Enabling better Venue
Discovery on BookMyShow
Re-designed the way users discovered old and new places of interest
WHAT IS BOOKMYSHOW?
And why is it big part of India's culture?
BookMyShow is India’s largest online ticketing platform. For the last 2 decades it has been fueling India’s passion for entertainment by bringing the best of entertainment to the country through its strategic partnerships, the most recent feather in its cap being the Lollapalooza festival’s debut in India (and also Asia).
BookMyShow is the official ticketing partner for some the largest events such as the Indian Premier League and the Sunburn festival. The company has also expanded outside India to enable seamless ticketing experience for events such as the Dubai Expo and the Singapore Grand Prix.
BookMyShow continues to add more features to its platform in order to attain its vision to be the go-to platform for anything entertainment!
5
Countries with operations
60 million +
Users across verticals
650+
Cities & towns with operations
10 million +
Average number of tickets sold in a month
OVERVIEW
Why did venue discovery need a revamp?
The entertainment industry in India is rapidly evolving to cater to the ever-changing tastes of the Indian audience that is seeking newer experiences. With its vision to be the one-stop place for entertainment, it's incredibly important for BookMyShow to ensure that users are able to discover events of their interest on the platform.
Currently on BookMyshow, a user journey starts from discovering movies & events. It was observed that users were frequently searching for event venues in the global search or referring to ‘trending searches’. Data also showed that many users bought tickets to events happening at a particular venue only.
This gave us an opportunity to improve the overall venue discovery experience for users who were not only looking for specific venues but also landed on BookMyShow in an attempt to discover new experiences in their city.
DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE PAIN POINTS
The problems during various scenarios of venue discovery
RESEARCH
I started out my research to understand current user behaviour and requirements
The research was focused on the mobile platform as about 94% of BookMyshow’s users are on mobile. I completed the research in 2 steps:
Step 1: In-Depth user interviews
Understand how users were currently meeting their goals?
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How did they discover new venues?
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What are users looking for when discovering new event venues?
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What products do they currently use to discover venues?
14 user interviews
I conducted exploratory interviews with 14 users who used BookMyShow extensively
Step 2: Competitor analysis
I researched other solutions available currently in order to:
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Understand the landscape of solutions available to users currently
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Identify gaps in BookMyShow’s current flow and identify opportunities for improvement
Google Search
Venue results on Google Search
Venue pages on Facebook
PayTM Insider
BookMyShow’s direct competitor
INSIGHTS FROM USER INTERVIEWS
There is no one product that meets all the user goals, users generally have to rely on multiple products to gather all the information they require about a venue. Here were my insights from user interviews:
How do users discover new venues?
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Word of mouth : Usually users relied on word of mouth by friends and familY
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Social media : Exploring venues via ads/recommendation on social media
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Via events : Users became curious about a venue after discovering it on an event page/ad. They usually land on a venue page by clicking on the venue page link on event pages either on social media or on BookMyShow. Based on the information available on these venue pages, users do a Google Search to know more
INSIGHTS FROM USER INTERVIEWS
Users consider many factors before deciding to visit a venue
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
There is no one product that meets all the user goals
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
A deep dive into the problems fed into the research for improvements across the platform
A deep dive into the various issues on the platform opened up opportunities for improving venue discovery experience across the platform
DEFINING THE SCOPE OF THE REVAMP
There were some limitations to implementing a full revamp
Only a few new design components implementable as only a few engineering resources available
This project was conceived during the height of Covid-19 with only a few engineering resources available at the time. Therefore, to minimise technical resources, only a few new design components could be introduced.
New design system implementation
BookMyShow had recently updated its design system, ‘Tent’, which was in the process of implementation, therefore the design had to take into consideration that parts of the platform where the new design system was already implemented.
Scalability for over 65,000 plus venues
Even though many of the bigger venue owners were excited about the prospect of having a dedicated page for their venues, replicating the information flow needed a scalability plan as BookMyShow has over 65000 venues registered on the platform
A well-thought-out ratings & reviews system across BookMyShow
BookMyShow currently does not have a clearly thought-out ratings & reviews system. A R&R system could not be introduced in MVP as the system has to be consistent across the platform. This will be introduced in a larger revamp of the platform.
SCOPING OUT FEATURES FOR PHASE 1
We shortlisted features that had low dependency on existing platform infrastructure
SCOPE OF MY PROJECT
Improve the venue discovery experience - Phase 1
Planned outcome 1 - Improve discovery
Users will be able to discover venues based on their personal preferences and criteria easily
Planned outcome 2 - Increase engagement
Increase user engagement by optimising content on actual venue page by presenting relevant information
Features identified for the MVP based on the constraints
Venue discovery - ‘Favourite Venues’ widget on homepage
Improved sorting options + improved venue listings card
Improved venue page - complete redesign of the existing page
Key takeaways from this project
Always validate hypothesis
For some time I worked directly with stakeholders, who had some hypotheses regarding what information users were seeking . It was tempting to start work on those hypotheses, however doing in-depth interviews helped debunk many of these hypotheses allowing me to articulate actual gaps in the user journey.
Work with engineers early and often
Given that this was going to be an almost new feature, but with quite a few constraints, the initial iterations of the design included several new components. Running ideas by the engineering teams early on helped me understand what was possible with the current available systems at BookMyShow.
It’s not just numbers for stakeholders!
This project entailed me working very closely with the business teams. It was a very pleasant experience they proved to be an effective medium of communication between product and venue owners. It was great to see them advocating for users needs and successfully convincing the venue owners to provide us with all the information and support required in order to make this feature successful.
