Context

Concept Statement

The Last Minute app allows sellers of tickets for last minute events to potential buyers. This online marketplace allows people looking to resell tickets to sell unsold tickets to potential buyers, by providing an online ticketing service to the general public. It focuses on building a community by allowing individuals with similar interests to connect with others. These events range from movies, concerts, and performing arts as well to unticketed events like picnics and hikes. The platform quickly verifies tickets to ensure genuine purchases and create user safety through encryption. It allows users to create profiles so that they can showcase their hobbies and interests as well as allows them to filter events based on distance, area, type of event, and date.

Affinity Mapping

We used affinity mapping to condense common ideas and lines of thought based on feedback from users following our user research. We also gained a better understanding of the user's needs and our approach as a result of the process. Finally, we devised a more organized data collection strategy and a more streamlined approach to the project. The ideas were divided into seven groups, as shown below.

Emergent Themes from User Research

On the basis of the Affinity Mapping exercise, a few themes emerged.

Types of Events

• Seven out of 11 participants listed concerts as an event they frequently attend.
• Other types of events include comedy, sports, art/museums, and professional meetups.

Definition of a “Last-Minute Event” (LME)

• What was considered to be “last minute” ranged from two weeks to attending an event that has already started.

Finding an LME

• There are a range of ways people find last-minute events. Participants referred to social media, Do512, Reddit, and word of mouth.

Purchasing

• Participants preferred to purchase tickets straight from the source of the event.
• There is hesitation when purchasing from third-party vendors.
• Third-party vendors have a reputation for increasing prices and a risk of losing money to faulty tickets.

Method of Exchange

• Participants receive LME tickets by a digital exchange such as text or email.
• The team hypothesized in-person would be common, but only one person listed in-person exchange.

Identity Verification

• Since there is hesitation about third-party selling, we asked participants how they verified the identity of an unknown seller.
• Participants trust people they already know or are part of a group they are already a member of.
• There is also a type of trust in the site they are purchasing from if it is a well-known site such as Ticketmaster.

User Challenges

There were a number of challenges when it comes to attending an LME. These challenges can be grouped into three categories:

Information Architecture (IA)

From the aforementioned user behavior reports, we were able to map out an information architecture for our application that would best suit user needs and provide good affordances for tasks users might try and accomplish on our application.

Ideation

To tinker around with ideas we started formulating after completing our user research and information architecture design phases, we started the ideation process, starting with sketching for a digital product.

Storyboard

User Testing

Using our initial prototype we conducted some user testing to find things which could be improved in subsequent iterations

Task 1 : Create a profile

Participants found the screens informative, but one participant found it odd to provide ID and suggested providing more information on why it's needed.

Task 2 : Sell a ticket

Participants had difficulty finding the seller option and suggested having a separate homepage for sellers. They also suggested providing more information about the ticket and accentuating payment-related notifications.

Task 3 : Find a Community

Participants liked the feature but suggested having a separate messages navigation button.

Overall Impression

Participants wanted a confirmation screen before the final payment screen.

Participants thought few of the screens had elements which looked like disabled states. This would be fixed in future iterations

Participants wanted the ability to still see which events are in town without having to go through onboarding.

Participants had a pleasant experience, liked the app's design, and would be interested in using it in the future.

Final Prototype and Walkthrough

You will find a clickable prototype of the product below. Have fun!

Key Features

Appendix

If you would like to access the detailed report for this project, the link is below.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Michael Mcquaid, my research supervisor, for his patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement, useful critiques of this research work, advice, and assistance in keeping our progress on schedule. I would also like to thank my fellow classmates, and all the participants in our interviews and usability tests.