Cineplex on iOS: Making a Good App Better
Cineplex theatres is one of the largest theatre chains in Canada, serving over 71 million guests annually. Just like any other large theatre chain, Cineplex has a feature-rich iOS app allowing customers to view showtimes, information, and buy tickets to any of the current blockbuster movies.
The main objective of the app is solid: getting information to the user as quickly as possible. The Cineplex app has all the right information, but I think there are issues with how it’s presented, especially on one screen….which just happens to be the first one the user interacts with.
I want to start by saying this isn’t a complete redesign of the app and that it isn’t meant to be a criticism of this app’s overall look and function. I’m also looking at this without any behind-the-scenes research or knowledge of the corporate goals.
Upon opening the app, you’re presented with this home screen:
The poster art for each blockbuster movie is large and beautiful. There’s a nice rotation of movies to swipe through, bringing into view its large poster art and opening day information.
Aside from a couple weird buttons sitting sideways, this screen is good from a visual perspective. The problems start to become apparent when we talk about functionality. How do I see what time Captain America plays today? Do I tap on the large artwork to get more details? Nothing happens. Maybe I should tap on the Tickets box sitting sideways over the poster art? This takes me to tickets I’ve viewed in the past, but not quite what I wanted. How about tapping on the small artwork thumbnail at the bottom? There we go. This now takes me to a screen showing the showtimes for Captain America and displaying the theatres it’s playing in that are nearest to my location. This is great, but it was hard to get here. There’s room for improvement here.
My proposed redesign:
I wanted to keep the large, beautiful poster art intact, while also having an interactive way of swiping through these pictures to access more meaningful information.
By using an arrow to the right of the movie title I’m giving the user a clear call to action on this particular movie. It’s sitting almost exactly where the average user would place their thumb.
Once tapped, the ‘card’ flips over to reveal the movie showtimes based on the current location of the device.
The user is now able to quickly select a particular showtime, view all showtimes if they’re looking for something on a future date, return to the poster art via the top left arrow, or swipe up and down again to flip through the other blockbuster showtimes. For example, swiping up would reveal Captain America’s showtimes:
This gives the user the option to stay on this screen and flip through upcoming showtimes for each of the major blockbuster movies instead of having to go in and out of screens for each.
Without context it’s difficult to understand how and why the application exists as it does. All things considered, Cineplex has done a good job producing a useful mobile app. Making a subtle improvement to the home screen would dramatically increase it’s efficiency and provide more value to the user.
Feel free to let me know what you think of this redesign and any other ideas you might have on Twitter.
