BookMyShow – Improving the ticket booking flow for the Comedy shows

Analyzing the booking flow of the Comedy shows in the BookMyShow app and identifying the problems faced by the users.

Role 🦋: UX Researcher

Duration ⏳: September 7th — September 16th

Disclaimer: Curious to know what went wrong and right? Keep reading as I’ve shared my imperfections in the case study.

What is BookMyShow? 🎟️

BookMyShow is an event booking app, where we can book tickets for movies, live events, concerts, shows, and sports. It also allows buying/renting of movies.

It also provides a platform for organizers to create and list their events on their Event Management Tool.

Why BookMyShow? 🔎

Recently I started liking standup comedy shows by watching shows on youtube. So I wanted to book tickets through “BookMyShow”.

While booking, I was given multiple options to select “Early Bird” or “Regular”. I was confused as I have never been to shows or events. I didn’t understand the difference between them. I tried to get help but couldn’t find any help.

I assumed that the early bird is about who shows up early and that a regular ticket is something that has reserved seats. I decided to go with a regular ticket and I ended up buying it.

For next few days, I was asking myself a question.

Am I the only one who found it difficult to make the decision?

I decided to find out by talking to the users in particular about this flow and find out if they are struggling to book tickets or make the decision. If yes –

• How does it affect the business?
• How can I help them to make the decision easily?
• How can I improve this experience?

Assumption 💬

As I found it difficult to make a decision in deciding the type of type ticket to choose. I’ve considered it as an assumption to analyze, validate, evaluate the assumption.

Choosing the type of ticket for a comedy show in the application is confusing. How Might We improve the experience of ticket booking for comedy shows?

Research Objective 📝

The objective of this Research project is to

• Understand users’ behavior and pain points while booking a ticket.
• Get to know user insights into what the user needs in the booking flow.

Explore the Application

I explored more comedy shows in BookMyShow to find out the other terms used to describe the tickets. They are

• Early Bird
• Regular Pass
• VIP Pass
• Show Pass

Secondary Research 🌐

I searched on google what they meant by Early bird, then I came across two different meanings

• Early bird tickets are just early tickets. These tickets offer a lower price for people willing to buy tickets early at a discounted price. It incentivizes attendees to commit to your event early and builds buzz.
• Early bird tickets are about showing up early to the event to choose any seat instead of arriving late and finding the last seat.
• The Regular ticket is the Standard general ticket.

After surfing internet, came to a conclusion that “Early Bird” serves on a different basis.

I have to talk, test, and think.

I contacted 4 friends for this exercise. I asked them to book tickets for any comedy show.

After having the friends onboard, I conducted usability testing with them.

Goals: To Analyze the user behavior, and to validate my assumption whether users are struggling to make decisions.

Tasks: The participants were presented with a home screen and have been given two tasks to analyze.

1. Find the Comedy Shows
2. Book a ticket for an offline Comedy Show in your city.

Findings ✅

Painpoints 🤒

• 4/4 of the users are able to find comedy shows.
• 2/4 of the users ended up not buying the tickets as they didn’t get any help to understand the the difference between tickets.
• 2/4 of the users bought regular tickets assuming it has reserved seats or incentives or closer seats even though Early bird tickets are available. (Have their own understanding of the terms)
• 3/4 of the users have come across the screen “Regular” and “Early bird” tickets available at once that didn’t provide any description about the tickets.
• 4/4 of the users were confused about the terms as didn’t know what exactly they are, or how they are different.

New Insights 👀

• 1/4 of the users wants to know the availability of tickets while booking.
• 4/4 of the users have their own understanding on the ticket purpose.

While Analyzing the conversations, I FOUND this

Curious?

Before talking about it, Let’s know the terms used in describing the type of ticket/pass.

WHAT is Early bird 🤔

“An early Bird ticket is a discounted ticket that expires before the sales of regular tickets starts. It incentivizes attendees to commit to your event early and builds buzz.”

“Early bird tickets are also First come first served.”

WHAT is Regular Pass 🤔

The ticket which you buy just a few days before the show. It is actually available once the early bird tickets get sold out.

Regular tickets are available even before the Early bird tickets get sold.

• This creates confusion for the users to make decisions when there is there no information about the ticket.

Let users know of what they are buying, which is better for them.

Business goals

• Increase efficiency completion rate of booking tickets for the comedy shows this benefits both organizers and bookmyshow.

Framing How Might We (HMW) 💡

To solve the problems, I brainstormed solutions for each HMW’s

• How Might We help users be aware of the terms used in describing the ticket/Pass?
• How Might We help users to book the ticket without any confusion?

So while framing the How Might We — What went wrong and right?

I explored the application again then I came across a screen that “Provides a description about the ticket”.

I engaged in a discussion with friends then one has suggested “What is the process to host an event on BookMyShow?”.

So I explored and found “BookMyShow — Event Management Tool” is providing a platform for organizers to create and list their events on their Event Management Tool.

I realized that MANY of the event hosts/team/organizers aren’t adding descriptions about the tickets.

To gain access to their Event Management Tool, I have to contact them to gain access to the tool.

Explored Competitor Interface — Eventbrite

Finally after understanding the problems, prioritizing problems to focus. Recommended solutions for Event Management Tool that helps user and impacts business are mentioned below –

“Making the description field for the ticket type should be mandatory in the event management tool.”

Why?

“To increase the completion rate of booking the tickets for first-time users as they are not aware of the jargon used to describe ticket/pass types.”

“Make the Regular Ticket available after the early bird tickets get sold out.”

Why?

“Regular Tickets which you buy just a few days before the show. It is actually available once the early bird tickets get sold out.”

This motivates interested users to share the event among their peers/friends to grab the ticket/pass at a discounted price before the early bird get sold which ends up creating a buzz.

How would you approach the problem next time? 🧠

• Understand and explore more about the problem.
• Always record while conducting interviews or testing instead of taking notes.
• Watch the recording and write the transcripts of the interview that helps in finding more insights.

What I’ve Learned 🎓

This is my first UX Research Project, Recently I started learning UX through blogs, videos, workshops and communities. I wasn’t confident at start but being consistent in knowing more about UX made me a curious person.

I learned that We can never achieve perfection either in design or life.

Instead of chasing perfections, I will work towards to be a better version of myself as a designer and an individual.

Thank you for reading! Your time is highly appreciated.

I am eagerly waiting for your feedback and thoughts on my work.

Don’t forget to click and hold the 👏🏼 icon for claps!

If you want to chat or collaborate on a project, feel free to connect with me on Linkedin, Instagram,& Twitter , or email me wdattavelivela@gmail.com.