Fandango: Uncovering Critical Usability Issues in the Ticket Purchase Flow

Overview

Conducted as part of a 2-person research team, this study investigated why Fandango's ticket purchasing experience was underperforming. Through comprehensive usability testing with 7 participants, we uncovered critical pain points that were causing extended task completion times and low user satisfaction ratings.

Our research revealed systemic issues around pricing transparency, information architecture, and expectation management that were directly impacting the purchasing flow.

The Problem

Fandango's ticket purchasing experience was receiving some of the lowest satisfaction ratings among all user tasks on the platform. Initial data showed that users were taking an average of 4 minutes and 13 seconds to complete a ticket purchase — significantly longer than industry benchmarks.

Our research team needed to understand:

• Why was task completion taking so long?
• What specific pain points were users encountering?
• Where in the flow were users getting stuck or frustrated?

Research Process

Phase 1: Discovery

We began with pre-study surveys to understand baseline movie-going habits, preferred theaters, and past experiences with online ticket purchasing platforms. This helped us identify potential participants and establish context before formal testing.

Phase 2: Cognitive Walkthroughs

Before conducting moderated testing, we performed cognitive walkthroughs of the existing Fandango flow. This helped us identify potential friction points and develop targeted tasks for usability testing sessions.

Phase 3: Moderated Usability Testing

Our research team conducted moderated usability testing with 7 participants via Zoom. We split participants between team members to ensure consistency while allowing us to gather insights efficiently. Each session included task-based scenarios focused on the ticket purchasing flow.

Key tasks tested:

• Find and purchase tickets for a specific movie at a nearby theater
• Compare pricing across different theaters and showtimes
• Select specific seats for a popular film
• Complete the entire purchase flow from search to checkout

Meet Matt: Our Primary Persona

Through our research, we developed Matt, a 28-year-old movie enthusiast who represents our core user group. Matt sees multiple movies per month and values convenience and transparency when purchasing tickets.

Matt's frustrations: He wants to quickly compare theaters and showtimes without discovering unexpected costs at checkout. He's frustrated by unclear pricing, hidden fees, and wasting time on options that become unavailable mid-purchase.

Key Findings

Our research uncovered three critical pain points that were directly impacting user satisfaction and task completion times.

Recommendations

Based on our findings, we provided the following recommendations in our research report:

Impact & Reflection

Deliverable: Our team delivered a comprehensive research report documenting all findings, participant feedback, personas, and prioritized recommendations. This report provided the foundation for future design improvements to the Fandango ticket purchasing experience.

What I learned: This project reinforced the importance of rigorous research methodology and the value of testing with real users. Analytics data told us that task completion was slow, but only through moderated testing could we understand the "why" behind the numbers.

Working as part of a research team taught me the importance of consistency in testing protocols and the value of collaborative analysis. By splitting participants but maintaining aligned methods, we were able to gather insights efficiently while ensuring reliability across sessions.