Web
Simplifying complex ticket purchases
Complex interactions & dependencies
Background
A checkout built for club nights
Our checkout experience was a barrier to securing 18 potential festival accounts, representing approximately £4.3M in potential revenue.
It was built for the typical club experience, but when stretched for more complex set ups the customer experience would fall short
The legacy checkout stretched to handle a complex festival
Technical background
Levelling up our ticketing stack
We had been on a long digital transformation journey, moving onto a new tech stack, as part of the process for pulling promoters onto our ticketing stack we wanted to offer a more elevated ticketing experience to them, especially festivals
We had been relying on hard coded and one-off solutions to win business (e.g. Dimensions Festival)
Bespoke solution for Dimensions on our legacy system
Exploration
Working alongside SME’s
We worked alongside our revenue, promoter solutions and product teams to align on a what are the must haves and what could be fast followers
I mapped how the interface would need to flex as complexity increased, from multi-select to categories nested within steps
- How can we create a flexible system that can work for multiple festival types?
- What other types of events can these approaches work for?
- How many layers deep does the typical festival need for MVP?
Hub, a menu of categories
Step, sequential steps
Single page, everything on one scroll
Systems thinking
Designing for nesting & dependencies
Festivals stack tickets, releases, groups and categories in different combinations. I mapped how the interface would need to flex as complexity increased, from a single counter to categories nested within steps.
0 nesting, a counter per tier
1 layer, groups are built
2 layers, adding steps
3 layers, categories in steps
Iterative testing
Stepper & basket
The main components we wanted to test and iterate on were the Stepper and the Basket. We tested a few key areas along the way to understand what was working and where users experienced friction:
- Do users navigate the stepper confidently, without hesitation or concern about losing their progress?
- Does the second layer of filtering feel intuitive and clearly contained within the relevant step?
- Do users understand how to edit their basket and make changes to their selections?
Stepper, selecting weekend tickets
Iterating on hierarchy & clarity
Images on groups, the accommodation step
The final experience
What we shipped
- Images on groups
- Multi-select on tickets
- Edit and view basket
- Stepper component
- Categories, a 2nd layer of filtering per step
⚠️ Still in development
This product is currently in development and is due to launch this month. As a result, I don't yet have sales or deal data to share.
The final multi-stepped checkout, a flexible, step-based experience for complex festivals
Reflection
What I would do differently
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Validate across platforms earlier
We fell into the trap of prioritising mobile because that's where most of our users are. However, we hadn't tested desktop early enough, which led to some last-minute changes to the experience.
It was a good reminder to validate across platforms earlier, even when one platform is significantly more important.
-
You don't need to involve subject matter experts the whole time
Because this project was closely tied to our revenue team landing deals with larger festivals, their expertise was really important when it came to prioritisation. However, that input could sometimes extend beyond their area of expertise, particularly into product and UX decisions.
It was a valuable lesson in balancing stakeholder expertise with UX best practice, and knowing when to involve them and when to take ownership of the design decision.