Project brief
Exploring designs for an MVP buyer checkout that lets people purchase additional items (like hoodies, vinyl, a parking pass or an after-party pass) while buying tickets to an event.
I worked with Shiera Aryev (Design Director), Tammy Kitt (Product Designer), Irfan Ibrahim (Product Manager) and Juan Beltran (Marketing Designer).
Background
The platform
Universe is the world’s destination for finding and creating experiences, an event platform where organizers manage their events and attendees discover memorable ones. It hosts everything from festivals and live shows to workshops and conferences, has worked with clients like TEDx, TechCrunch and Red Bull, and has sold millions of tickets worldwide.
The internship
From mid-April to mid-June 2018, I interned at Universe as a product designer, working closely with lead designer Tammy Kitt, product manager Irfan Ibrahim and the team to design concept prototypes for an MVP of the add-ons checkout.
Understand
Map the current ticketing checkout and find opportunities to sell add-ons.
Iterate
Explore and refine designs to add the new feature within the existing flow.
Validate & deliver
User-test prototypes to validate assumptions, then deliver concepts to the team for development.
I collaborated closely with designers, PMs and engineers, and got weekly feedback in design critiques. Under my design director and PM, I also wrote a facilitator script for user interviews, put prototypes up for testing, iterated on feedback, and presented my final solution for future iterations.
Research
Understanding the problem
We started with market research (interviewing past, existing and potential Universe clients) and a competitive analysis to understand the challenges around buying add-ons.
The problem looked different for our two audiences.
Event organizers
Organizers already sell extras like CDs, T-shirts, food tickets, parking, workshops and after-parties, but they’ve been working around the platform:
- Add-ons as ticket types
- Confusing for buyers, who may end up buying parking for the wrong day.
- Other e-commerce sites
- Low sales from multiple purchases, and data to reconcile across systems.
- 100% onsite sales
- Selling extras only at the event to avoid a separate system.
- A separate Universe event
- Low discoverability and low sales because of multiple purchases.
- Managing availability
- Hard to know which add-ons are popular for different event types, to keep inventory stocked.
Buyers and attendees
- Multiple purchases
- Separate accounts mean separate checkouts, making buyers less likely to buy add-ons.
- Missing that add-ons exist
- If add-ons are sold elsewhere, buyers may never know the event offers them.
- Carrying cash
- Cash-only onsite sales (common at concerts and festivals) reduce purchases.
- Sold out onsite
- Waiting until the event risks items, sizes or options being unavailable.
- Can’t plan ahead
- Buying parking or workshop passes in advance lets people plan their event.
Research
User discovery insights
To understand buyers’ motivations, preferences and goals, I wrote a set of questions and ran a survey on UserTesting.com for qualitative insight into how people think about add-ons and what drives them to buy.
80%
preferred to buy physical merchandise on-site, on the day, especially clothing and wearables. They described it as part of the event experience. (Most referred to concerts and festivals, though Universe hosts many other kinds of events.)
“It's more like a part of the event, like something you got there rather than something ordered online and had before.”
“You can't tell from the picture if it'll look good on you or if it will fit well.”
“I feel like I avoid shipping or extra fees when I buy it in person.”
26%
were interested in buying physical merchandise online, in advance. Some had bought bundled tickets with add-ons before.
“I'm always looking for parking before I go to events… I like to be prepared, so yes, I have purchased additional products for an event that I have attended in the past.”
84%
were interested in buying non-physical extras (parking, campsites, workshop passes) online in advance. About 10% of them had already bought parking in advance for past events.
“Would definitely get them beforehand. Not being able to get one of these can interfere with your plans.”
The opportunity
With a clearer picture of the problem, the team defined a value proposition: let organizers sell add-ons directly on Universe, a business opportunity to up-sell extras alongside tickets.
- Our add-ons help
- Event organizers who need to sell additional items
- Who need a better way to
- Increase sales of non-ticketed items
- By
- Making add-ons a first-class citizen that Universe ticket buyers can purchase
- And is better than
- Setting up multiple ticket types for add-ons
- Setting up multiple events for add-ons
- Using a third-party system
- Because
- Attendees select and pay for tickets and add-ons in one flow and one transaction
- Organizers keep all sales data in one system and streamline accounting
- Organizers can provide a smoother onsite experience
Design challenge
Simple
How might we add add-ons to the current checkout in a way that’s intuitive and simple to follow?
Efficient
How might we let buyers quickly assign an add-on to a ticket holder?
Transparent
How might we let buyers clearly see the different taxes applied to tickets and add-ons in their order?
Goals for the MVP
We listed the core goals for the MVP buyer experience, which shaped how I broke down the current checkout and what I prototyped and tested. My main focus:
- View and purchase add-ons in the same transaction as a ticket.
- Assign add-ons to a ticket holder.
Current checkout, without add-ons
I focused on the “Buy tickets and add-ons” phase of the journey. Here’s the existing checkout for buying tickets on Universe:
Understanding the constraints
To understand core user needs, our MVP goals and the development constraints, I listed questions for the team, which guided me through the iterations.
- Should we call them “add-ons” or “products”? Do people know what an add-on is? (My prototypes say products; we later chose add-ons.)
- Where’s the most effective place to show add-ons: on the same screen as tickets, or after ticket selection?
- Buyers can already assign tickets to other attendees. How can we let them assign add-ons too?
- Like “Ticket information”, where would buyers enter details for add-ons, like size or colour? Is that in scope for the MVP?
- Do we show images? If so, what about a parking pass or workshop class? Could a generic icon represent non-photo add-ons?
- How do we break down taxes? Do add-ons have different taxes than tickets, and how do we make that clear in “Your order”?
Iterations
After research, I explored layouts for showing add-ons within the constraints of the existing checkout. The add-ons step only appears if the organizer is selling add-ons.
Version 1
- Where in the flow should “Select add-ons” go?
- What do add-ons with photos look like, and how do they work with and without one?
- Where do we ask for additional information?
Version 2
I explored letting users expand an image to learn more, a two-step way to view each add-on. It didn’t work: browsing several products meant lots of back-and-forth, the interaction got confusing inside a modal, and the layout broke for long names or items without images.
Version 3
On the left, I merged tickets and add-ons on one collapsible screen, but with many tickets and add-ons, the scroll got very long and hard to paginate. On the right, I condensed the options and used a dropdown for details, shrinking images to keep buttons small, which didn’t work for products without images.
Version 4
We moved add-ons to after ticket information, reusing each attendee’s name and email so buyers can assign add-ons to individual attendees. I also explored a version without images. We felt confident in this UX, so I refined the UI and prepared it for user testing.
Final deliverable
After many iterations and rounds of testing, this was my final deliverable. I handed it to my lead designer, who kept iterating after I left. The add-ons flow is now live, without images to keep the MVP simple.
In eight weeks, I analyzed product problems, found opportunities and designed a feasible MVP for my team.
User testing
After prototyping a few iterations, I ran several tests on UserTesting.com to validate the final version. It was exciting to watch people move through the checkout.
How it felt
Most users described the checkout as excellent, simple, straightforward, clear, intuitive, quick and easy.
Assigning worked
Users liked assigning add-ons, found it useful, and appreciated it being pre-filled and shown in the order summary, which helped them decide what to remove.
A small learning curve
Several expected items to add to cart automatically after choosing options (as tickets do) and missed “Add to cart”. Once they added the first item, they added the rest easily.
Additional projects
I also worked on side projects with the marketing team, following the design guidelines and layouts set by lead marketing designer Juan Beltran to help design two landing pages.
Reflection & next steps
My time at Universe was rewarding and educational. It was my first time designing for real users, and I learned about agile workflows, balancing business goals with feasibility and technical constraints, research-driven design, rapid prototyping and time management. It was exciting to help shape the final checkout experience.
Where I’d take add-ons in version 2
Photos that scale
Bring in photos with a scalable approach that handles edge cases like parking passes that don’t need images.
More than one option
Hosts can only set one custom option (like size) today, so a T-shirt in three colours needs three listings. Two options, size and colour, would cut listings down.
Details at checkout
Let buyers enter details like size and colour for each item during checkout.
