Overview
USC Ticket Hub is the one stop shop for buying sporting event tickets at the University of Southern California. It allows students and guest to have one, centralized way of buying game tickets and gaining easy, wait-free admission into arenas via scannable QR code.
I created idea originally as a fun side project but after hearing about the confusing experience my peers had with the current ticket buying process, I ventured to make USC Ticket Hub a reality. I presented the application to a board of USC officials and it has been approved for development.
As the creator of the app, I lead and manage our team of developers to bring the best product to prospective users. I'm responsible for all aspects of design including, but not limited to: idea and feature creation, user research, user personas, wire framing, high fidelity mockups, usability testing, and branding strategy.
Before the everything else, I always identify what the problem I'm trying to solve with my design.
I recorded and looked into what my peers and other people on the USC campus told me about their troublesome ticket buying experience. I concluded that the main issues were that:
- There are far too many ticket buying sites that have unwelcoming interfaces that turn off potential buyers.
- People are worried about having their student ID lost or stolen, as that is where the ticket is electronically attached to.
I also took into account the problems USC has with their students when to it comes to buying tickets. Some buy solely to resell for profit and the poor user experience reduces school spirit and disconnects the student body.
I roamed campus hotspots to interview students about their game day experience. Among the some of the questions I asked were:
- How often do you attend football games?
- If so, where do you buy your tickets from currently?
- Did you find the process troublesome the first time you wanted to buy tickets?
- Would you use USC TICKET HUB if it was available to you?
I found that many people were indeed turned off by the current process and would use my product if available to them.
I also determined that my competition was to spread out and there was a lacking of a centralized ticket buying method.
I interviewed a peer about her experience with the USC ticket buying process and created a persona and scenario based on her comments.
I proceeded to create more personas for potentials users of the application. I focused on the younger demographics as my research indicated that 88% of football game attendees were students.
Based off the personas, I created features that would help make the ticket buying experience better for the user.
After validating that there was potential use and even demand for my product through research, I laid down exactly what I wanted USC TICKET HUB to help both the users and the university with.
After brainstorming potential features that people would find useful, I set out put together a concrete feature set for USC Ticket Hub.
I decided on incorporating the following features that users would be able to interact with:
- Scannable QR Code (ticket)
- Student/Guest Login
- Sport, Type, Game, and Seat Selection (purchasing process)
- Refund ability
- Purchase History Viewing
Information such a season record updates would remain static and invoke no call to action on behalf of the user.
Initially, I believed that adding a social aspect to the application would help user acquisition. It would have included features like posting photos of your time at the game and an in-house messaging platform to coordinate tailgating events or post game activities.
However, I decided it would have been detrimental to people's experience when using the application. At it's core, USC Ticket Hub is a utility application. Before everything else, the application needs to intuitive and simple to use it's core function - purchasing sporting event tickets.
Adding a broad social aspect to it would only serve to complexity users' experience. Also, it would probably wouldn't be used very often as their often for familiar and, quite frankly, better ways to communicate these things ( SMS, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, etc.)
The true value in the product comes from the utility, and I proceeded to design with that in mind.
I make use of the information gathered for my user personas and scenarios to lay down a visual image of what the application would look like.
I wanted to get a higher quality of visualization and a better idea of how I should alter available screen real estate for this project. Also helped to map out UI.
Time to put it all together!
After I've combed through my rough sketches of the applications interface for anything that might negatively impact a potential users experience, I transition into creating high quality mockups.
I intertwine USC branding strategy and UX principles to create an intuitive, clean, and aesthetically pleasing design.
I use principles of visual hierarchy to bring relevant information, such as flash sales and season records, to the attention of the user.
I also included a profile picture feature to serve as an identification device in case of any discrepancies about what a certain individual looks like a arena entrances. This also keeps the navigation bar simple and intuitive.