This cloud-based, circuit-level theatrical exhibition product was part of a suite of movie applications I designed, each user experience built with a unique feature set depending upon the product requirements, and the audiences/personas of the clients. This particular application was used to bundle trailers and policies together with films to be digitally delivered to a complete circuit of movie multiplexes. For instance, if you were an executive at AMC or Pacifc Theatres, and wanted to digitally push "Black Panther" out to every one of your theatres in the Northwest Region of the United States for a particular time period, you would use this product to do that.
Together with the SVP of Exhibition, Lead Developer, and Senior User Support Technician, my team conducted full walkthroughs of the new product design with multiple theatrical executives (who use the product) showing them pixel accurate mockups of the User Interface (UI), which I’d created. We obtained precise feedback on their needs and preferences, and determined if any segment of the design needed clarification, or if there were pain points we could remedy with additional features. Since the software is primarily used by executive level clients to program & bundle film content, the user base was given a lot of personal one-on-one attention, because their work cascades down to everyone else.
In terms of design, much of my focus was in improving the overall intuitiveness of the feature layout (ie. the attention ratio of the pages, its visual hierarchies, primacy and recency effects, calls-to-action, and visual connectors to drove the narrative experience of the software product). I also improved the way it communicated the value proposition of the software, and promoted our company as the strongest provider of innovative solutions for their very particular challenges.
Collaborating with our Engineering team, I did a lot of work to keep the interface simple/intuitive to the user (despite the complex processes involved), without overburdening the backend with too many data calls for a smooth/fast page load. As a part of our Agile build, all software updates which I designed were of course subjected to extensive usability benchmarking to ensure that we were getting the fastest performance possible. We had an excellent staff of QA testers who conducted A/B testing and clickstream analysis on the software, and I personally reviewed the design development with Programmers to make sure that they were pixel-accurate, and fully-functional prior to going live. We achieved marked improvements in both performance & elegance of appearance from those efforts.
I was also focused on building inherent extensibility into the design so that it could grow with the company, and our client's needs, demonstrating its baseline functionality, while also allowing for programmatic flexibility as we went forward. I find it's important to communicate how the front and backend can support each other effectively from a development perspective. You have to balance design feasibility in terms of build timelines, and be conscientious of technical viability constraints.
We then sent corporate representatives to Australia & Spain to show the new designs to the public and secure more clients, as well as to major media conferences like CineEurope where we had booths that allowed us to interact with both old and new clients, and get their evaluation of the design features.
All this led not only to better customer retention, but new customers as well, as word got around in the industry that the product was demonstrating significant progress. Ultimately all this resulted in a merger acquisition of the company. I'm very proud of the work my team did on this exceedingly complex product set.