Universal Studios Mobile App UX Redesign
Overview
Having gone to Universal Studios many times over the years, I found that as I grew more familiar with the park, my expectations for the app changed from a helpful all-in-one tour guide, to a passive digital companion whose difficult interface made it inconvenient to use.
Over the course of 8 weeks, I redesigned the Universal Studios Mobile App to make navigating the park easier for users by having essential park information and features more easily and quickly accessible so they are able to focus on enjoying their day at the park
Role: Product Designer
Tools: Figma
Process stages: Design audit, user interviews, usability testing, competitive analysis, Lo-fi wireframing and design iterations, high-fidelity Mockups
When: May - August 2023
Stakeholders: Universal Studios Park visitors
Problem Statement
Park visitors struggle to navigate the park due to the app’s unintuitive interface
Whether you were an expert looking for the wait time of your favorite ride, or on your first visit, park visitors found it difficult to quickly locate essential park information and features due to the app’s clunky and unintuitive interface.
The Solution
Surfacing Essential Park Info and Features is key
Convenient access to regularly used features and content
Quick access most frequently needed content and functionality such as the map, ticket details and mobile ordering.
Park visitors are able to plan ahead and quickly check Park Hours and Info for future dates.
“Explore the Park” category provides guides and inspiration for navigating the park during your visit.
Find Mobile Ordering dining options easily
Making dining options that support mobile ordering easier to find increases park visitor willingness to spend by 45%*.
Ability to order ahead reduces queues and encourages park visitors to plan ahead.
*according to Omnico’s Theme Park Mobile BarometerMore effectively navigate the park
Surfaced wait times and show times bring important info to users at a glance.
Categorizing park offerings make exploring the park and map easier.
Tailored filters make refining map and map list more effective.
Current Struggles with the Existing App
Wanting to really dive into how the existing app struggles in surfacing important info, I performed a heuristic evaluation and found multiple usability issues on several screens, including, but not limited to the following:
Home Screen
Hard to tell if park hours banner which is the only place to find park-related info such as block out dates, is tappable or not.
News carousel takes up excess amount of space.
Quick actions were neither quick, or in the case of the Virtual Line and Alerts, frequently used either.
Mobile Ordering Screens
There’s no way to tell which dining options have mobile ordering available. Users are forced to tap into each restaurant and check.
Map Screens
Map presents users with an overwhelming amount of information that is hard to comprehend.
Hard to find information related to park offerings from the map due to the confusing icons.
Map List Screens
Non-ride park offerings are clumped together into a single “Other Attractions” category which made it further difficult to find information.
Competitive Analysis
Looking to explore how other theme park apps surfaced park info and features, I reviewed the mobile apps of the 3 most popular theme parks in Southern California.
Disneyland
Disneyland Map is easy to find rides, wait times, and other key points of interest
Disneyland Home screen was cluttered and more like a long block of ads than a quick spot for park features.
Six Flags
Six Flags Map was difficult to read and confusing to comprehend due to the large number of small icons
Six Flags Home screen was simple to navigate and informative.
Knott’s Berry Farm
The Knott’s Map was confusing to navigate, difficult to read, and not very helpful for getting around the park.
Knott’s Home screen felt utilitarian, but wasn’t visually interesting or engaging.
User Interviews and Usability Testing
I wanted to hear firsthand my target audience’s experience with the existing app. With 6 users ranging from annual passholder to first-time visitor, I aimed to find features or functionality they felt the app could include to enhance their trip at the park.
With the data I gathered from my user interviews, testing, and research I organized user pain points into an affinity map and grouped into the following categories where users felt the app could be improved.
Difficulty planning trips to park: Almost everybody showed confusion with finding park hours and ticket information such as block out dates.
Difficulty Mobile Ordering: Multiple users struggled to find restaurants that had mobile food ordering available.
Inconvenient Home Screen: Most users felt the Home screen didn’t surface important park content and features they wanted or needed in a digestible format.
Map and Map List navigation: Unanimously, users found that navigating the map screens to find specific park offerings was cumbersome and frustrating.
Goal Statement
After sharing my findings with the rest of the design system team, the goal became to:
Make navigating the park easier for users by having essential information quickly and easily accessible so they are able to spend more time enjoying their day at the park?
Wireframes and Initial Designs
After doing a lot of research, I felt comfortable moving forward with wireframe designs and getting user feedback seeing how we can surface as much information to the users without overwhelming them.
Wireframes for the home, map filter, and map list screens.The Style Guide
The style guide aligned with the colors and style of the Universal Studios Hollywood brand and there popular IP’s. I utilized the Universal Studios blue as my primary color for the CTA’s with complimenting grays and whites for the cards and sections.
Final Redesign
Outcomes
After performing validation testing of this prototype with the same 6 users as before, I found:
6/6 felt the new Home screen was more helpful and convenient during their visit to the park.
6/6 exhibited a more positive attitude towards the app since they were spending less time figuring out how to use it and more time accomplishing tasks in it during their visits.
5/6 were able to find information more quickly on the map since it felt more structured and less cluttered with icons.
4/6 liked the new “Explore the Park” category and found it an insightful way to learn more about the park.
What I Learned
The importance of knowing how to ask questions: The way you ask questions can determine what and how much you can discover from users. Open-ended questions allows people to answer with sentences and stories and provide new and deeper insights into the problem you are trying to solve.
Progress through iteration: In the early wireframe design stages, I took a lot more time than expected in exploring over 10+ options for the Home screens. It’s important to know when to move forward when stuck on one aspect of a project. Designs will evolve overtime. It’s ok not getting there on your 1st try, as long as you are keeping your user’s best interests with every iteration.
