pick one you’re happy with and is convenient for you. That’s it. Now just buy your ticket.
The last and final stage is buying your ticket. Choose how many tickets you want and your total is presented to you in real time. There’s no going back and forth to two separate pages to check how much it’d cost for an extra ticket. All that’s left is to purchase, and you have the option of using Apple Pay, or a credit card previously saved on the app.
Now you’re done! The ticket is added to your phone, and you have an event to look forward to. This is the most simplified version of this product, and it’s what I believe it should be. Want to search or edit settings? Just swipe down. Everything’s there for you when you need it. Search for anything like movies, theaters, even actors.
The goal of this redesign was to make purchasing movie tickets feel exciting again. This is an event. Mark your calendars for it. Remove frustration, remove complexity, and remove pointless features. With a clean white UI, I wanted the user to feel as if they’re creating their own personal event, and the presentation of all the decisions you make for that evening at the movies gives the user a feeling of significance. When you go to the movies, you’re paying for an experience. Why not have buying your tickets be a great experience as well?
You can find the slide share presentation here!
Michael Battaglia is the Lead UI/UX Designer for Augur Digital Media (ADM), a NYC based digital ad agency.
