Usability and Evaluation: The Michigan Theater by Angela Chih

Angela Chih, Jill Davidson, Janel Ilar & Xuan (April) Jin

Winter 2019 | SI 622: Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation Clinical Assistant Professor Mustafa Naseem

Cover Image Source: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/74/photos/147229

Table of Contents Interaction Map

Interview Report

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Executive Summary Introduction Stakeholder Interview Summary Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

Comparative Evaluation Report Executive Summary Introduction Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

Survey Report Executive Summary Introduction Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

Heuristic Evaluation Report Executive Summary Introduction Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

8 9 9 9-10 10-12 13 13 14 14-44

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Table of Contents Card Sorting Report Executive Summary Introduction Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

Usability Testing Report Executive Summary Introduction Methods Findings and Recommendations Discussion Conclusion References Appendices

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141-174 142 143 143-144 144-148 148-149 149 150 150-174

Interaction Map

Goal: Buying Tickets and Finding Movie Schedules = Browsing/Finding Movie Schedules = Account/Log-in Section = Purchasing Tickets

Homepage

“Hovering” over Films > “Selecting” Films at the Michigan

“Click” Buy Tickets Tab

“Hovering” on Kids Programs > “Clicking” on Not Just for Kids

Clicking “Schedule” Tab and Purchasing Ticket(s)

Selections are successfully added Is this necessary?

“Click” to answer promo code Why is this option here?

“Scroll” through to “select” quantity of tickets

“Scrolling” through the page and Clicking on a Movie Title

“Click” to Proceed to Checkout

“Select” Delivery Method and “Click” Checkout Button

Is this necessary?

“Browsing” the Movie page

Pop-up window asking for membership log-in

Membership/Account Login “Filling” in Sign-in Membership/Account Log-in “Filling” in Sign-in Version 2

Select Donation Level

“Scrolling” down the page to view the Movie Trailer The Movie Page

Where do you Buy Tickets?

The Cart/Itemized Ticket(s) Purchase

Creating an Account by “Flling” information

Input Credit Card Payment

BuyBuy tickets “Click” Tickets “Filling” in Promotional Code

Fill-in Guest Information

= Potential User Problems or Breakdowns

Films at The Michigan Page

= an interaction sample of purchasing movie ticket(s) as a non-membership user = membership log-in interaction *Screenshots credit source: https://www.michtheater.org/

END GOAL Tickets Purchased

Membership/Account Login “Filling” in Sign-in Fill-in Guest Information

Angela Chih, Jill Davidson, Janel Ilar, Xuan (April) Jin

Interview Report Findings for Improvements to Online Ticketing and Movie Browsing

Executive Summary The Michigan Theater expressed their main goal for the overarching project was to find out where people were clicking and viewing on their website and how to best streamline the website structure. Our team conducted four interviews using our interview protocol (Appendix A). We interviewed two members from the Michigan Theater and two non-members who were current students from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Interviewees granted permission to be recorded and these recordings were later transcribed. Additionally, notes were taken during the interview. Each interview transcription was first coded individually by team members and then analyzed as a team by utilizing the Rainbow Spreadsheet Method to help us discover trends (Tomer, 2013). The key findings and corresponding recommendations from this analysis are: Key Finding #1: Users were confused about how to view the list of all films playing at both the Michigan and the State theaters, rather than having to choose between the two. Recommendation: Adding an “All Films” option under the “FILMS” drop-down menu on the main navigation bar of the website. Key Finding #2: Users expressed they sometimes were unable to tell which theater was showing a particular film. Recommendation: Including a clear label for the movie location, such as an icon, in each film’s description. Key Finding #3: Users had difficulty telling the difference between currently playing films and films playing in the future. Recommendation: Creating two new headers titled “Current Films” and “Upcoming Films” or separating the sections into different pages or tabs. Key Finding #4: Users would like to see movie reviews. Recommendation: Including movie reviews on each movie’s information page, either from an external source, such as Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB, or from locals. Key Finding #5: Users purchase their tickets online from the Michigan Theater website through their desktop devices rather than mobile. Recommendation: Streamlining the ticket purchasing process for desktop.

Introduction The system we evaluated is the Michigan Theater website (www.michtheater.org). The website contains information about various films shown, events, information, and membership sign up for the local Ann Arbor theater. The Michigan Theater membership fees supports the Michigan Theater Foundation, which has no associations with the University of Michigan or the City of Ann Arbor. The six membership levels from students to gold card members includes perks such as discounted tickets, concessions, and parking (Michigan Theater, 2019). Our objectives were: (1) Identifying which information was important to users. Pinpointing the important information helped us understand and prioritize our recommendations. (2) Finding users’ biggest pain points when using the website. The pain points helped reveal existing aspects of the website which needed improvement. (3) Understanding the users’ current perceptions of the website, which provided us with valuable information about how the website was viewed by the general public and which current aspects of the website should be included in the redesign.

Stakeholder Interview Summary Our team, J2A2, met with two stakeholders, who were the Director and Marketing Manager of the Michigan Theater. This was their first experience working with graduate students from the School of Information. After introductions, we explained what to expect from us for the semester, such as conducting interviews, surveys, and usability testing, to generate recommendations for improving the Michigan Theater website. Our stakeholders informed us the website was redesigned five years ago and they wanted us to focus on the Michigan Theater website even though the State Theater’s website was integrated into the Michigan Theater’s website. Their goals and expectations for their website were to identify where their customers and members were clicking and viewing the most. Additionally, they hope to have their website structure streamlined. They expressed they expected us to provide them with a written report with our findings and recommendations, and if time permitted, to also include a wireframe. They also mentioned they believed their target market was mostly people over the age of 60 (Appendix B).

Methods In this study, we conducted four interviews with various members of the Ann Arbor community and one client interview with our stakeholders from the Michigan Theater to gather our data. We chose to focus on members of the Ann Arbor community because of the theater’s location and the assumption they were users who frequented the website the most. We interviewed two Michigan Theater members and two non-members to obtain a variety of frequency of use and familiarity. Participants were recruited by asking friends-of-friends and

from an email our stakeholders from the Michigan Theater sent to their members asking if they would like to assist in a student project to improve their website, which had a prescreening Google Form attached (Appendix N). Our participants consisted of a first-year graduate student from the University of Michigan (Participant 2), an undergraduate student from the University of Michigan (Participant 4), a gold card member (Participant 3), and a premium member from the Michigan Theater Foundation (Participant 1). Before conducting the interviews, we developed a semi-structured interview protocol based off Goodman, Kuniavsky, and Moed (2012) Chapter 6 “Universal Tools: Recruiting and Interviewing” (Appendix A). All interviews were conducted in pairs, with one teammate taking notes and the other asking questions. First, we introduced the purpose of the interview to the participant. Next, we followed the previously developed interview protocol. We also asked follow-up questions when participants made statements worth exploring to gain additional data. Afterwards, each participant was thanked for their time and provided with two free movie tickets, with the exception of the Gold Member since free tickets were already a membership perk. The recorded and transcribed notes were stored and placed into a shared Google Drive team folder and we had a debriefing after the interviews were completed (Appendix C-J). To develop the key findings, we individually coded the interview transcripts from our own observations of patterns and themes. Then, using the Rainbow Spreadsheet Method, we determined overarching themes as a team and prioritized them to generate our main findings (Tomer, 2013; Appendix K & L).

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results We interviewed four participants in order to gather data which we analyzed to generate our key findings and recommendations. The key findings from the interviews were: (1) Users were confused about how to view the list of all films playing at both the Michigan and the State theaters, rather than having to choose between the two; (2) Users expressed they sometimes were unable to tell which theater was showing a particular film; (3) Users had difficulty telling the difference between currently playing films and films playing in the future; (4) Users would like to see movie reviews; (5) Users purchase their tickets online from the Michigan Theater website through their desktop devices rather than mobile.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: Users were confused about how to view the list of all films playing at both the Michigan and the State theaters, rather than having to choose between the two. When asked if they experience any specific difficulties or confusion when using the website, Participant 3 pointed out the film dropdown menu “misleads you into thinking you must make a choice.” When hovering over “Films” on the navigation bar, “Films at the Michigan” and “Films at the State” both appear, creating the illusion that a choice must be made, when in fact the user can just click on “Films” itself to see all the films. (Figure 1; Appendix H). We believe this finding is a high priority for the website redesign because Participant 1 also mentioned they experienced the same confusion.

Figure 1. A screenshot illustrating what the user would see as they hover over the “FILMS” tab on the main navigation bar from the website

Recommendation: Adding an “All Films” option under the “FILMS” drop-down menu on the main navigation bar of the website. The current structure of the drop-down menu is not very intuitive, since it seemed users did not expect to be able to click on the menu title itself. Therefore, our recommendation would be to add an “All Films” option within the drop-down menu. This should provide clarification to users who are trying to access a list of all the films, regardless of location. Key Finding #2: Users expressed they sometimes were unable to tell which theater was showing a particular film. Both the Gold Member (Participant 3) and the Undergraduate Student (Participant 4) mentioned they sometimes get confused about which theater is playing a certain movie. When asked about their most recent experience navigating the website, Participant 4 expressed, “Sometimes it gets confusing because I don’t know if this movie is showing at the State or the Michigan” (Appendix J). This finding can be considered moderately severe as customers are still able to find out which theater the movie is showing on the movie page or the schedule. Recommendation: Including a clear label for the movie location, such as an icon, in each film’s description. The location where the movie is playing should be listed in a clear, consistent way throughout the website, such as with an icon or another type of label. This could easily be integrated with the movie information text, either above or below the movie description or next to the movie title. Using a distinct and eye-catching label would clearly indicate to users where each movie is playing. Key Finding #3: Users had difficulty telling the difference between currently playing films and films playing in the future. While information about current and upcoming films is currently available on the website, the distinction between the two is not clear (Figure 2). When asked about difficulties or areas of confusion on the website, the Undergraduate Student (Participant 4) said “they show movie listings for movies that aren’t gonna show for another month or a month and a half ahead of time so it gets confusing because you think oh you can watch this now but it’s not actually available until like next month” (Appendix J). This finding is not as severe but should still be fixed to alleviate user confusion and increase the ease of navigation on the website. Recommendation: Creating two new headers titled “Current Films” and “Upcoming Films” or separating the sections into different pages or tabs.

For clarity, we recommend putting all of the currently playing films under a header titled “Current Films” and putting all of the upcoming films under a header titled “Upcoming Films”. This would make the distinction more obvious to users as they scroll through the “FILMS” page. Another possibility could be separating the “FILMS” page into two pages or tabs, one for current and the other for upcoming films, again creating a clearer distinction.

Figure 2. Screenshots of new released movie currently playing at the theater, Green Book (top), compared to a coming-soon movie, Greta (bottom). Greta’s movie synopsis contains bolded font of the opening date, but at first glance it does not look different from the description provided for the new released movie, Green Book.

Key Finding #4: Users would like to see movie reviews. As we further inquired what kinds of information they would be interested in seeing when browsing for a movie, the Graduate Student (Participant 2) said “what other people thought” about the movies and the Undergraduate Student (Participant 4) said “reviews would definitely be a big thing”. This finding was considered less severe because the users are able to find movie reviews elsewhere on the Internet such as IMDb [n.d.] or Rotten Tomatoes [n.d.]; however, if the movie reviews were made easily available, it would be more convenient for the Michigan Theater users. The Undergraduate Student (Participant 4) answered the reason he prefers to go to the movies would be to “spend time with friends, like a social reason”. As well as the Graduate Student (Participant 2) said “definitely socializing”, implying picking movies first was not always the case (Appendix J and F). Movie reviews could also be helpful in this regard if users know they would like to go to the movies but are unsure what to see. Recommendation: Including movie reviews on each movie’s information page, either from an external source, such as Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB, or from locals. We recommend adding reviews to each movie’s information page for the convenience of users who may not know what they would like to see. The movie reviews could be from an external source like Rotten Tomatoes [n.d.] or they could be kept local by inviting either MTF members or Ann Arbor local critics to post reviews. Key Finding #5: Users purchase their tickets online from the Michigan Theater website through their desktop devices rather than mobile. When we asked what technology they use to purchase tickets on the Michigan Theater website, all of our participants said they used computers rather than mobile devices. This confirmed our stakeholders’ assumptions

during the initial client interview. Recommendation: Streamlining the ticket purchasing process for desktop. Above, many of the pain points associated with purchasing tickets from the website on desktop are discussed. The process of purchasing tickets online needs to be as streamlined and efficient as possible because it will affect many customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences.

Discussion While we interviewed a variety of participants, we would have liked to have more interviews to expand and solidify our key findings. The members were both over the age of sixty and the non-members were both students and in their twenties. It would have been beneficial to include participants between the ages of thirty to sixty, addressing their needs, since this could demonstrate our findings applied to a broader audience. There were additional pain points mentioned by only one participant which were not included in our key findings (Appendix K and L). However, with a larger sample size, we may have found these pain points were more prevalent than what is represented in our current findings. An unexpected shortcoming occurred when one of our teammates brought out their laptop during two interviews, asking each of the participants to do a Hallway Usability Test in navigating the Michigan Theater website [n.d.] (Participant 2 and 4). The partnered teammates were unsure how to halt the usability testing without impeding the flow of the interview. We recognize the testing was not ideal in conducting the interview based on what was discussed in class. Therefore, we did not take these parts of the interviews into consideration during data analysis. We plan to do a comparative evaluation and a survey as our next steps for our project. We hope to identify further areas of improvement to the website by utilizing these methods.

Conclusion After our initial client meeting with the Michigan Theater stakeholders, we started user interviews. Our participants were two members of the Michigan Theater Foundation and two non-members living in Ann Arbor. We established an interview protocol and recorded and transcribed all the interviews (Appendices C-J). After the interviews, team members individually analyzed each of the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transcription. Next, we used the Rainbow Spreadsheet Method as a group to generate our findings and recommendations (Appendix K and L). Our key findings were: (1) Users were confused about how to view the list of all films playing at both the Michigan and the State theaters, rather than having to choose between the two; (2) Users expressed they sometimes were unable to tell which theater was showing a particular film; (3) Users had difficulty telling the difference between currently playing films and films playing in the future; (4) Users would like to see movie reviews; (5) Users purchase their tickets online from the Michigan Theater website through their desktop devices rather than mobile.

References Goodman, E., Kuniavsky, M., and Moed, A. (2012). Universal Tools: Recruiting and Interviewing. In Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research (pp. 95-39). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. IMDb. (n.d). Retrieved March 1, 2019 from https://www.imdb.com Michigan Theater. (2019). Membership. [online] Available at: http://www.michtheater.org/membership/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019]. Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d). Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com Tomer (2013). The Rainbow Spreadsheet: A Collaborative Lean UX Research Tool. In Smashing Magazine. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/04/rainbow-spreadsheet-collaborative-ux-research-tool/. Accessed on: 24 Mar. 2019.

Appendices Appendix A. Interview Guide/Protocol Introduction Script/Purpose of the Interview: In this interview, we hope to ask some questions about how you use the Michigan Theater website to purchase and browse for movie tickets and showtimes(overarching goal). From this, we hope to provide recommendations for the Michigan Theater in redesigning their website. Introduction for Both Team Members & Role: I’m _____ and this is _______. I’ll mostly be asking questions and she’ll mostly be taking notes. We expect this interview to last about one hour. If you need a break or at any point, you feel uncomfortable and would like to stop the interview please let us know. <Asking permission to record> This interview is completely voluntary and if needed, you can contact us after the interview and we can destroy your information. Anything you share will be anonymized, however, we might share information within our class and instructors. Warm-up Questions: 1. How often do you go to the movie theaters? How often do you go to the Michigan theater? 2. What was the last movie you saw in theaters? What kind of movie is it? a. Did you go with anyone? How many people and who? 3. Where is your go-to movie theater?

a. Why is this movie theater considered your go-to movie theater?

General Issue Questions: 4. Can you recall, when the last time was that you wanted to go see a movie? a. How did you find what times the movies were playing? b. Is this typical? 5. In addition to watching movies, what are other reasons that make you go to a movie theater? 6. What movie information are you most interested in when browsing for a particular movie online? Deep Focus Questions: 7. Have you signed up for a Michigan Theater membership? a. Why did you sign-up? Or why did you not sign-up for one? b. If you signed up, could you walk me through the sign-up process? 8. Please describe your most recent experience navigating the theater website. a. Did you encounter any difficulties or areas of confusion? 9. When was the last time you purchased movie tickets online?

a. Did you register an account to purchase tickets or purchased tickets as a guest? b. Can you walk us through the process purchasing movie tickets online?

c. How did you overcome the difficulties of purchasing movie tickets online?

10. Do you use any other movie website?

a. What features do you value purchasing tickets?

Retrospective: Wrap Up: Thank you so much for your time. If you think of anything else we should know or would like to get in contact with us you can email us at j2a2.umsi@umich.edu. We will be submitting our final report on February 22nd, which will include our recommendations to improve the Michigan Theater website. Again, everything you have said is confidential, though we may share information with our class and instructors. Anything you have said that is used in the report will be anonymized and not connectable to you specifically.

Appendix B. Stakeholder Interview with notes included SI 622 Section 001 - J2A2.UMSI Initial Client Meeting for Thursday, 2/7/19 @ NQ Client: Ariel Wan & Sarah Erlewine (Michigan Theater) Introduction: Good Afternoon, thank you for coming over and meeting with us today. Our team name is J2A2. < Introduce ourselves (name, master’s student, concentration)> Janel, Jill, April and Angela (1st year Masters student - UX) For the rest of the semester, we have weekly tasks which includes conducting interviews, surveys, usability testing guiding us to suggest improvements for your site. Our last day of class is on Tuesday, April 16th. From this meeting we would like to understand what your goals, objectives, and expectations are of us and this project. If you wouldn’t mind making a small introductions about yourselves including how long you have worked at the Michigan Theater? And what your responsibilities are there? Notes from Client: • About Ariel: Director. 1.5 year half at her role. Alumni of UofM 2009. Graphic design and digital marketing. Designed and coded websites. Html and css. Familiar with ux design. Programing and

marketing (digital and traditional). Graduated from U of M Art and Design. • About Sarah: 1 of 3 Sarahs at michigan theater. She is Marketing Manager. Been there since 2015. Promoted to the manager role. Website, Emails, Relationship between ticket. Graduated from Ferris. Went to Eastern for her masters. • Goals: ¶¶This is only for one domain. Primary domain. ¶¶We like to know where people are clicking and where are they going on their site. Not finding the right information. ¶¶Website designed 5 years ago (updated to responsive template). Wordpress prior to 2015. Other members have been vocal about not changing. CS express: static showtime page for mobile. ¶¶The structure of the website was streamlined some. Some members felt the website is a repository for a lot of information (example: 5 pages on the barton organ). • Objectives/Expectations of us: ¶¶End of the project would like written recommendations+ all the findings - Glorious End result - Wireframe/Architecture structure (home page/child pages) - Map towards getting there • Expectations of the project: The first time working with umsi Questions for the Client: 1. Are we focusing on just Michigan Theater or is State Theater also included? • Focusing on Michigan Theater • They think they want to merge to one site. • They want to update the brand (for Michigan) • When the renovation project ended, they felt the state theater would have a strong presence online • 2 websites are a lot of upkeep • It would be great if it’s one domain. Michigan has its own aesthetic and state has a different look. • What is the difference between Michigan and State. Executive see state is 4 more screens. Newer screened at State (younger audience). Still figuring out between the two theaters. 2. What is the difference between Michigan Theater and State Theater? • 4 more screens (State) • Younger generations prefers State • Same theme, same programming 3. Who do you believe is your target market for this website? • Large members are in the 60 year-old plus(struggles the most, our senior staffs) • Elderly customers and are the more vocal to talk to front house, anyone who is going to a movie. • Largest demographic on facebook women 25-45 4. What are the main functions of this website? • Which sections of this website do you prefer our team to focus on? • Michigan theater assumes its Showtimes, schedule, find what is happening. • Different levels of benefits for memberships: free parking 2 hours, attend a party on stage with gift bags. • Purpose chat function: it’s a blog, repurpose Executive Director’s (Russ) uses --- script of what he says on the radio 5. What are the issues you have with the current website? • 2 categories of issues: ¶¶Internal clunky to update, half updated through api ticketing and half manually by them ¶¶Internal problem -- slow loading ¶¶Usability: most of their calls about how to buy tickets (the most question), not easy to find the schedule. A really long list that can be shown on the home page. Some people only care about the concerts

6. 7. 8.

- Majority desktop usage partly due to demographic. - Mobile has usability issue for ticketing aspects - The seating chart doesn’t resize at all - Don’t accept payment types (apple pay etc) What are your expectations for this project and for our team? • (refer to above) Is there anybody else in your department that is a key stakeholder in this project? • Main stakeholders are Ariel and Sarah • Maybe think of Lee as a non-user Will we have an additional budget in incentivizing the target market who are willing to participate in our interviews etc.? • No, we can provide some pair of tickets • Elderly: In addition to purchase tickets but are donors (60 plus) • (50 and 40 is fine) Are there any requirements/mandatory assets/limitations that should remain on the website we should be aware of? • About page: grant giving purposes ← makes sure they are shown • Awards, board members, sponsor logos

Primary pages: home page, memberships, general information experience of theater, where to park (the stuff that people are going to the most should be more salient) They do not have to app. People google the movie. Should we be focusing google or going to the michigan theater. Older crowd want to walk in to the movie. They have done student surveys in the past and where students felt it was off putting Wrap-up: We would like to give you weekly updates, making sure we are on the same page. Would you prefer to meet up similarly like today or receive an email update? As needed in person. Join me (free). Calendar meeting has to be done a week in advance. She can do reoccuring. If you need to get ahold of us at anytime, you can reach us at our main team email j2a2.umsi@umich.edu, which we all receive. Jill has been assigned to be the primary contact with you. Follow up: We want to focus primarily on desktop. Our target market is people over 60. 2 interviews with people who are 60 1 college student 1 working adult

Appendix C. Participant 1 - Premium Member Notes • • • • • • • • • • • •

Couple times a week, member night The last movie she saw, Sundance Documentary “Direct from Sundance” Go by myself, Tuesday night is with a guest Cold War playing right now The go to availabilities movie The movies is very nice experience Usually look for a week ahead, the times, which theater is playing what movie and special screening Confused not sure, it lists them both and she likes how she can see both at the same time, it’s important A friend introduced her to the membership, at the desk and then did it online She thinks renewing it is pretty easily Navigation > Tuesday night complimentary movie > unusual time but more because of the w eather Likes advanced notice of what is playing the following weekend

• Always online • Has the m ichigan appbut easier to do on computer ¶¶Credit card information is auto-filled on the desktop ¶¶Easier to navigate on desktop ¶¶Considers she can do it but definitely easier on desktop • Pretty much have seen all the movies playing • Membership for 2 years ← n eed to know the membership services ¶¶First dibs on some stuff ¶¶Concerned that she’s moving to brooklyn, NY ← create an FAQ for members ¶¶ Less expensive seats for members • Sign-in right away, not as fluid. Isn’t prompted right away for membership for discounts • Recommend it to people who live close by -- blizzard • Changed her mind about refunds ← d o they have a refund option online or do they need to call in? • Loves the will-call option • From Hollywood life and dad is in the entertainment business • Don’t remember if they direct you to reviews • Wants a movie theater close by • Know what she wants to see ¶¶Seen everything - oscar nominated ¶¶Foreign films, Documentaries ¶¶Not big on comedies, more drama ¶¶Changes couple week, not a ton (she thinks) ¶¶Talks about state about the seat picking aspect ¶¶Usually she can get tickets, not so hard ¶¶Always online to purchase tickets

Appendix D. Participant 1 - Premium Member Transcription (I is Interviewer, P is Participant) I: Okay, Alright, so this interview is completely voluntary and if you need to like contact us to and say retract something. Let me know and we can take it out, destroy it and whatever needs to be removed. And if you’re like please stop. P: Got it I: So we have a handful of questions to get started today. Um, so how often do you go to the movie theaters? P: Uh, let’s see. I go a lot. I almost always go on the Tuesday night, member night. And then I usually will go another night. So, I’d say a couple times a week. I: Okay great. And is this specifically at Michigan theater? P: Yeah. Michigan State Theater, yup. Those are the only theaters I go to. I: Okay. And what was the last movie you saw? P: Oh my gosh. I was supposed to see one, uh hold on, what was the one I just saw. Um, it was the Sundance documentary. Sundance special showing they had. Last Thursday, no it was the Direct from Sundance it’s called. I: Okay, And did you go with anyone? P: Uh nope, I pretty much usually go on my own unless um sometimes one of my family members will go because on the Tuesday night I can bring in a guest. I: Very nice. And is this your go to movie theater? P: Yes

I: And can you recall when was the last time you wanted to go see a movie? P: Well, I was supposed to go last night, wait what’s today. Last night, but the weather was bad, but I had booked um oh my god. Uh oh yeah. It was called um Cold, Cold War. It’s playing right now. I: Okay. And how do you find the time of the movies that are playing? P: Really good. Good, good availability. I: How do you search for the times of the movies? P: So, I like I’ll just go look on the website and see what’s playing and just look underneath and it will give you the times. I think it’s pretty convenient. I: Is that typical to go to the website? P: Yeah, yeah I: In addition to um watching movies, is there any reason that you go to the movie theater? P: Um, I like the experience. You know I just um I mean the theaters are really nice. So there pleasant to be in. You know I like that you can get as a member you know you can get your popcorn, get a beer, a wine. So, it’s a nice experience. I: And when you use the website, what information are you looking for in particularly. P: Um I’m usually looking like a week ahead so I wanna see what’s playing. And then um obviously the times. Um I’m looking to see what’s playing at the Michigan and the State and um and um yeah and special screenings and things. Yeah. I: How do you find. You mention Michigan and finding/or looking for at State. P: I sometimes. Yeah, It’s a little confusing. Because I think I’m pretty sure you have to go to both. I think no I feel like sometimes when I go on it, it lists the State Theater movies, but maybe not I don’t remember. I can’t remember if I go on the Michigan if I also have to go to the state or list them both. I don’t remember. I: Okay P: But I wanna, usually when I’m looking for a movie I wanna be able to see both at the same time. That’s important. I: Okay, and you mention that you were a member. How did you sign up? What’s the process? How do you do that? P: Um So, when I first moved here like four years ago. I, how did I find out about being a member. I think a friend of mine told me. Yeah, It was a friend who lived in town. And knew I liked movies so I then um I signed up originally I might of signed up through the membership desk. You know The Michigan theater like that little area and then I did it online. I: Okay. Do you remember how signing up was like online? P: Oh Online? Well, I think once you’re already a premium member you can renew pretty easily. I think, yeah. I: And could you describe the most recent um navigating experience on the website? P: Um well, let’s see I was just, I just was on to get my movie ticket that I didn’t go to. So what did I do. I went and looked to see what was playing for my Tuesday night, you know, complementary movie. And I scrolled through all the films and I’ve seen like, I’ve pretty much have seen every movie. So I found this one I think it’s called Cold war and I hadn’t seen it. I just looked to see what time it was playing and this one was unusual that it was playing at 5 o’clock. Which wasn’t that convenient for me so I ended up not going. Not because of that reason but because of the weather. But um that’s yeah how I did it. I’m seem to I’m seem to you know the one thing I would say I don’t think they could probably can’t do this, it would be nice to know like let’s say I was looking tonight well no maybe they do show movies for next week. Cuz what are we at today? Wednesday. So they are probably showing what’s going to be playing next week. I like as much advance notice. I don’t know if they always know

Like I’ll go home today to see what’s playing over the weekend. Or playing next week. I: And could go over the last time you that you said you purchased a movie ticket? P: Um it was for last night and I probably purchased it on Monday for the for cold war. I: And when, you do that online or do you do that in person? P: I always online. Sometimes I was thinking I have the app on my phone also. So but I will usually do it um see lookup (I was unable to distinguish here) on my phone see there’s my Michigan App. But it’s easier to do it on my computer. Because you uh yeah. The computer because you are putting in your credit card information. They actually save my credit card so it’s a lot easier. I: Can you show me what the app looks like? P: Yeah. See. Uh my phone. Maybe because I’m not online on my phone Let’s see what’s up with that. Something weird. Oh here it is. I: Oh and so you said you prefer to use P: Well, yeah because I mean I don’t wanna like. It’s just easier and I don’t want to my credit card information. It’s easier to do it on my it’s more navigable, easier to navigate um. But you know. Oops uhh see I’m not good at all this stuff. Uhh Anyway my phone is I could do it on my phone and if I’m really so it will say if you are a member, click here. I obviously could do it. It’s easier to be on the laptop. I: Can you explain more about being a member, like what are the perks. P: It’s really good. I can’t remember the cost is. I think I’ve had a member for 2 years now. Um so you get 2 free tickets every Tuesday night and you get a discount on popcorn and you as a member, I think you have to be a member to purchase alcohol. You get special member notices. Special Member night. I think we get first dibs on some stuff like direct from Sundance. Um I like it. My only concern is I’m moving to Brooklyn, to New York in May and I bought like bought it’s fine it’s a donation bought through the end of the year something and I won’t be here to use it. I: Is it the time you sign up and it renews annually from that time? Or is it P: I don’t remember. If it’s like. I don’t remember I’m not sure. I: Um what are some things you’ve noticed about the Michigan website. Because you seem to be pretty familiar. P: I think it’s good. There are sometimes when um I get confused when I’m trying to pay. I’ll click on the wrong link and click on this little ticketing thing agile ticket. I mean, sometimes I think it’s not that clear on how to purchase the tickets. But I get there that’s the only issue. But other than that well it’s really important that if you are a member you have to sign in you should sign in right away cuz it does everything for you. If I try to buy a ticket and forget to do a membership it will prompt me for that but it’s not as fluid it’s just better if you are a member first thing you should do. So for some odd reason I don’t always get prompted to that right away. I always end up. Members, oh I forgot they get um they get less expensive seats for every show. I forgot to mention that. I think it’s 10 dollars for everybody but 7.50 for members. I: So You have to sign in, let me make sure I understand this correctly. So you have to sign in as a member P: If you want to get your discounts I: And then sometimes it doesn’t prompt you P: Well, I don’t know. Sometimes I will look for a movie and click on it and then I need to go back and say I’m a member. Otherwise I won’t get my discount. It’s just something I have to remember to do. I: Okay, um. Is there anything else. Any other questions about Michigan theater? Um I think we covered it all. Would you do you have you recommended anybody for the memberships before? P: Yeah I have, especially like my friends who see go to the movies all the time. Oh you should do this. The thing about the membership is that I would only recommend somebody pretty much live close by. Because especially in the winter you are not gonna want to drive. If there’s a blizzard. You got your tickets. It’s really convenient if

you live in the area. I: Have you ever called them for refunds? P: I did once. What was it for? We changed our minds on going to the movie over Christmas. So we called and could switched it out to see this movie over that. They were pretty good about it. I like also um. I like also the will call aspect. Um like at the Michigan for your tickets, you just you come in and they have you on a list. For the State theater it’s different, they have assigned seats. So you have to go to your assigned seats, so you know it’s different. I: So will call. P: Will call is really convenient. You don’t have to wait in line. If it’s cold you know you just walk right in and they don’t make you which I think is really good and don’t have to wait in line outside at the ticket booth. You just go in and they have a list right there. I’m a huge, I’m a movie freak. I was just thinking. When I get home I gotta see what’s playing. I go to the. I’m from Hollywood and my family was in the entertainment business, my dad liked was a like concert violinist like on a ton of movies my whole life so and he actually played at the academy the Oscars orchestra. This is my thing. I: So are there additional information when you are looking on the website besides the movie theater like are there any other things P: They have they have synopsis. I don’t I’m pretty sure. I can’t remember if they direct you to reviews. Um I don’t remember. You know how some will direct you to rotten tomatoes or something. I don’t remember if they do. I know they give a synopsis. They might give critical, you know criticism I: That’s exciting the hear that you’ve been around the movies P: Oh yeah, big time. I’m really all about it. I: When you move to Brooklyn, would you miss the whole membership? P: Yeah I’m really upset about it. In fact I’m trying to figure out where I’m moving at. I’m looking at apartments. But I really want a movie theater close by and there is not gonna be anything as fantastic. I live in town at burns park about 4 blocks away and that’s I’m really gonna miss it. But Hopefully there will be something there will be nearby because I go all the time. I: So generally when you are browsing for the movies. How do you pick it? Like are you picking it for the category of the movie? Or P: I’m pretty up on films. So I pretty much know what I wanna see. Or when I go to see uh look at the film I have a good idea what’s each one is any good or not. Occasionally I‘ve seen everything so I’ll look and see the Oscar short/documentaries I noticed that up and I’ll probably go see that this weekend. I: Is there any particular ones that you like to focus on picking for the movies? P: I like foreign films and I like documentaries. I’m not as big on the light comedies but ill go see them. More into the drama, biographical I: Since you go the movies frequently, how often do you noticed the change of the update on their movie theater? P: I think they change every week. I feel that they do. It’s not a ton but it’s always a couple. And then you know. At the state, because they have assigned seating. You have to get in there right away. Because I remember a couple of them. What did I see, black panther. Is that what it’s called? That was like sold out like that. So um but I usually can get tickets it’s not so hard. I: Do you ever just go to the movie theater directly to get your tickets or do you usually go online P: Always online I: I think that may be it. Is there any other feedback? On the theater, or the website experience? P: Nah, I think it’s pretty good. I swear you have me I’m gonna go on and look on, well go back on my computer.

What time is it? I still have money on my machine and so I’m gonna go look and see what’s playing right now. You got me excited. Yeah, so what year are you guys? I: 1st year P: 1st year in this program, right? I: Yup P: It’s a graduate program, right? I: We are studying user experience research and design. P: Did you go to Michigan undergrad?

Appendix E. Participant 2 - Graduate Student Notes • 2-3 a year to the movies ¶¶I like the movies, it’s more a special occasion, it’s so easy to watch movies at home • Once-since Sept.2018 at Michigan theater ¶¶Why did you go? - Went with friends, saw Crazy Rich Asians and thought it would be a fun relaxing night. ¶¶Last movie saw was Crazy,Rich Asians, we had 5 total including me. Her friends and boyfriend. A friend texted her about the movies (it was first weekend to get to know everyone). • Here Michigan Theater now she lives here or whatever is close and good discounts. In NY- discount movies were a go to with friend. She doesn’t go online to find discounts. • Type of movies: rom coms, dramas, seen a sci fi, even the doc (RBG) • I was talking to a friend on Sunday and heard about RBG ¶¶How do I get info. -U sually not friend (My note: have to listen to recording at this part) -F eels disconnected from new things - Hear from friends and family • She uses google to find info, thinks there is a feature on google for listings. • Google Experience • It depends if seeing the time listed will influence her the most • In bigger cities- maps with movie theaters are located is helpful to find the movies • Socialization is a reason to go. It can be romantic,date. Hasn’t had enough time. Ideal would go to the movies. ¶¶Have you thought about other activities at Michigan theater? - Didn’t know that, but definitely consider. In NY- the museums have screenings thought it was cool. • Times,what other people thought(reviews and rates?(I think meant to writing ratings))and how long it is (time management as a student). Looks for the picture of the movie. Don’t judge a book by its cover (I think referencing that she does in regard to the movie picture) • Have not ¶¶Did you know, assume so. Not-don’t go enough to use it. Cost-thought about what membership might be included • Maybe-can’t remember. Probably • Interviewer added usability • Looking for a movie • Look at schedule • Look at times • Without the image, it’s hard to know Picked RBG movie • Movie Times • Go late at night • Member no

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Another pop up Scrolled down Would be nice to buy 2 Then check out continue as a guest She thought it was fine She’s intrigued by the other events She hasn’t been to concert in awhile If she had kids, go to movie theater Think about going to kids event if she had a family She likes the Michigan theater sign She would use both laptop and phone To buy tickets- she uses computer because it seems more reliable IMDB reviews might be helpful Think Michigan Theater- not as commercial. Have members review would be nice. Did you find enough info. on this website? I guess if I had a film in mind, I think it’s pretty easy to use. Some theaters: dinner and movie- thought it would be a fun different experience. Scrolling other events Any suggestions for theater: May be see upcoming events. Thought it was intuitive Thought about the Anime and Michigan partnership, thought about law school partnership. Ended up State Theater- didn’t know the difference between State and Michigan Theater If on the website, I’m not going to find more info. She wants to find the movie and purchase and have an electronic ticket. Growing up- a gift for friends got a membership (to the movies) from parents Cool to drink at Michigan theater As long as it’s easy to navigate You have purchased online, why? To make sure to have a seat available, you can pick, it commits you to going Pet peeve- electronic ticket with fine print that you need to have ticket printed (for concerts) She feels she is not tech savvy She talked about the Moma and like the sleekness Big corporation can brand, so obnoxious.

Appendix F. Participant 2 - Graduate Student Transcription (I is Interviewer, P is Participant) I: Okay so how often do I go to the movie theater in general? P: In general? Maybe like two or three times a year. I don’t go very often. I: Is it because you don’t like to watch movies? Or because you usually just I mean you don’t like to watch movies in a theater, like you download some movies resources then at home and you watch that? P: I like movies. I just feel like it’s more like a special occasion on a Friday night or like if I’m with family I give you a very celebratory for some reason and maybe because it is so easy like what you said I just watched like movies or even like series at home. I feel like in terms of time, I like to just watch like Netflix. I: Yeah that make sense, so how often do you go to the Michigan Theater? P: I’ve been once since I’ve been here which was September. I: So at the time you entered into this University to Michigan? P: Yeah I: I have an additional question, why did you go to the Michigan Theater? P: I went with friends. My friends messaged me and we watched the “Crazy Rich Asian”. We read reviews and

I think that should be fun to go and see some friends and go out for a drink after. It’s like a kind of fun and relaxing night. I: What was the last movie you saw in theaters? P: I think it was the Crazy Rich Asian. I: How many of your friends did you go with when watching a movie? P: I think we were five in total including me. So it’s like a couple of other friends and my boyfriend. I: So it’s like your your friends texted to you about this this movie information and then asked if you want to go to the Michigan Theater? P: Yeah actually I can’t really remember. It’s very early on. I: Where is your to go movie theater in general? P: Well I don’t think I have one. I mean here it would definitely be that the Michigan Theater. Usually it’s just like whichever one is kind of close or has like a cool discount tickets or stuff like that. I: So discount matters a lot? P: Yeah or maybe it’s just like.. I guess it depends like in the past when I was in New York, my friends are really into like getting like discount tickets, like the 3D movie. so I remember like going for that kind of. Now I am on my own now I don’t think I like go to like online websites to see like what discount tickets there are but I think I would definitely be more I feel more interested in going to the movies at the prices for are like cheaper though. I: What type what type of movies do you like to watch usually? P: I guess like romcom probably dramas. I’m not really that into like sci-fi but I’ve I’ve seen a few like I’ve seen the Star Wars, stuff like that. Maybe something like I think documentaries too. Like RB or RBT. Yeah I would definitely want to see that. I: Can you recall when when the last time was that you wanted to see a movie. P: Like the last time that I thought about going? Yeah I was talking to a friend on Sunday and she just mentioned that she just saw the movie about Cesc inspect. So I was like oh I probably should go. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go. I just feel like that would be nice. I: How do you usually get the information? Because you mentioned that your friends have heard of that there’s a movie, so how do you usually get the information? P: I think usually from Friends, I feel like I’m not really that connected like compared to other people I feel like quite disconnected from like all the new things the way it usually do it is just like kind of hear from friend talking about it. And later family members go investigate and then something that sounded interesting. I: So how did you do so when you like for example like when you want to go to a movie, how do you usually find what time that the movie will be playing? P: Usually just Google. I think like there is a future on Google that shows the listing so that you don’t have to go to the theaters’ website. If that’s correct I think there was one like that like I thought that was really useful. I: Yeah could you tell me more about like when you Google the movie and then you get a list and then and how do you decide which one you want to? Yeah could you talk more about it? P: Yeah I guess it depends on if I’m like if I am thinking about just going to the movies or if I have specific movies in mind. But I think I would like to look at I think that like seeing the times listed is probably the most, also like if it’s convenient. I also find that like Ann Arbor is pretty small. If I stay in a bigger city like I always think check Google map with like where the theaters are. It is really helpful to have cuz then you can kind of identify which theater is closer to where you live. I: So in addition to watching movies, what are other reasons that make you go to a movie theater? P: Definitely socializing. Socializing or romantic. Yeah I guess sometimes if you can also be like go on a date for

movies. Because I feel like I think it goes back to like this idea of like not having enough time so I think I would just rather like go out for a dinner or like talk and catch up with friends. I feel like I don’t have enough time to do that. Yeah but I feel like in an ideal World, I would go on a date to the movies. I: So have you ever thought about like to go to some other activity is a Michigan Theater? I just wondered that have you ever thought about that cuz in addition to movies, there are some other like activities or concerts happen in Michigan Theater. I just wondered if you know that and would you ever consider about going to that because of those reasons. P: Yeah I didn’t know that. I think I would definitely go to that I think it is very cool. I thought that was really cool maybe like kind of like events like around the movie. I think that’s kind of fun. I: What movie information are you most interested in when you’re browsing for a particular movie online? P: Time and yeah like what other people thought to. I: Like the reviews and rates? P: Yeah. And maybe how long it is. I feel like also the picture of the movie because maybe like I noticed a movie if I don’t know the name but I feel like that’s always helpful. I: So have you signed up for Michigan Theater membership? P: I have not. I: Why didn’t? Or do you know that you can sign up for membership? P: Yeah I would assume so. Yeah I guess it’s cuz I don’t think I would I would go enough to make it. I: What other reasons do you think may stop you sign up for a membership? P: I feel like it’s more like cost. Cuz I go to movies so infrequently. Well I think membership can also make you enter different events. But I think I don’t go enough so I won’t probably buy that. I: Have you have you ever used the Michigan Theater website? P: Maybe? I can’t remember. I feel like since I went to the movies.. I feel like maybe I should have probably browsed. But then my friend.. I can’t remember if my friend was just like to know at this time and I was like okay. I: Would you mind like go through the website and tell us your feelings and how do you think the user interfaces work for you? P: Sure I: Just just show us like usually how do you browse or find movie information. There’s nothing right or wrong you just yeah if you don’t mind will write down some notes.. P: Yeah I guess without the image it’s kind of hard to know what the movie is like. I feel like if I had kids I would maybe go to Michigan Theater more. I think that will be one of the reason to go with a family or something, depends on the categories of the events and the movie. Yeah I think that I always really liked the Michigan Theater sign this is like it’s like iconic of Ann Arbor just being even though I don’t go to the theatre I like how it looks. I: Do you prefer more browsing those movies’ formation through laptop or phone? P: Maybe both. I’m trying to figure out when trying to get an idea of movies it be nice to have it on this phone cuz it’s maybe more casual. I think in terms of like to buy the tickets themselves. But when finalizing purchases I usually always go to my computer it seems like more reliable kind of easier to navigate. I: Yeah and so when you’re just navigate to this website how did you feel? P: I guess it depends, my feel like with larger like theater companies they like to put the reviews of their members you can kind of get a sense of other people thought. I don’t know if Michigan Theater does this but I guess that would be helpful. Also I think Michigan Theater is less commercial than IMDB. I: Yeah so do you think you find enough information that you want to get through this website?

P: Yeah I think so I think it’s cool that you can watch this video. I guess those pictures would be really helpful on the schedule section. Yeah I think it’s pretty easy to use. I: So do you have any suggestions for this website? Like how do you feel the hierarchy or if it’s logically labeled everything or something? Do you have any suggestions? P: I think it is pretty intuitive. Actually I never understood the difference between the Michigan Theater and the State Theater as the State Theater is more like independent? I feel like I got the point where I like I am on their website I would I feel like I would probably already know that I’m going to go see the movie. I don’t think I would use their website to learn more about a movie like I think I would use Google for that maybe more so as long as like I can and I don’t know if like they’re trying to expand that or change that but I think as long as I can kind of like identify like find the movie I’m interested in and like pay for it and like have like that electronic ticket so I can just like go up with like my iPhone and like I don’t have to worry about printing anything or like any that stuff again. As long as I can kind of do that I think I would be happy. I think the fact that you can drink and get alcohol is cool too. I definitely think it makes it more like a social thing. I guess going back to the user interfaces yeah I think as long as it’s easy. And I think it seems pretty easy. I: When you purchase tickets, do you purchase tickets on line or go to the front desk? P: I normally always purchase it online. I: Why do why do you like to purchase online? P: Make sure it’s available. And you can also pick your seats. I’m surprised like intrigued that you think you’d like it to me the website is pretty good but I also feel like I’m not really that picky or maybe I’m also like not very like technologically. I feel like maybe I don’t care about it as much as like other people that are like not as protective as long as it’s like. I: Cool thank you

Appendix G. Participant 3 - Gold Member Notes • Goes to the movies once a week • About 3-4 times a month • Last movie seen, Stan & Ollie ¶¶An independent film before his time ¶¶Live Action (1930s comedic) Laura & Hardy • Watch with his wife, who enjoys classic • Gold card members of the Michigan Theater • Attends a Film Discussion Group led by the Executive Director of the Michigan Theater • (Russ) at the JCC (Jewish Community) once a month every monday 8x a year, who selects the movies which he calls “homework” ¶¶Provides links to other members when they also need to watch the selected movie for the discussion ¶¶Anyone can join but it’s been the same people for a while • Goes to the website to find movies • Looks at the w when choosing movies • His wife is particular (picky); whatever wife wants he watches - Looks at length of movie and release date as well • How long the movie is showing on the schedule • He watches movies at the Michigan Theater to support the theater and enjoy the perks • Signed up probably through the customer service desk or mail renewal • The last movie interaction he did on the website was booking tickets to “Cold War”, • playing tonight at 5pm at the State Theater because he wanted to book seats • Likes to go to the Film tabor S chedule tab • The tabs misleads your choices of not knowing which theater

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Picks the movie not the venue Annex has limited seating Acoustic of the big auditorium Familiar with the website, thinks it’s great, f unctional and can get information quickly Process: Date > Time > Performance > Enter account Will-call, likes Thinks there are 3 choices of tickets Uses desktop only and then emails his tickets to his phone He thinks the phone is frustrating and complicated Often for special performance at the Michigan Theater Not clear about what costs money and what is free on the site Generally sends emails to the Michigan Theater when he needs help I.e. the cinetopia, he wanted more information so he can plan ahead of time to purchase or to see if he is even in town to attend **Updates need to be more proactive** His friends are more frustrated in the State Theater ¶¶seat selections due to the auditorium map needs to be scrolled around ¶¶he wants to know where the entrances are in the theater Friends don’t know about reservations for tickets to smaller venues **notifications to subscription for members about films that are coming soon**

He is not aware of logging into the michigan theater website b/c he believes his cookie • browser is on, only needs to log-on when purchasing tickets and they ask for him to sign • into his gold membership • Parking is also something he considers when purchasing tickets, whether it will be • convenient and free to park versus having to pay for parking

Appendix H. Participant 3 - Gold Member Transcription (I is Interviewer, P is Participant) I: Um, so the interview is completely voluntary, so if needed you can contact us after the interview if you decide that you know you don’t want us to use your information. And everything will be anonymous so any specific things you say won’t be traced back to you specifically. Um, but the information will be shared within our group and our class. Um, so do you have any questions before we start? P: I don’t, thank you. I: Alright, um, so just to start off, how often do you go to the movies? P: Um, we would go to the, uh, about once a week. I: About once a week? And how often do you go to the Michigan Theater? P: Um, three… three-four times a month. I: And what was the last movie that you saw in theaters? P: Uh… Stan and Ollie I think was the last one. I: And what kind of movie is that? P: Stan and Ollie is an independent film, a um fictional narrative live action film that is about the lives of, of Laurel and Hardie. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them? I: No, I haven’t. P: Very famous film comedy team in the 1930s which is before my time, but I remember the movies.

I: Mhm. Um, and then did you go with anyone to see this movie? P: With my wife. I: Just your wife? Ok, and which movie theater is your go-to, if you’re going to see a movie which one is your preference? P: The Michigan and the State. I: Michigan and the State? P: Mhm. I: So why do you think that’s your go-to movie theater? P: We enjoy the, um, independent films, uh, classic films, foreign films that the Michigan theater and the State offer. We’re gold card members. So we get the parking, the popcorn -I: All the perks -P: Without any additional charge. So it’s easy to say, “let’s go to a movie”. I: Mhm. UmP: I’m also in a film discussion group with Russ Collins, the um, as you know the executive director of the Michigan Theater so he gets to select some of the movies I see every month as a leader of the discussion group. I: Very cool. P: So it’s kind of like homework when I go to see a movie. I: Very cool. Um, so the last time that you wanted to go see a movie, how did you find out what times the movie was gonna be playing? P: I do use the website. I: So did you go directly to the website -P: Yes. I: --to find the times? Is that typically how you would find out when a movie is playing? P: Yes. It is. I: So in addition to just watching the movies, what are some other reasons that might make you go to a movie theater? P: Well as I say, I am a part of a discussion group that um… uh… is based on the movies that Russ comes up with. They’re not always michigan theater movies. I: Um… and then when you go to look up a movie online, what sort of information about that movie are you most interested in? P: Um… I need… This is gonna be distracting [referring to a person who came in and started talking to next to us]. I: I’m sorry. Um… I don’t know if there’s any other tables available. P: Will they give us space in the theater? I: Uh, no, I don’t think they would right now because we haven’t contacted them. Um… we can try our best. P: Alright. I: Um, so do you want me to repeat the question? P: Yes. Please. I: So when you look up a movie online what movie information are you most interested in? P: Um, well I generally look up something, the blurb describing the movie because I share that with my wife

so that she can determine if it’s a movie that she wants to see. She doesn’t always… she rejects a lot of movies because she’s very particular. She doesn’t want movies that have too much violence or conflict in them. I: So you typically go with your wife to the movies? P: Yes, I do. I: Is there any other information that you’re interested in looking at online about movies? P: Uh… well, uh, certainly um… I’m not sure what… all the information on the website is in terms of what time and also how long it’s playing is important to me because when you’re trying to see several movies you want to know which one is going to leave town before you have a chance to see it. I: Okay. P: So, that’s, that turns out to be very useful information because sometimes Michigan Theater plays things for a very limited number of days and then you miss the opportunity to see it so, try to figure out by looking at the schedule ahead is it gonna be here next week or isn’t it? That sort of thing. I: Um, and you had mentioned that you’re a gold member at the Michigan Theater? P: That’s right. I: Um, so what made you want to sign up to be a member? P: Uh, to support the theater. And to enjoy the perks that go with it. I: So when you signed up, what was the sign up process like? P: To sign up for the gold card? I: Yeah. P: I don’t even remember the first time whether we did that at the customer service desk or by mail or online. I don’t remember. I: Ok, not a problem. Um, and then, could you just -P: It was probably by mail by the way they probably - we were a member - and then they sent a renewal and one of the options was gold card we probably just did it then. I: Um so could you please describe for me your most recent experience on the theater website? P: I think most recent experience was trying to find the um, trying to book tickets for uh, the movie Cold War which we’re seeing at 5 o’clock tonight. I: Mhm. P: Uh, just uh going online seeing when it was playing. And how that fit our schedule and buying tickets for it online because it’s at the State theater and I think it was necessary to book specific seats. I: Did you encounter any specific difficulties or areas of confusion when you were trying to book the tickets? P: Uh… the one slightly confusing…. Um… feature of the website is when you go to look at the films tab. Um… it it’s not clear that you’re looking at all the films. Because the thing that immediately appears is “films at the state” and “films at the michigan”. I: Mhm. P: And you think you have to choose one. But you actually don’t. You can click on films and it’ll show you all the films. I: Okay. P: It’s a poorly designed interface. That, um, misleads you into thinking you must make a choice. And if you don’t know where it’s playing, that’s not a reasonable choice to make if you’re trying to figure out where it is. So the first choice you don’t wanna make is which theater is it in. You’re asking them, not, you know.

I: And do you have like a preference between the Michigan and State theater? Or do you generally pick based off the movie that’s playing there? P: We pick the film, not the venue. I: Oh you pick the film? Ok. P: Right. I think all of the venues are enjoyable. Um… the annex is the most problematic um… because of the um, limited seating and the fact that it’s, if you show up late you may not get in at all. You know. So we would tend to avoid films, other things being equal, we would tend to avoid films there. And we are not happy with the sound in the big auditorium which is problematic on some films it’s hard to understand the dialogue because of the acoustics of the big auditorium. I: And, um, is that easy for you to find on the website, which like room it’s going to be playing in? Are you able to find that? P: Well once you know what film you want to see yes. I: So where on the website do you find that information? P: I’m typically looking at the films and then the um, or the schedule, we’ll go to one or the other. Uh if I start with the films it’s easy to find out where they, where that film is playing, specifically. If I start with the schedule of course that’s all listed in the start with the schedule. I: Um, where there any other difficulties or areas of confusion the last time you went to buy tickets? P: I don’t think so. But I do it often enough that I’m now familiar with picking a seat, printing the tickets, the fact that I can also capture it on, on my phone. Um… you know, all of that is, is uh now um familiar so it’s not a problem. I: Um, when you had first started using the website, um, since it sounds like you’ve been using it for a long time, when you had first started, I know that I think they recently a few years ago revamped their website, did you have confusion when you first were starting to do that? P: I think they’ve made some improvements recently. Either I’ve gotten really used to it or they’ve really improved the fact that you can search by schedule or you can search by film and either way you get to the information you need pretty quickly. I think some of that has been done fairly recently but I could be wrong it may just be that I’m quite familiar with it now but I don’t have much trouble finding the information about what’s playing where and when. I think it’s well enough designed for the purposes I use it, except as I mentioned, they may have changed that feature or something where you go to you select films and you want to get to a specific film and I think now it may be new that you can see all the films but not just by theater or maybe that I’ve just discovered that that was a hidden, that was hidden under that tab that you click on that and you get to all films. Because it looks like a little drop down menu, are you, do you know what I’m talking about? I: Yeah. Mhm. P: And it shows state and michigan. I: Mhm. P: And it’s not clear that the third option is the top button which is just “films”. I: Ok so it’s, I’m trying to recall because I have seen this so it’s like films and there’s like a little arrow and if you hover over it it shows films at the michigan and films at the state so you think you have to pick -P: You don’t really -I: You can actually just click on where it says films and it’ll take you to all of them. P: That’s right. I: Is that what you’re saying? Ok. P: That’s right. But that’s not obvious. I: Ok. Interesting. Um, and so, did you P: And that’s very frustrating if you have to pick one or the other and you don’t know where the film is playing.

I: Right. P: That doesn’t make sense. But it’s actually, that’s not the way it is. But it only, it appears to be that way. I: Um, so do you have like an account on the website that you use when you purchase tickets? P: Yes. I: Does that come with the membership? P: As a gold card member I have an account and a number. So when I book a film it asks are you a gold card member I say yes, what number are you I put in my number. And that allows me to um, to charge the, well I charge it at 0 so I’m not even putting it on a credit card. It allows me to order the ticket at 0 dollars. 2 tickets at 0 dollars for me and my wife. I: Um, so can you like more specifically, like starting from when you’re on the home screen, walk us through the process of how you go purchase a movie ticket, if you can recall? P: Well if I wanna see Cold war, I go to films, I find cold war, it shows me a little bit about it, it shows me the times, the dates and times, and then I scroll through that date and time information to find the performance I wanna go to. I click on that, I say I’d like to order 2 tickets if it’s the state theater it’ll ask me to pick a seat, or pick 2 seats. Pick the seats, I uh have entered my account number, it tells me if I can have my tickets printed or on my cell phone, I think there’s a third method.. Um… oh, pick up, you know will call, it gives me 3 choices. And um, I say I’ll print it, and then after I’ve finished that I say also email it, so I have it on my phone and because I’m usually at my desktop, not on my phone, so I don’t download it directly to my phone. I just have it email so I can in an emergency get it on my phone. I: So do you typically use the website on your desktop then? P: Yes, I do. I: Have you ever used it onP: Almost always. I: Almost always? Ok. P: Yeah, when I try and get information on the phone it is somewhat, uh, it’s a little bit more complicated and frustrating for me. I don’t typically use the interface on the phone. I: Is there a specific instance you can remember when you did have a difficulty purchasing the ticket online? P: Oh, more than once. Um I: Can you describe like an example? P: Often for special performances though. I: Ok. Can you kind of explain to me what sort of difficulty you faced and how you overcame it? P: Sometimes there are special events that have like, an afterglow and some other feature on, those are often not done so well, make clear what you’re buying and what costs money and what’s free and so on. And sometimes, well, I don’t know, it’s typically not a big problem, but sometimes that’s a little confusing. I: When you do get confused or find a difficulty, is there like a general way that you try to overcome that? P: I will sometimes send an email message saying “help”. Most recently I’ve been asking about cinetopia because they want us to buy cinetopia passes in advance but they don’t have the program or even information about when the Ann Arbor part of cinetopia is gonna be in Ann Arbor versus in Detroit and so on and so I was trying to get a little more information which I did get by email. I: And were you looking for that information on the website? P: Yes. I think if they sell tickets to something and ask you to choose specific, uh, options about something like cinetopia it would be good to have as much information as possible. They didn’t have the information, they did know when the Ann Arbor part was gonna be and that was the crucial thing for people to know if they’re buying

tickets in February because I may be away the last week in May and I or whenever I think they’ve changed the dates now but um it was a matter of trying to see whether I was even in town and for that it was useful to know when is the Ann Arbor part gonna be? And, uh… I: So they knew the information, it just wasn’t on the website? P: It wasn’t on website, right. I: Ok, and is there like a specific part of the website for cinetopia that you went to? P: Yes. I: And it just wasn’t updated? P: They didn’t… yes. I: Ok. P: They were selling tickets without giving much information other than the dates which had changed I think. I: And then, do you just have any other general feedback, comments about the Michigan Theater website that you would like to share with us? P: I don’t think so. I think it’s actually doing a pretty good job and it’s, um, pretty, pretty functional um… uh… talking with my friends there’s some frustration about having to order specific seats for specific performances in the state theater and um, similarly the limited capacity in the annex, um… which you can order tickets for and reserve a seat and even though it’s not a specific seat you can reserve a seat but not everybody is quite tuned into doing that so I think people are still getting used to that in the limited seating in the annex and the four state theater auditoriums. Doesn’t bother me, I don’t mind picking exactly, I appreciate picking the seats actually. I: And then is the process of picking the seats like intuitive, easy or how do you feel about that? P: Yes but it’s not the first time I’ve done it. I: Ok, um, anything else that you’ve maybe heard from your friends who visit the Michigan Theater frequently um about the website because it sounds like you might’ve talked to them about it? P: Um… no. I do notice I like to know where the entrance to each auditorium is. I: Mhm. P: Uh… at the State and that’s um… I have to move the, the view typically, that’s not all on the screen and that’s really cumbersome. I: And so that’s when you go to pick the seats where it shows? Ok. P: You wanna know where’s the entrance. I: So you can sit close or far to the entrance? P: Right. And um… that’s all there. It may be specifically what my settings in my web browser are, how much magnification there… I don’t know. I don’t know what the story is on that but I notice sometimes I’d like to pick the seat here but I can’t see where the entrance is then I realize oh I have to move this scrollbar or something and then I can see where it is. I: And that’s just for the state theater where you get to pick your seats? P: Yes. I: And not for the michigan theater? P: That’s right, you don’t get to pick your seats in the michigan theater. I: Ok. P: They’re general admissions seats although you can reserve a ticket for a performance that might be sold out. I: Mhm.

P: Like in the screening room or the annex. They’re never sold out in the main auditorium except for special events. I: Um, any other comments, feedback, anything else that you’ve thought of? P: I don’t think so. I actually think it’s a very functional website and I think it actually has been somewhat updated and I don’t think it’s been left completely uh untouched. I think they’ve made some changes recently but I could be wrong if they’re telling you that’s not the case. I used to find it quite confusing to get to the film I wanted to see because of the state theater/michigan theater thing and dates it wasn’t it wasn’t always possible to look ahead. It’s very important to show the schedule as far in advance as possible if it’s known. I know sometimes they don’t know on Monday they don’t know if the film will be held over on Friday or not. I understand all that. I: So do you often go to try and see what movies will be playing in the future? P: Yes. Especially if I want to see them, um, but they’re not in town yet, I wanna know, you know, when’s the movie, when do I need to make room in my schedule to see that movie. I: And so where on the website can you see like what movies are coming next? P: You pick films. I: And it just shows youP: It shows you a list of films. I think alphabetically I’m not sure either alphabetically or by date. I think it’s alphabetical. Anyway you have to scroll through the list of films and if they know when it’s gonna play it’ll be on there. I: Ok. P: They don’t always know. I: Um… so I think that was all the questions I had. Angela, did you have anything to add? I: Yeah I do. Um, generally, when you purchase a ticket or when you go to Michigan Theater do you log in first or do you first browse for the movie and then log in when you’re planning on purchasing the ticket? P: Um, I think I have a cookie in my browser so I think it recognizes me. So I’m not aware I’m really not... that must be very transparent I’m not aware of logging in with a password. Where I do have to identify myself is when I reserve a ticket and it asks for my gold card number. I: And then you mentioned about the film discussion group, do you, where is it and when do you usually go to it? P: The film discussion group that I’m a member of is led by Russ Collins who’s the executive director of the theater and the foundation and all that. Uh, and it meets at the Jewish Community Center one Monday evening every month for uh 8 months a year I think. I: And is it only for gold members orP: No no no no no. I: Anybody can join? P: Anybody can join. There’s a um I think it’s roughly 10 dollars a meeting or something like that. It’s not a perk of membership or anything it’s a separate… it’s a separate service that Russ Collins offers the community. I: And how did you find out about the discussion group? P: Probably as a JCC member. But that was um, maybe, I don’t know what it is, 10 years ago, the group’s been going on for a long time. I: Are they usually all the same people P: Yes. I: Or do you see new members coming in? P: Most people are uh buy year, buy a year’s series of those discussions. So, in a given year they tend to be the same people. I: And do most of the members go to the Michigan theater to watch these movies or they’re usually just you have

to like find those movies that you’re assigned to go to watch? P: Russ assigns the movies. He usually bounces them off of me but he’s really got the information needed to decide what’s gonna be showing when and what the reviews are. I mean he’s the best resource for that. And um, so, basically, he says these are the three movies that you’re gonna see for the discussion group this month. And you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most of the time they’re either at the Michigan or the State, but sometimes not. Sometimes he assigns things out at the multiplexes too, they’re not exclusively… you know, um, at the Michigan. And that determines where we see… well, sometimes they’ll be at both and we’ll decide whether we want a free movie and popcorn and have to hassle with the parking or whether we’d rather go to the easy park Rave theater which sometimes we will do or the time will be better and it may be worth spending 20 dollars to see a movie at one of the cineplexes if the time is more convenient but usually they’re not playing in both places usually they’re movies that are only playing here. Or only playing at the Rave or the whatever it is, Ann Arbor 16 or whatever… Quality 16 or… I: Thank you. P: We’re always. We see the movies first, we don’t see them together or anything. We go individually to the movies. That’s how it works. And I will, I send messages to the group and I will put a link to the website and to the specific film on the website so that people in the group can find out what time you want to see the movie and read the blurb, being able to link it like that is very nice. I: Definitely is. I: Angela, is that all your questions? I: Alright, well, um, I think that’s all I think we’re gonna wrap up a little bit early um thank you so much again for your time we really really appreciate this it’s very helpful. If you think there’s anything else you think we should know or would like to just get in contact with us you can email us I believe you have our email address. So, we’ll be submitting our report about these interviews on March 1st which will include some recommendations and our final report to the Michigan Theater will be in April. Um, with some just general recommendations and things to improve their website. Um, and so again like everything you’ve said is confidential though it will probably be shared with our class and our instructors. Um, and anything we put in the report will be anonymized so it won’t be traced back to you. So yeah. Thank you again so much for coming, we really really appreciate it. P: It’s a little hard to talk about the website without being able to refer, I would, I’m not sure if everyone’s as familiar and uses it as often as I do. Probably, you could probably learn a lot by watching people actually use it. I: Yeah, that’s another assignment we’re going to be doing is actually watching people P: Actually watching people and you might try it yourselves to see what it’s like. I: Oh yeah, we’ve gone through it. P: And it’s different for the State and The Michigan because the state requires you to reserve a specific seat. Um, but it’s, you’re actually starting with a site that is quite quite well done and functional for all the information that it has to convey and how often it changes. It’s not a bad starting point at all. So. I: Thank you so much again.

Appendix I. Participant 4 - Undergraduate Student Notes • Once a month to movies • Once every 4 months to Michigan Theater ¶¶Once a semester • 3 weeks ago saw new Spiderman ¶¶Went with friends, 3 of them • Likes Rave in Ypsi

• Likes State Theater on campus ¶¶More frequently than Michigan • Mich has less mainstream movies • Likes Rave b/c of lounge seats • State b/c of location ¶¶More mainstream for people “our age” • [Maybe likes newer, more “modern” stuff] • [Thinks Mich theater is for older people] • Used Fandango app to find movie times • For Mich theater, not an app, would have to go on website • Prefers to use phone, but uses computer for Mich theater • Would prefer phone instead if on app • Spends time with friends at movies • Wants to see movies review, price, time • Price matters sometimes ¶¶E.g. going to something b/c bored vs. new movie • Not Mich theater member, maybe later ¶¶Not sure why he hasn’t signed up • Process ¶¶Look at movies they have available ¶¶Confusing b/c Mich & State theater on the same site ¶¶Look at movie description, times ¶¶Confusion not knowing which theater • Showing movie listings for movies that won’t show for a while can be confusing • Purchased online 3 weeks ago for Rave ¶¶March for Mich theater • Films at the Michigan → click on film → click on time in sidebar → no promo code → select ticket quantity at bottom → add to cart → checkout → e-delivery → sign into account • Pretty tech savvy ¶¶Older population might have trouble • Fandango online as well • Make times and locations more clear • Venue vs. movie depends on situation • Reserved seating would do online to guarantee seat, nice to have on phone • Student discount can’t do online with Fandango

Appendix J. Participant 4 - Undergraduate Student Transcription (I is Interviewer, P is Participant) I: Ok so um… let’s get started. So how often do you go to the movie theater usually, in general, I mean all kinds of movie theaters? P: Probably like once a month. I: Once a month? Um, how often do you go to the Michigan Theater? P: Maybe like once every four months. I: Ok, once every… oh it’s like once a semester? P: Yeah, pretty much, I’d say so. I: Mhm. Um… so what was the last movie you saw in theaters?

P: In theaters… not at the Michigan specifically, just in generalI: Ok, not Michigan. Yeah. P: Um I think it was 3 weeks ago I saw the new Spiderman movie. I: New Spiderman? P: Mhm. I: Ok, what kind of movie is…? P: It’s, um, well, it’s Spiderman’s, like, plot so it’s the same Peter Parker character but it’s a comic version. I: Mhm. I see. Um… so did you go with anyone or you go alone? P: I went with friends. I: Ok, how many of you? P: Uh, three of us. I: Three? Ok, um, and um, what is your to-go movie theater? P: In Ann Arbor? I: Mhm. P: Um, I like Rave cinemas. It’s in Ypsilanti. I: Rave? P: Yeah. I: Ok so that’s the top one. P: Yeah, in Ann Arbor. I: Any others? P: Um, I like the State theater, that’s a good one. I: Oh the State theater? P: In Ann Arbor, on campus. I: Oh ok, so next additional question, how often do you go to the State theater? P: I’d say a little bit more frequently than the Michigan. I think the Michigan theater has a lot more like, uh, like, low key movies that aren’t as mainstream. I: Mhm. P: Like a lot of um, more catered toward the older population. I: I see. Ok. I haven’t been to State theater though, so I don’t know about that. Um, so, ok, so you mentioned which one is the top movie theater? P: Rave. I: Rave? Why, could you tell me why? P: It has the lounge seats you can recline in. Yeah, that’s pretty much the reason. I: Ok. Like, any others for example like equipment or locations or I don’t know, like? P: Well I think equipment is definitely the seating, where you can recline, um, besides that I think the State would be a close second because of the location. I: Ok. P: And also because it shows more mainstream movies that I think people our age watch. Black Panther I saw there, like all the other popular current movies.

I: Mhm. Cool. Um, so, can you recall uh, when was the last time that you wanted to watch a movie? P: Um, well three weeks ago probably when I watched the Spiderman movie. I wanted to watch that. I: Ok, um, and how did you find what times the movies were playing? P: Um, I used the Fandango app. I: Fan…? P: Fandango, it’s like a movie app, you can check movie listings and what times. I: Oh, so you usually use the app to check? P: Yeah, for that one but for like the Michigan theater I don’t think it pops up on that app so I would have to go on the Michigan theater’s website. I: Oh, I see. Ok. Um… P: So maybe that’s something they could do is to work with somehow with Fandango. Because I don’t think it populates on the app for what shows are on the theater. I: Then, what kind of device would you prefer to like purchase tickets or check movie information? P: Um… I: Laptop or phone or…? P: I would prefer my phone. Yeah. For sure. But like I said, because the Michigan theater doesn’t show up on the Fandango app I just go on my computer so I can go on the website. I: Oh ok. P: If it’s on a website, like if I use safari, it’s hard to see all the stuff so I would rather just use my computer. I: Mhm. Ok. So if it shows in the app that you just mentioned would you still like go through their website? P: Oh I would use my phone for sure. I: Oh ok. So you use their website because there is no option there? P: Mhm. I: Ok, cool. Thank you. Um, and, let me see… in addition to watching movies, what are other reasons that make you go to a movie theater, like…? P: Spend time with friends, like a social reason. I: Um… and what movie information are you most interested in when browsing for a particular movie online? P: Um… I: For example, like description or reviews, something like that…? P: Oh, reviews would definitely be a big thing. Yeah. I: Mhm. Yeah. Like, what others? P: Um, well, the price is a factor. The time. I: The time. P: Mhm. I: I see. Do you think the price matter a lot? P: Um… I think it depends on the occasion, like if you’re just bored with friends and you wanna do something, I would say, I would pick a cheaper movie but if you’re trying to watch like a really like cool new movie then the price matters less. I: Mhm. Ok. Um, so have you signed up for a Michigan theater membership? P: Yeah, I should.

I: Oh, really? P: No, I don’t. I don’t have a membership but I should because I go so frequently I feel like but no I don’t have one. I: Oh, ok. Um, so, since you think you should, why didn’t you sign up for a membership? P: Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know. I should. I: Ok. Um… so, could you describe your most recent experience navigating the theater website? P: Yeah, it was this past March so, it was a while ago. But I think it’s the same process every time. I like look at the movies that they have available. It does get confusing because sometimes I don’t - they use the same website for movies that are at the State theater also so sometimes it gets confusing because I don’t know if this movie is showing at the State or the Michigan. But besides that, it’s pretty streamlined, you just look at the movie, there’s a description which is nice, and then it gives you the times. I: Mhm. Cool. Um, and, so, did you encounter any difficulties or areas of confusion? P: Yeah, I mean the confusion definitely not knowing if it’s at the Michigan or the State theater. I think it’s also a little odd on that website is that they show movie listings for movies that aren’t gonna show for another month or a month and a half ahead of time so it gets confusing because you think oh you can watch this now but it’s not actually available until like next month. I: Oh, ok. Yeah that makes sense. Um, when was the last time you purchased movie tickets online? P: For the michigan theater? I: Um, no I guess in general. P: In general? Um, three weeks ago, when I watched that movie. I: Oh ok. Wait, so that movie, did you, waitP: That was in the Rave cinemas I: Yeah P: Yeah the different theater. I: Ok, um, and how about the Michigan theater? P: I think it was on March last - March 2018. I: Ok, that’s a year ago. Um, and when was, uh wait, so did you register an account to purchase tickets or purchase tickets as a guest? P: Um… I don’t remember. I know that you can log in I don’t remember if I have an account. I: Right. Mhm. P: I’m not sure. I: I see. Um, could you walk us through the process, you purchasing tickets online? P: Yeah. Sure. So, films at the michigan since we’re doing the michigan theater, then, so see this is like what’s weird because some of these don’t like, it doesn’t show till next month, so like I won’t know if I’m like gonna click this if I can even watch it. But anyways, so, let’s try this one, so Roma, um, so here’s the schedule, so say if I wanna watch it, yeah, so I’ll say I wanna watch it for Sunday, this Sunday. Click this. I feel like maybe I am a member but I don’t remember. I: It’s fine. P: Uh, no promo code, and then, what do I do? Um, oh here, yeah, so then I scroll down and then, well, I’m a student, so I would do one, add to cart, and then just check out. Uh, and then… uh… oh… what’s this? Oh, so then I would do, I would usually do e-delivery so I can get it in an email. I: Mhm.

P: And then, I don’t donate. Um, no thanks, and then. I: That’s my account, but how do you usually, do you register one or like set up one or just continue P: I guess I have one. I feel like I do have one. I must have one. Yeah. I: Ok. P: Yeah, I have an account I’m almost positive now, looking at this page. I: Ok. P: Yeah, it’s pretty easy. I: Um, so there’s, I mean, the next question would be how did you overcome the difficulties with purchasing movie tickets online? Um, so have you ever like experienced any difficulties, like…? P: I think we’re all pretty technologically savvy so it’s not that hard but I can definitely see like an older population having trouble with this website. I: Uh-huh. Yeah. Um, so do you use any other movie website? P: The Fandango website, because you can also access Fandango on the laptop. I: Mhm, and what features do you value purchasing tickets? P: What’s that? I: Uh, what values like um what kind of features would you think help you make it easier to purchase tickets online? P: That’s a good question. Um… I don’t know. I feel like as it is right now it’s pretty easy. I think maybe just making it more clear like the times and locations. I: Mhm. Nice. Um, yeah, Jill, do you still, do you have other questions? I: Yeah, um… so when you’re going to the movies, do you generally look at the venue first or the movie first? P: Um… I think again it depends on like the situation if it’s uh, like, time is a constraint then I would probably just stay on campus as opposed to like taking an Uber or driving there. I: Also, would you prefer I mean in general do you prefer purchasing tickets online or go to the front door and purchase tickets there? P: Um, I think it depends on the theater, because if it’s um, reserved seating then I would definitely do it online because the seats might run out. But if it’s like, a typical American theater you can just sit wherever, so it doesn’t matter really when you buy it unless it’s like the premiere then I would buy it ahead of time. But it’s nice to just have it on your phone so you don’t have to wait in line. I: Mhm. Oh yeah. Um… yeah. Do you.. Um… I don’t think I have any other questions? I: Me neither. But I’m curious, could you walk me through how do you use the app? P: Oh, I don’t have it on my phone. I use like my friend’s. Um, because I don’t have the space on my phone to download it. I: How about the computer P: The website? Yeah, I can show you. It’s pretty easy. I: Thank you. Yeah. P: So then I can type in like, Ann Arbor, and then today’s date, and this is the one that I go to I guess it’s called Ann Arbor 20 IMAX. So say I wanna watch this one at 9:45, then I just click it, then just do that… I: Oh, what does this mean? P: General admission, for like…

I: General. P: Mhm. If you’re not a senior or you’re not a child. I: How do you define if you’re a senior or a child? P: I think it’s like 65 or older right, in the U.S.? I: Yeah, senior I think is 65 and up and child is 12 or under. P: But then I don’t like using this, like Fandango for this theater because you can get a student discount and it’s not an option if you buy it online here. I: Oh, yeah, so how do you get the student discount? P: You would have to do it in person at the theater. I: Oh ok I see. Mmm… if you have to do it in person in theater, how do you purchase it prior like online? P: Oh you can’t then. So if I’m like trying to get the student discount then I have to go there and just buy it there. I: So does that depend on different theater or that always - ? P: I think a lot of the theaters… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a theater on Fandango where there’s a student option, I think you have to go there, which makes sense, because everyone else would just be pretending to be a student to get the discount. I: Ok. Nice. Uh, yeah I think that’s all my questions. P: Cool. Uh, so thank you so much for your time, and if you think of anything else we should know or would like to know, you can contact us, and this is our email address. Uh, if you think you are going to contact us. P: Ok, I have Janel’s number too so if anything comes up I’ll text her. I: Nice. Nice. Um, yeah, thank you.

Appendix K. Rainbow Spreadsheet Before Prioritizing the Key Findings Theme Has preference of Michigan & State theater

member1

member2

grad

undergrad state only

Frequently attends Michigan Theater Infrequently attends Michigan Theater Usually attends alone Attends with others Uses Michigan Theater website to find movie times Uses Michigan Theater website to look at movie description Looks at future movie schedule on website Looks at current movie schedule on website Looks at picture of movie Picks seats (at State theater only) Wants to see how long a movie will be playing for Wants to see both theater schedules at once Confusion with how to see both Michigan and State theater movies Confusion about location of movie Difficulty purchasing special event tickets Price is important

Wants to see both theater schedules at once Confusion with how to see both Michigan and State theater movies Theme Confusion about location of movie

member1

member2

grad

Has preference of Michigan Statetickets theater Difficulty purchasing special & event

undergrad state only

Frequently attends Michigan Theater Price is important Infrequently Wants to seeattends reviewsMichigan Theater Usually attends alone sign-up process Discusses membership Attends others Needingwith to log in first to purchase as a member Uses Michigan Theatertowebsite to find movie Signing in as member purchase tickets times Utilizes membership perks Uses Michigan Theater website to look at Purchases tickets online movie description Purchases tickets online on Michigan Theater Looks at future movie schedule on website site Looks at current movie schedule on website Prefers mobile in general Looks at picture of movie Prefers computer in general Picks seats (at State theater only) Theme computer for Michigan Theater member1 Prefers Wants to see how long a movie will be playing Confusion with payment on website for Picks film, not venue Wants to see both theater schedules at once Reaches out if needs Confusion with how tohelp see both Michigan and

member2

grad

undergrad depends

State theater movies Uses external source to find movie information

google

fandango

Confusion about location of movie

Appendix L. Rainbow Spreadsheet with the Key Findings Price is important Difficulty purchasing special event tickets Purchases online Wants to tickets see reviews Prefers computer for Michigan Theater Discusses membership sign-up process Has preference of Michigan & State theater

Needing to log in first to purchase as a member Uses Michigan Theater website to find movie times

Signing in as movie member to purchase Looks at current schedule on websitetickets

Picks seats (at State theater only) Utilizes membership perks

Purchases tickets online on Michigan Theater site Purchases tickets online

Prefers computer in general

Frequently attends Michigan Theater

descriptioncomputer in general Prefers

Purchases tickets online on Michigan Theater Attends with others site Prefers mobile in general Uses Michigan Theater website to look at movie

3 3

Looks at future movie schedule on website

Wants to see both theater schedules at once

Confusion with how to see both Michigan and State theater movies

Discusses membership sign-up process

Needing to log in first to purchase as a member

Signing in as member to purchase tickets

Utilizes membership perks

Prefers computer for Michigan Theater

Infrequently attends Michigan Theater Confusion about location of movie

2 1

1 1

Price is important Wants to see reviews

Picks film, not venue

Uses external source to find movie information

Usually attends alone

Confusion with payment on website

411 1

Looks at picture of movie Wants to see how long a movie will be playing for

1 1

Picks film, not venue

Uses external source to find movie information

Usually attends alone

Confusion with payment on website

Looks at picture of movie

Wants to see how long a movie will be playing for

Difficulty purchasing special event tickets

1 1

Prefers mobile in general Reaches out if needs help Wants to see length of movie

1 1

Appendix M. Personas and Scenarios

DEMOGRAPHIC AGE: 23 OCCUPATION: First Year Graduate Student STATUS: In a relationship LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI GENDER: Female

DEMOGRAPHIC AGE: 62 OCCUPATION: Retired Professor STATUS: Married LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI GENDER: Male

DEMOGRAPHIC

Appendix N. Prescreening Google Form 5/7/2019

Michigan Theater Interview Pre-Screening

Michigan Theater Interview PreScreening Thank you so much for being a willing participant to our School of Information's Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation assignment to help improve the Michigan Theater website. This PreScreening Survey will allow us to get to know you better and reach out to you should our schedules align. Please expect the interview to be around an hour long and you will be meeting 2 of our teammates, Jill & April, at the Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea on Liberty (next to Slurping Turtles) with the address of: 604 E Liberty St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. * Required

1. Email address *

2. Please select your availabilities for this week Check all that apply. 10am11am

11am12pm

12pm1pm

1pm2pm

2pm3pm

Thurs, 2/14 3. Check this box if you are unable to participate Check all that apply. No worries! We will be sending out a followup survey in the near future 4. Please select your age range * Mark only one oval. Under 18 1829 3040 4150 5159 60+ Send me a copy of my responses.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XhOcIpK6lgp0l1BdFwqvUGbYRn8ahDKSKEv-LR8jkz4/edit

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Comparative Evaluation Report Evaluation of Different Systems for Website Improvements

Executive Summary We conducted a comparative evaluation to determine where the Michigan Theater website could improve based on the practice of comparable systems (Goodman et al., 2012 and Naseem, 2019 ). To accomplish this, we used a comparative matrix. We evaluated a total of ten systems, split into five categories: two Direct Competitors (Cinema Detroit and Roxie Theater), three Partial Competitors (Fandango, Goodrich Theaters (Quality 16), Farmington Civic Theater), three Indirect Competitors (Redbox, Netflix, and YouTube), one Parallel Comparison (Alamo Drafthouse), and one Analogous System (The Blind Pig) (Appendix A). From our evaluation of these systems, we came up with 5 key findings and recommendations: Key Finding #1: The Michigan Theater does not have a clear and distinctive way to separate current and upcoming movies. Recommendation: Creating two separate tabs to show a clear distinction between current and upcoming movies to be in line with competitors. Key Finding #2: The Michigan Theater does not indicate past showtimes. Recommendation: Like comparable systems, indicating past showtimes through fade outs or strikethroughs. Key Finding #3: Users are prompted for their membership login at two different points of the ticket purchasing process. Recommendation: Prompting membership login once on the page when users are purchasing tickets because direct comparisons only ask for membership login once. Key Finding #4: The Michigan Theater takes 7 clicks through pages for the ticket purchasing process, 2 more than its competitors on average. Recommendation: Consolidating some of the information onto fewer pages. On average, other systems streamline the process for their users with about 5 clicks-through-pages to purchase a ticket. Key Finding #5: The Michigan Theater has more pathways to purchase tickets than its competitors. Recommendation: Providing two or three clear and distinctive paths to purchasing tickets since most comparable systems have two or three clear and distinctive ways to purchase tickets.

Introduction Our objectives for this study were as follows: (1) discover additional information shown on other movie websites displayed to the users; (2) identify common trends of movie information being displayed; (3) explore how other similar movie theaters website organize their information, especially those who also host other events; and (4) if there are other additional features which could potentially be beneficial. Overall, our hope was to identify areas of improvements to the Michigan Theater website based on the current practices of the other systems in order to make recommendations. We also believed these objectives would help our Michigan Theater stakeholders accomplish their previously expressed goal of streamlining the information on the website. Additionally, one of the issues they had with their current website was the website’s usability, which caused them to receive many questions from customers. Therefore, we hoped these objectives would also give us insights into how to reduce user confusion with certain aspects of the website.

Methods The research method we employed for this study was the comparative evaluation (Goodman et al., 2012 and Naseem, 2019). A comparative evaluation involves looking at similar systems to discover additional or better features on the criteria we have decided to evaluate. First, we identified the criteria for selecting the systems based on the definitions from class slides, and then we chose the systems to be evaluated which fit this criteria (Naseem 2019). We chose the evaluation criteria for these systems based on existing issues from Michigan Theater’s website and our objectives for this study. We used a comparative matrix to assist us in our analysis (Appendix A). Since our stakeholders expressed they wanted to streamline the ticket purchasing process, we chose evaluation criteria for the comparative matrix we felt related to this goal. Additionally, some of the evaluation criteria was influenced from our previous interview findings, such as users looking for reviews or confusion about current versus upcoming films, to gauge possible improvements in areas we already knew were important to users. • Direct Competitors: Similar movie theaters whose website involves browsing for movie information, online ticket purchases, community gathering venues, events, and film festivals. ¶¶Cinema Detroit (2019) - A local movie theater in Detroit, Michigan hosting events and a community gathering venue. ¶¶Roxie Theater (2019) - A local movie theater in San Francisco, California hosting a variety of events. • Partial Competitors: Movie theaters in multiple locations whose websites involves browsing movie information, online ticket purchases. ¶¶Fandango (2018) - An online website and mobile application searching for showtimes playing at various movie theaters near the users’ location. ¶¶Goodrich Theaters (Quality 16) (2019) - A chain of movie theaters across Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri. ¶¶Farmington Civic Theater (2018) - A local movie theater in downtown Farmington, Michigan hosting occasional events but tickets cannot be purchased online and only at the theater.

• Indirect Competitors: Systems aside from movie theaters providing movies to users for a price per movie selected; a similar service but through a different medium. ¶¶Redbox (2018) - A movie rental service, pickups are from a kiosk at selected locations. ¶¶Netflix (1997-2019) - A popular movie and TV show streaming service with deliveries available for movie rentals. ¶¶YouTube (2019) - A popular video and music sharing platform which also provides movie streaming services. • Parallel Comparison: Similar movie theaters offering the same services and audience but not directly competing. ¶¶Alamo Drafthouse [n.d.] - A movie theater chain found in Austin, Texas spanning across different states in the US, also offering food and beverage. • Analogous Systems: Venues or platforms such as concert events provide similar services, but not including movies. ¶¶The Blind Pig [n.d.] - A local venue hosting mostly concerts and various events in Ann Arbor, Michigan allowing users to purchase tickets online.

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results From our comparative evaluation of different systems, we were able to identify five key findings to provide recommendations for the Michigan Theater’s website (Appendix A). The identified key findings are: (1) not showing a clear and distinctive way to separate current and upcoming movies, (2) no indication of past showtimes, (3) users are prompted for membership login two times before purchasing tickets, (4) the purchasing tickets process take 7 clicks-through-pages, and (5) the Michigan Theater has more pathways to purchase tickets than its competitors.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: The Michigan Theater does not have a clear and distinctive way to separate current and upcoming movies. Six systems we evaluated incorporated separate sections for currently playing and upcoming movies: Roxie Theater (2019), Farmington Civic Theater (2018), Fandango (2018), Goodrich Theaters (2019), Redbox (2018), and Alamo Drafthouse [n.d.]. Upcoming movies are often displayed next to or underneath the currently playing movies in a distinctive way (such as a big header saying “Coming Soon”) or in another section entirely. Recommendation: Creating two separate tabs to show a clear distinction between current and upcoming movies. We would like to recommend the Michigan Theater to place its current and upcoming movies in two distinctive sections on their website, as has been shown in several ways by its competitors. The Roxie Theater (2019) has a “Playing Today” section on their homepage with a carousel of the film posters of the movies currently being shown, followed by a “Coming Soon” section listing future movies playing (Appendix B). The

Goodrich Quality Theaters (2019) has a “Now Playing” section listed on their homepage, and when the user clicks the “See More” button, a page with current showtimes and upcoming movies tabs are listed and shown (Appendix B). Key Finding #2: The Michigan Theater does not indicate past showtimes. Other systems we evaluated had ways to indicate to users which showtimes have passed. On the Michigan Theater (2019) homepage, users are still able to select a past movie showtime displayed on the sidebar. The past movie showtime looks identical as the upcoming showtime listed next to the selected movie. When the user selects the past showtime, they are brought to the page with more information about the selected movie. However, the user does not realize the showtime has passed until they scroll to the very end of the movie page, which displays “Event Date Passed” in bold typeface and medium-sized black font. Recommendation: Indicating past showtimes through fade outs or strikethroughs. There are a few ways the comparative systems mediate this issue. For example, Fandango (2018) fades the showtime to indicate that it has passed and Goodrich Theaters (2019) fades and strikethroughs the showtime to indicate the movie has passed (Appendix C). Additionally, in both systems the user is unable to click on the past showtimes. Our recommendation is to clearly indicate past showtimes to users, preventing them from trying to purchase tickets for a past show, which will lead them to a “dead end” in the ticket purchasing process. Like other similar systems, disabling the link, displaying a strikethrough in clicking on past showtimes, fading out the past showtime, or altogether not displaying past showtimes for shows earlier than the current time are possible solutions. Key Finding #3: Users are prompted for their membership login at two different points of the ticket purchasing process. We noticed our client incorporated their membership login as a pop-up window prior to purchasing tickets as well as asking them again about their membership status close to the end of purchasing (Figure 1). The direct competitors, Cinema Detroit (2019) and Roxie Theater (2019), have memberships like the Michigan Theater does, yet only ask for a membership login once.

Figure 1. Michigan Theater uses a pop up to ask if users are a member. (left screenshot image) Michigan Theater shows a login window for purchasing a ticket. (right screenshot image)

Recommendation: Prompting membership login once on the page when users are purchasing tickets. Cinema Detroit (2019) and Roxie Theater (2019) use a similar ticketing platform. Instead of a pop-up window asking about the user’s membership status, they place their membership login in the header section at the top of the ticket purchasing page (Appendix D). We would like to recommend the Michigan Theater (2019) website establishes a membership login at the beginning of the ticket purchasing process without a pop-up window and within the purchasing page, similarly to the other systems. This will help streamline the ticket purchasing process.

Key Finding #4: The Michigan Theater takes 7 clicks through pages for the ticket purchasing process, 2 more than its competitors on average. On average, other systems required clicking through 5 pages to purchase, while the Michigan Theater required 7. While the task of clicking is not challenging, it could be beneficial to streamline our client’s ticket purchasing process by limiting the pages. The Michigan Theater (2019) utilizes two pop-up windows prior to purchasing a ticket asking “Are you a member?” and “Do you have a promo code?” followed by a series of interactions on different pages. These different pages are choosing a delivery method, asking for donation, and another prompt asking if the user is a member. If the user chooses to continue as a guest, they are finally asked to input their guest and billing information. Recommendation: Consolidating some of the information onto fewer pages. We would like to recommend limiting the number of interactions in the purchasing tickets process. For example, the pop-up windows are not necessary. Instead, the login section should be included on one page with other information collected at the checkout. All the Michigan Theater login information can be included within the purchasing process and done with fewer pages. Key Finding #5: The Michigan Theater has more pathways to purchase tickets than its competitors. The Michigan Theater (2019) website has six different pathways to purchase tickets online, while there were only two or three different pathways on all the direct, partial, and parallel systems. For instance, on the Michigan Theater (2019) homepage, a user can click the red-colored “Buy Tickets” button or select a movie showtime link on the right sidebar. Recommendation: Providing two or three clear and distinctive paths to purchasing tickets. We would like to recommend the Michigan Theater to emphasize two or three straightforward and standard ways to purchase tickets similar to its comparators. For example, Fandango (2018) has a straightforward “Movie Times + Tickets” tab shown on their homepage to efficiently view the movie schedule and buy tickets.

Discussion We had many systems to compare which provided rich information, but we had difficulty placing them in the five categories of direct competitor, indirect competitor, partial competitor, parallel comparison, and analogous system. We went through different iterations of where each particular system should be placed. Due to this challenge, it is possible certain systems might have been misplaced. However, we did identify a variety of information presented from our competitors, which helped us narrow down to five key findings. Additionally, we had ten systems to compare, but there may have been other systems we did not look at that would have further strengthened and/or provided additional recommendations to improve the Michigan Theater (2019) website. Having evaluated our competitors’ system on purchasing tickets, there may have been additional information we might have missed for not fully completing the online ticketing process. For instance, both of our direct competitors required users to provide their first name, last name, and email address to purchase tickets. We did not actually purchase tickets due to not having plans to see a movie and not wanting to spend unnecessarily, so our interactions with the site ended once we were requested to fill in personal information. This may have caused us to have missed out on additional information in the process.

The objectives listed in the introduction were based off of the original research questions our group generated and most of the information surrounding those objectives are included in the comparison table (Appendix A). However, some of that information did not generate meaningful findings, so our direction shifted as we explored more in-depth to each system which uncovered more and different recommendations to the Michigan Theater (2019) website than we had originally expected. Our next step is to conduct a survey for customers who have been on the Michigan Theater (2019) website within the past year. This will help us further understand how users are interacting with the Michigan Theater (2019) website and proceed in creating further recommendations by gathering more data.

Conclusion We evaluated ten comparable systems to the Michigan Theater (2019) website to gauge areas of improvement for the website. We split our systems into categories and created a comparison table to assist with analysis (Appendix A). We discovered weaknesses and made five recommendations in the following areas: separate current and upcoming films, indicate past showtimes, fewer membership login prompts, consolidate information gathering for online ticket purchasing, and reduce the number of pathways available to purchase tickets.

References Cinema Detroit. (2019) Retrieved on March 11, 2019 from https://www.cinemadetroit.org Fandango. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.fandango.com/ Farmington Civic Theater. (2018). Retrieved from https://thefct.com/ Goodman, E., Kuniavsky, M., and Moed, A. 2012. Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitionerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide to User Research. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. Michigan Theater. (2019) Retrieved on March 15, 2019 from https://www.michtheater.org Movie Showtimes & Tickets | Goodrich Quality Theaters. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www. goodrichqualitytheaters.com/ Nassem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. SI622_W19_Week05.pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/courses/266036/files/folder/Week%205 Nassem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Competitive Analysis & SURVEYS Part 1. SI622-Week 6(Canvas).pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/ courses/266036/files/folder/Week%206 Netflix. (1997-2019). Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from https://www.netflix.com/browse Redbox. (2018). Retrieved on March 10, 2019 from https://www.redbox.com Roxie Theater. (2019) Retrieved on March 11, 2019 from https://www.roxie.com The Blind Pig. (n.d.) Retrieved on March 13, 2019 from http://www.blindpigmusic.com YouTube. (2019). Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/

Appendices Appendix A. The Comparison Evaluation Table of the Different Systems

Appendix B. Examples of Separating Current and Upcoming Movies The Roxie Theater has the â&#x20AC;&#x153;coming soonâ&#x20AC;? movies distinctly beneath the currently playing movies.

The Goodrich Quality Theaters separates its current and upcoming movies in two separate tabs.

Appendix C. Examples of Indicating Past Showtimes Fandango fades out the time and disables clicking to indicate the showtime has passed. The Goodrich Quality Theaters strikethroughs, fades out, and disables clicking for past showtimes.

Appendix D. Examples of Membership Login The Cinema Detroit shows a membership login section on purchasing page with required customer details.

The Roxie Theater shows a membership login section on purchasing page with required customer details.

Survey Report A Survey with a Broad Audience to Further Improve the Website

Executive Summary Our team initially established research questions aligning with our objectives to help focus our pilot survey for the Michigan Theater website. The research questions were as follows: • • • • • • •

Are people satisfied with the ticket purchasing process on the website? How frequently do people face difficulties using the website? How frequently do people purchase tickets online versus buying them at the door? How frequently do people use the website for other activities? Where are the users’ biggest pain points using the website? How old are people who typically use the website? How technologically savvy are the people who use the website?

The pilot survey helped us make improvements to our official survey (Appendix A and B). We provided our official survey link to the Michigan Theater stakeholders for them to include on the ticket purchasing confirmation page on the website. We also sent the official survey to the original pilot group and requested the stakeholders to send another email blast to their subscribers. The official survey was available to our respondents for a total of eight and a half days. Once the survey reached our established deadline, we further analyzed the data to answer our research questions. We received a total of 94 participants to our survey of 24 questions, but we ended up only using 75 participants’ responses after eliminating incomplete responses. From our analysis, we came up with four key findings. Key Finding #1: Respondents were generally satisfied with the Michigan Theater website. Key Finding #2: The majority of the respondents were browsing for movie times at least a week in advance. Recommendation: The movie schedule page should include an option to filter by date and a fixed schedule on updating upcoming movies. Key Finding #3: The majority of respondents were over the age of 60 and held the most MTF memberships. Their most frequent activities were purchasing tickets and learning more about the movies shown. Recommendation: Streamline all necessary information regarding purchasing tickets and movie information being shown to accommodate the users’ needs. Key Findings #4: Most respondents preferred to read the movie reviews before their selection. Recommendation: Include movie reviews from external sources such as New York Times, Washington Post or IMDb on the Michigan Theater website.

Introduction Our objectives for this survey were as follows: (1) Learn more about users’ satisfaction of the website; (2) Gauge the frequency of which users experience difficulties using the website and where; (3) Learn what tasks users often utilize the website for; (4) Learn more about the characteristics of the customers using the website. Users ranged in age from the 19-29 year old age bracket to over sixty years old and had used the Michigan Theater website in the six months prior to taking the survey. These goals were supplemented by the following research questions, which guided how we wrote the survey questions: • • • • • • •

Methods We used Qualtrics XM (Experience Management) to implement our pilot and official surveys (Appendix A and B). Originally, our intended audience for the survey was customers who used the Michigan Theater website within the last year. We had previously collected email addresses for our interview report from Michigan Theater email list subscribers who were interested in helping with the website redesign. We received 29 responses for our pilot survey out of the 41 people who provided their email addresses. From their responses, we established Question 9 (Q9), Question 12 (Q12), and Question 15 (Q15), which stated “In the last year...” were not clear for the users and decided to change the official survey questions to “In the last six months...” and edited the response options to be more specific with numerical values, which allowed the respondents to be more accurate in their responses. We also removed the questions “Do you have any feedback for us regarding this survey?” and “Approximately how long did it take you to complete this survey?” when revising for the official survey because that information was no longer necessary to collect. Finally, we added a question asking if the respondent was an MTF member to help us further understand who we were getting answers from. We utilized two methods of recruitment for the official survey. For our first method, we provided the Michigan Theater stakeholders with a survey link to put on their website’s ticket purchase confirmation page, ensuring those who took the survey will have recently used the website and recall their experiences within the last six months. Our second recruitment method was an email from the Michigan Theater stakeholders to their email list, which included MTF members and non-members. We also reached back out specifically to the subscribers to whom we sent the pilot survey. We also extended the deadline of the official survey from a week to eight and a half days to receive more responses.

We received 94 responses, but 19 responses were eliminated due to being incomplete at the official survey deadline, leaving us with 75 responses to analyze. The respondents consisted of 22 males, 51 females, 1 person who indicated “other”, and 1 person who preferred not to disclose their gender. 6 respondents were 19-29 years old, 3 were 30-39 years old, 2 were 40-49 years old, 20 were 50-59 years old, 43 were over the age of 60, and 1 preferred not to answer. 56 respondents were MTF members, 18 were not MTF members, and 1 preferred not to answer. The previously established research questions were divided among the team members to further analyze the data. The survey responses were downloaded as a CSV file. We used Microsoft Excel in order to filter data, find the mean, median, and mode for the questions using a Likert scale, and count the frequency of different response options (Goodman, 2012; Naseem, 2019). We also used the analysis feature from Qualtrics XM to further look at the description of the results for each of the questions.

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results We received a total of 94 responses to our official survey with 24 questions. We omitted several incomplete responses at the time of our established deadline, leaving us with 75 complete responses to analyze. The key findings we gathered from the survey were as follows: respondents were generally satisfied with the Michigan Theater website, most respondents were browsing for movie times a week in advance, most of the respondents were over the age of 60, and most respondents preferred to read the movie reviews before their selection.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: Respondents were generally satisfied with the Michigan Theater website. On a 5-point scale, from 1 being “Strongly Disagree” to 5 being “Strongly Agree”, the statement “I am satisfied with the Michigan Theater website.” had a mean of 3.73, a median of 4, and a mode of 4, indicating the majority of respondents were satisfied with the website (Figure 1). With a 5-point scale of 1

Figure 1. Most respondents agree that they are satisfied with the Michigan Theater website.

being “Almost Never” and 5 being “Almost Always”, the statement “I feel frustrated when using the Michigan Theater website.” had a mean of 2.29, a median of 2, and a mode of 2, revealing most of the respondents rarely experienced frustration with the website (Figure 2). The rest of our statements followed a similar pattern (Appendix C: Question 5 and Question 6). There were no recommendations for this finding due to general satisfaction with the website.

Figure 2. Most respondents rarely felt frustrated using the Michigan Theater website.

Key Finding #2: The majority of the respondents were browsing for movie times at least a week in advance. 38 respondents said they browse for movies about a week in advance, 6 said they browse a few weeks in advance, and 4 said they looked at least a month in advance, totalling 64% of respondents who indicated they browse at least a week in advance for moving showtimes (Figure 3). Some respondents expressed they were unable to browse for movies as far ahead as they preferred, such as “Getting the schedule just a week at a time isn’t ideal for planning. We see almost every movie” (Appendix C: Question 24).

Figure 3. Most respondents indicated that they browse for movie information at least a week in advance.

Recommendation: The movie schedule page should include an option to filter by date and a fixed schedule on updating upcoming movies. Currently, the movies are listed together in one big list, requiring users to scroll down and through the list to find a specific date and movie. Creating an option to filter by date will help those who plan in advance to more easily find the movie times. Additionally, having a standardized schedule to update upcoming movies allows users to adopt a routine to search for movies. If the users know when to expect the updated list of upcoming movies, then they would have the opportunity to plan in advance.

Key Finding #3: The majority of respondents were over the age of 60 and held the most MTF memberships. Their most frequent activities were purchasing tickets and learning more about the movies shown. Our third key finding was 57.33% of our respondents were over the age of 60 (Figure 4). This confirmed our client’s assumptions they expressed in our initial stakeholder interview: their target market is older adults and older adults hold the most MTF memberships.

Figure 4. Respondents’ age brackets who participated in this survey.

The official survey asked “How do you purchase movie tickets from the Michigan Theater?” Only 15 out of the 43 respondents who were 60+ years old stated “online” (Figure 5), but when asked “Which of the following do you use the Michigan Theater website for? Please select all that apply.” 23 out of the 43 respondents who were 60+ years old included “Purchase movie tickets” in their response (Figure 6). For the question, “Which of the following do you use the Michigan Theater website for? Please select all that apply,” 42 respondents who were 60+ years old indicated they were interested in “learn more about the movies playing.” (Figure 6).

Figure 5. Most respondents over 60 years old who responded purchase tickets in person from the Michigan Theater.

Figure 6. The most frequent use of the website for respondents over 60 years old was to learn more about the movies playing, followed by purchasing movie tickets, learning about non-movie events, and other.

Recommendation: Streamline all necessary information regarding purchasing tickets and movie information being shown to accommodate the users’ needs. Since most of our respondents were over the age of 60 and indicated they are interested in purchasing tickets and learning more about movies when using the website, those areas should be a priority for the redesign. We would like to recommend streamlining all necessary information regarding purchasing tickets and movie information being shown to accommodate the needs of the older user group in obtaining information quickly and easily. Key Findings #4: Most respondents preferred to read the movie reviews before their selection. The statement “I look for movie reviews before deciding which movie to watch” had a mean of 3.56, a median of 4, and a mode of 3 on a 5-point scale with 1 being “Almost never” and 5 being “Almost always”

(Figure 7). A total of 78.7% of respondents indicated they at least sometimes read the movie reviews in advance (Figure 7). Currently, the Michigan Theater website does not provide movie reviews. One respondent wrote, “I have to go to other sites for reviews, so that’s what I do” and another said “I wish there were better review options,” further confirming our findings from a previous study that users would like to view movie reviews during their selections (Appendix C: Question 14).

Figure 7. Most respondents at least sometimes look for movie reviews before selecting a movie.

Recommendation: Include movie reviews from external sources on the Michigan Theater website. We would like to recommend including external reviews on the Michigan Theater website. Respondents suggestions for what types of reviews were: “Could offer links to major review outlets: New York Times, Washington Post” or “links to IMDb or Wikipedia would be helpful” (Appendix C: Question 14). Additionally, reviews could be from Michigan Theater Foundation members or local critics to keep with the Michigan Theater’s brand of being a local theater.

Discussion One of our main recruiting methods was through an email blast from our Michigan Theater stakeholders to their email list, which biased our sample with mostly MTF members. The MTF members may be more familiar with the website due to more frequent use and therefore have less issues. Due to this bias, our results may not have applied as generally as we may have liked since we were not able to reach as many non-members. A second potential shortcoming of our survey was asking those who took the pilot if they would also like to take the official survey, these respondents may have tried to match their original responses from the pilot survey to the official survey. While we understand now it is not best practice to have these participants included in the participation of the official survey, our response rate to the official survey was initially quite low which prompted us to reach back out. Finally, another potential shortcoming was the limited amount of time we had to gather responses. When our official survey launched, we did not receive many responses. We were luckily able to contact one of our stakeholders to do an additional email blast to their list and finally obtained an increase in responses. Having

more time would be helpful to target additional non-members of the Michigan Theater, particularly through the survey link on the ticket confirmation page. Our next step is to conduct a Heuristic Evaluation within our team. We plan to have each team member evaluate the different heuristics the Michigan Theater website should ideally follow. This evaluation will allow our team to find what is working within the website as well as what improvements need to be made.

Conclusion Our team first established research questions which aligned with our objectives to help focus our pilot survey (Appendix A). The pilot survey helped us make improvements to our official survey (Appendix B). We sent our survey link to our stakeholders for them to add it to their ticket confirmation page, sent it to the original pilot group of Michigan Theater email subscribers, and requested the stakeholders to send an additional email blast to their subscribers when we realized we were not receiving enough responses. The official survey was available for a total of eight and a half days. Once the survey reached our extended deadline, we further analyzed the data to help answer our research questions. We received a total of 94 responses for our official survey of 24 questions. We analyzed only 75 participants’ responses due to other respondents having had incomplete responses to the entirety of the survey. From our analysis of the official survey, we resulted in four key findings: (1) respondents were generally satisfied with the Michigan Theater website, (2) most respondents preferred to browse for movie times at least a week in advance, (3) respondents were over the age of 60, and (4) most respondents preferred to read external movie reviews before selection. Our first key finding did not result in any recommendations due to general satisfaction. Our first and second recommendations corresponded to the second key finding, which is to have the movie schedule page include the option to filter by date and a fixed schedule to update upcoming movies. Our third recommendation corresponded to the third key finding, which is to streamline all necessary information regarding purchasing tickets and movie information being shown to accommodate the users’ needs. Our fourth recommendation is to add external movie reviews to the website.

References Goodman, E., Kuniavsky, M., and Moed, A. 2012. Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. Michigan Theater. (2019) Retrieved on March 15, 2019 from https://www.michtheater.org Naseem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Competitive Analysis & SURVEYS Part 1. SI622-Week 6(Canvas).pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/ courses/266036/files/folder/Week%206 Naseem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Interviews (Presentations) and SURVEYS Part II. SI622_Week_07_(Canvas).pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich. instructure.com/courses/266036/files/folder/Week%207

Appendices Appendix A. The Pilot Survey Hello! We are team J2A2, Graduate Students from the University of Michigan: School of Information, working with the Michigan Theater to provide improvements to their current website. With your help, this survey will allow us to identify and clarify those improvements needed for the Michigan Theater website. This survey is voluntary and confidential. It will take approximately 10 minutes and be available from Sunday, March 10th to Tuesday, March 12th, 2019. Your responses will only be analyzed by our team and we will not identify you when sharing our findings in our reports and presentations. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you may contact our team through email at j2a2.umsi@umich.edu. --Q1. How do you generally purchase movie tickets? a. Online b. In person Q2. (displayed if answer to Q1 is “online”) When you purchase movie tickets online, what technology do you prefer to use? a. Laptop/desktop b. Mobile phone c. Tablet d. Other (please specify) Q3. Which technology do you use at least once a day? Please select all that apply. a. Laptop/desktop b. Mobile phone c. Tablet Q4. Which of the following do you use the Michigan Theater website for? Please select all that apply. a. Purchase movie tickets b. Learn more about the movies playing c. Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater d. Other (please specify) Q5. Please rate how much you agree with the following statements. (1 - Strongly Disagree, 2 - Disagree, 3 - Neither agree nor disagree, 4 - Agree, 5 - Strongly Agree) • • • • • • •

It is easy for me to use the Michigan Theater website. The Michigan Theater website is straightforward. I enjoy using the Michigan Theater website. The content on the Michigan Theater website is easy to understand. The Michigan Theater website is easy to navigate. I am able to tell the location each movie is playing at when looking at the Michigan Theater website. I am satisfied with the Michigan Theater website.

Q6. Please indicate how often you experience the following situations. (1 - Almost Never, 2 - Rarely, 3 - Sometimes, 4 - Often, 5 - Almost Always) • • • • • • • • •

I feel frustrated when using the Michigan Theater website. I feel satisfied after using the Michigan Theater website. I ask for help when using the Michigan Theater website. I am able to quickly find what I am looking for on the Michigan Theater website. Something I am looking for is not where I expected it to be on the Michigan Theater website. I get confused when using the Michigan Theater website. I look for movie reviews before deciding which movie to watch. I can tell which movies are playing at the Michigan Theater versus the State Theater. I have trouble navigating the Michigan Theater website.

Q7. How do you purchase movie tickets from the Michigan Theater? a. Online b. In person Q8. (displayed if “Online” is selected for Q7) When you purchase movie tickets from the Michigan Theater website, what technology do you prefer to use? a. Laptop/desktop b. Mobile phone c. Tablet d. Other (please specify) Q9. (displayed if “purchase movie tickets” is selected for Q4) In the last year, how often did you use the Michigan Theater website to purchase tickets online? a. Almost never b. Once c. 3-4 times d. 3+ times a month e. 1-2 times a month f. 3+ times a week g. 1-2 times a week Q10. (displayed if “purchase movie tickets” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the ticket purchasing process? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q11. (if “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” selected for Q10) What aspect of the ticket purchasing process are you dissatisfied with? (short answer) Q12. (displayed if “Learn more about the movies playing” is selected for Q4) In the last year, how often did you use the Michigan Theater website to learn about the movies playing? a. Almost never b. Once c. 3-4 times d. 3+ times a month

e. 1-2 times a month f. 3+ times a week g. 1-2 times a week Q13. (displayed if “Learn more about the movies playing” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the experience of learning about the movies playing? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q14. (if “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” selected for Q13) What aspects of learning about the movies playing are you dissatisfied with? (short answer) Q15. (displayed if “Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater” is selected for Q4) In the last year, how often did you use the Michigan Theater website to learn about the movies playing? a. Almost never b. Once c. 3-4 times d. 3+ times a month e. 1-2 times a month f. 3+ times a week g. 1-2 times a week Q16. (displayed if “Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the experience of learning about non-movie events at the Michigan Theater? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q17. (if “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” selected for Q16) What aspects of learning about non-movie events are you dissatisfied with? (short answer) Q18. How far in advance do you look for movie information (such as show dates and times)? a. The day of the movie b. About a week in advance c. A few weeks in advance d. At least a month in advance e. Other (please specify) Q19. What is your age? a. 0-18 years old b. 19-29 years old c. 30-39 years old d. 40-49 years old e. 50-59 years old

f. 60+ years old g. Prefer not to answer Q20. How do you identify your gender? a. Female b. Male c. Other (please specify) Q21. What is your current employment status? Please check all that apply. a. Student b. Part-time employee c. Full-time employee d. Unemployed e. Retired f. Prefer not to answer Q22. How long have you lived in Ann Arbor? a. One year or less b. 1-3 years c. 3-5 years d. 6-10 years e. 11-15 years f. 16+ years g. I do not live in Ann Arbor h. Prefer not to answer Q23. Do you have any additional comments for us about the Michigan Theater website? Q24. Do you have any feedback for us regarding this survey? Q25. Approximately how long did it take you to complete this survey?

Appendix B. The Official Survey Hello! We are team J2A2, Graduate Students from the University of Michigan: School of Information, working with the Michigan Theater to provide improvements to their current website. With your help, this survey will allow us to identify and clarify those improvements needed for the Michigan Theater website. This survey is voluntary and confidential. It will take approximately 10 minutes and be available from Tuesday, March 12th to Thursday, March 21st, 2019 at noon. Your responses will only be analyzed by our team and we will not identify you when sharing our findings in our reports and presentations. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you may contact our team through email at j2a2.umsi@umich.edu. --Q1. How do you generally purchase movie tickets? a. Online b. In person Q2. (displayed if answer to Q1 is â&#x20AC;&#x153;onlineâ&#x20AC;?) When you purchase movie tickets online, what technology do you prefer to use? a. Laptop/desktop

b. Mobile phone c. Tablet d. Other (please specify) Q3. Which technology do you use at least once a day? Please select all that apply. a. Laptop/desktop b. Mobile phone c. Tablet Q4. Which of the following do you use the Michigan Theater website for? Please select all that apply. a. Purchase movie tickets b. Learn more about the movies playing c. Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater d. Other (please specify) Q5. Please rate how much you agree with the following statements. (1 - Strongly Disagree, 2 - Disagree, 3 - Neither agree nor disagree, 4 - Agree, 5 - Strongly Agree) • • • • • • •

Q6. Please indicate how often you experience the following situations. (1 - Almost Never, 2 - Rarely, 3 - Sometimes, 4 - Often, 5 - Almost Always) • • • • • • • • •

Michigan Theater website to purchase tickets online? a. Never b. 1-4 times c. 5-9 times d. 10-15 times e. 16-20 times f. 21+ times Q10. (displayed if “purchase movie tickets” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the ticket purchasing process? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q11. Please explain your selection above. (short answer) Q12. (displayed if “Learn more about the movies playing” is selected for Q4) In the last 6 months, how often did you use the Michigan Theater website to learn about the movies playing? a. Never b. 1-4 times c. 5-9 times d. 10-15 times e. 16-20 times f. 21+ times Q13. (displayed if “Learn more about the movies playing” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the experience of learning about the movies playing? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q14. Please explain your selection above. (short answer) Q15. (displayed if “Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater” is selected for Q4) In the last 6 months, how often did you use the Michigan Theater website to learn about non-movie events? a. Never b. 1-4 times c. 5-9 times d. 10-15 times e. 16-20 times f. 21+ times Q16. (displayed if “Learn more about other events happening at the Michigan Theater” is selected for Q4) How satisfied are you with the experience of learning about non-movie events at the Michigan Theater? a. Very satisfied b. Satisfied c. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

d. Dissatisfied e. Very dissatisfied Q17. Please explain your selection above. (short answer) Q18. How far in advance do you look for movie information (such as show dates and times)? a. The day of the movie b. About a week in advance c. A few weeks in advance d. At least a month in advance e. Other (please specify) Q19. What is your age? a. 0-18 years old b. 19-29 years old c. 30-39 years old d. 40-49 years old e. 50-59 years old f. 60+ years old g. Prefer not to answer Q20. How do you identify your gender? a. Female b. Male c. Other (please specify) Q21. What is your current employment status? Please check all that apply. a. Student b. Part-time employee c. Full-time employee d. Unemployed e. Retired f. Prefer not to answer Q22. How long have you lived in Ann Arbor? a. One year or less b. 1-3 years c. 3-5 years d. 6-10 years e. 11-15 years f. 16+ years g. I do not live in Ann Arbor h. Prefer not to answer Q23. Are you a Michigan Theater member? a. Yes b. No c. Prefer not to answer Q24. Do you have any additional comments for us about the Michigan Theater website?

Appendix C. Responses from the Official Survey

Appendix D. Analysis for Key Finding #3

Appendix E. A Rough Draft Introduction Including a Survey Grid

Heuristic Evaluation Report Evaluating the Ticket Purchasing Process Via Desktop

Executive Summary A heuristic evaluation involves usability experts evaluating a system from multiple different principles that a system should ideally follow (Nielsen, 1994; Naseem, 2019; Appendix A). Our primary focus was evaluating the Michigan Theater websiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ticket purchasing process. With each heuristic, we identified potential features and issues one would encounter when interacting with this system. As a team we evaluated the system individually and ranked the severity of each topic based on the heuristics (Appendix C). We combined our evaluations into one table to help us focus on the commonalities of each evaluation (Appendix B). We also calculated group severity rankings to help us prioritize each issue. We established six key findings with corresponding recommendations: Key Finding #1: Users were unable to modify their orders in the checkout page. Recommendation: Including the option to remove or add tickets within the checkout page. Key Finding #2: The website lacked some consistency in regards to which pages the user went through to purchase their tickets. Recommendation: Ensuring all pathways lead to the same pages in the ticket purchasing process for consistency. Key Finding #3: Order information such as number of tickets being purchased, what movie, and price were missing in some checkout steps. Additionally, members needed to be able to recall their membership number to log in and receive their perks. Recommendation: Showing the order information such as ticket quantity, price, and movie sections in all steps of the checkout process and tying the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s membership number with their email addresses due to the difficulty of recalling numbers. Key Findings #4: There were different, but not necessarily obvious, ways to view the location of the movie being shown on the ticket purchasing process. Recommendation: Provide a clear indication of the location for the selected movie in all pages of the purchasing process. Key Findings #5: There was no progress bar for the ticket purchasing process. Recommendation: Include a progress bar within the ticket purchasing process. Key Findings #6: The order of the ticket purchasing process did not match usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations. Recommendation: Switching the order of the ticket purchasing process to match how purchasing items occurs in real life.

Introduction We followed Nielsen’s heuristics to evaluate the Michigan Theater’s website, focusing on their ticket purchasing process (Nielsen, 1994; Naseem, 2019). These heuristics were evaluated individually and later compiled into a table to be further evaluated as a group, which then guided our team to identify areas of improvement to the ticket purchasing process (Appendix B & C). Our key questions for this study were as follows: • What areas of the ticket purchasing process might be confusing for users? • How can we improve the ticket purchasing process to be more intuitive for the users? • Is the ticket purchasing process presented in a logical and understandable way? Based on these questions, our goals for this study were as follows: (1) discover the areas where users may have trouble purchasing tickets, (2) evaluate the overall usability of purchasing tickets on the website, and (3) evaluate how logical and understandable purchasing tickets is on the Michigan Theater (2019) website.

Methods A heuristic evaluation involves usability experts evaluating a system from multiple different principles a system should ideally follow (Nielsen, 1994; Naseem, 2019). We assessed these heuristics by first individually going through the website and then assigning violations severity rankings, then prioritizing them as a team. (Nielsen, 1994; Figure 1; Figure 2). First, we defined the scope of the evaluation by focusing on the Michigan Theater’s website ticket purchasing process, which was previously expressed as a priority by our Michigan Theater stakeholders. Next, as a team, we discussed how to apply each heuristic to the Michigan Theater website. Then, we individually assessed the severity of each heuristic violation by identifying potential features and issues users could encounter when interacting with the system (Nielsen, 1994; Naseem, 2019; Appendix C). Once we completed our individual evaluations, we compiled our work into a table (Appendix B). The aggregated table helped us focus on the commonalities of each evaluation to establish our key findings. To calculate the group severity ratings, we took the average of the individual severity ratings and rounded to the nearest whole number. The group severity rating helped us prioritize the findings with the highest severity ratings and establish the areas which needed improvement in the ticket purchasing process. We decided that all of the findings with a group severity rankings of 4 were of the highest priority. We then analyzed the findings with a group severity rating of 3 and picked the ones that we felt would have the biggest impact on improving a user’s experience purchasing tickets. We did a second look at our heuristics table to ensure we did not overlook findings with lower severity ratings that still may have been of high priority. We confirmed all of our high priority findings correlated to a high severity rating.

Figure 1. Nielsen’s System of Heuristics Evaluations and definitions (1994).

Figure 2. Nielsen’s System of Heuristics’ Severity Rankings and definitions (1994).

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results While we established the areas of improvement for each heuristic, we only focused on the items with a high severity rating for our findings and recommendations. We determined any heuristics scoring a three or four were areas for the Michigan Theater to focus on improving. We then established our six key findings: (1) users were unable to modify their orders in the checkout page, (2) the website lacked some consistency, (3) when users enter their payment information, there is no information about how many tickets they are purchasing, what movie, or how much it costs as well as members need to be able to recall their membership number to log in and receive their perks, (4) there were different ways to view the location of the movie being shown on the ticket purchasing process, (5) there was no progress bar, (6) the order of the ticket purchasing process did not match users’ expectations.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: Users were unable to modify their orders in the checkout page. Heuristic Violated: “User Control And Freedom” Severity: 4 We found users were unable to modify their order within checkout page; for instance, modifying the number of tickets purchased (Michigan Theater, 2019). In the Michigan Theater checkout page, users were only able to remove the entire order, requiring the user to go through the process of selecting their movie, showtime, and ticket quantity again if they wanted to make modifications (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Users are not able to modify their order, such as the number of tickets they are purchasing.

Recommendation: Including the option to remove or add tickets within the checkout page. From this finding, we recommend providing the option to remove or modify individual tickets within the checkout page. By allowing the user to edit their purchase at checkout page, the user does not have to repeat the ticket purchasing process from the beginning. We want users to be able to modify their purchase instantly to have a more pleasant purchasing experience. Key Finding #2: The website lacked some consistency in regards to which pages the user went through to purchase their tickets. Heuristic Violated: “Consistency and Standards” Severity: 4 Users may have gone through different screens depending on how they attempted to purchase tickets. For example, from clicking on a showtime from the sidebar of the webpage, users were able to select the ticket quantity directly on the page (Figure 4, right image). However, if the user buys tickets after going to the “Films”

tab to select their movie, they are led to a different schedule page prompting for the quantity of tickets in a popup window instead of on the page (Figure 4, left image).

Figure 4. Users may go through different screens depending on how they attempt to purchase tickets.

Recommendation: Ensuring all pathways lead to the same pages in the ticket purchasing process for consistency. We would like to recommend selecting one type of method or making it consistent for all ticket purchasing pathways. By having a consistent ticketing purchase pathway, users will know what to expect each time they use the website. For example, either always have the pop-up to select ticket quantities or always have users select tickets on the movie information page. Key Finding #3: Order information such as number of tickets being purchased, what movie, and price were missing in some checkout steps. Additionally, members needed to be able to recall their membership number to log in and receive their perks. Heuristic Violated: “Recognition Rather than Recall” Severity: 4 On the page for users to enter their payment information, there is no information about how many tickets they are purchasing, what movie, or how much it costs; therefore, the user must remember this information as they finalize their order. Additionally, members need to be able to recall their membership number to log in and receive their perks. Recommendation: Showing the order information such as ticket quantity, price, and movie sections in all steps of the checkout process and tying the user’s membership number with their email addresses due to the difficulty of recalling membership numbers. First, we recommend having the order information, such as ticket quantity, price, and movie, shown at all steps of the check out process. Considering there are many interactions in the purchasing process, it will be beneficial to the user to have the order information present instead of having to recall this information by memory. Second, we recommend the user’s membership number should also be tied to their email address due to the difficulty of recalling membership numbers.

Key Finding #4: There were different, but not necessarily obvious, ways to view the location of the movie being shown on the ticket purchasing process. Heuristic Violated: “Visibility of System Status” Severity: 3 We realized there were different ways to view the location of the movie, due to the variety of pathways on the website, but not all of these ways were obvious. A short description written by one of our evaluators was, “If I click “Films” and choose Michigan Theater at the first place, I would know that the movie is playing at Michigan Theater. Otherwise I cannot find where to check which theater the movie is playing at. It would be much clearer if I can see this information in the checkout window or during the whole purchasing process” (Appendix C Table D; Figure 5).

Figure 5. There is no clear indication to let users know which theater the movie is playing at.

Recommendation: Provide a clear indication of the location for the selected movie in all pages of the purchasing process. We would like to recommend implementing a clear indication of the movie location, providing the convenience for the user without having to recall the action themselves. This can be established by using a Michigan Theater icon and State Theater icon on each page. Key Finding #5: There was no progress bar for the ticket purchasing process. Heuristic Violated: “Visibility of System Status” Severity: 3 While the ticketing checkout pages included a countdown timer of 15 minutes (Figure 6), once the user started the purchasing process, there was no indication of which step in the purchasing process a user was working on or how many more pages they would need to go through before the order was finalized. In our individual evaluations, we encountered several interactions before confirming the purchase of the movie tickets, but it was not clear how many interactions there would be total before completion.

Figure 6. There is a timer on the top of the website but no progress bar to let users clearly know how many purchasing steps they need to go through.

Recommendation: Include a progress bar within the ticket purchasing process. Including a progress bar in the ticket purchasing process would be advantageous for the user to see what step of the purchasing process they are on. The current process with the 15 minute timer created a sense of urgency, but including a progress bar would allow the user to go at their speed and understand how many more interactions they will need to go through. Key Finding #6: The order of the ticket purchasing process did not match users’ expectations. Heuristic Violated: “Match Between the System and the Real World” Severity: 3 Typically, in a real life situation, a person would select their items, go to the register to checkout, provide the cashier with any sort of coupons they have as well as membership information for additional discounts if applicable, and then finally pay for their items. On the Michigan Theater website, users are prompted to enter a promotional code and indicate if they are a member during the beginning of the purchasing process, contrary to expectations (Figure 7). Additionally, when purchasing tickets for the State Theater, the user would need to choose their seats before selecting the quantity of tickets, which may not be intuitive.

Figure 7. Users are prompted to enter a promo code and indicate if they are a member or not at the beginning of the purchasing process.

Recommendation: Switching the order of the ticket purchasing process to match how purchasing items occurs in real life. Our recommendation would be to streamline the order process as if it was done in person by requesting the promo code and membership status towards the end of the ticket purchasing process, right before entering payment information. We would also like to recommend switching to having the user pick their quantity of tickets before selecting seats for the State Theater because it’s more intuitive to know how many tickets you want rather the exact seat.

Discussion Due to our time constraints, we were only able to focus on the ticket purchasing process and would have liked to look at other areas for improvements based on our previous survey responses. We also may have been biased to focus on the ticket purchasing process because that is what our team members typically use movie theater websites for and we wanted to ensure we were fulfilling the requests of our Michigan Theater stakeholders. However, the Michigan Theater website users may use the website for other activities, such as learning about the events held at Michigan Theater or browsing through the movies shown. Being able to include these interactions would have provided additional improvements to the Michigan Theater website. Ideally, our next steps for this project would be to do a heuristic evaluation for other areas of the website to accomodate the needs of the Michigan Theater website users. Although we were not able to do this ourselves due to the time and assignment constraints of this course, SI 622: Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation, we would like to recommend the Michigan Theater stakeholders to consider performing a heuristic evaluation for other features in the future. Next, we will be performing a Card Sort study to discover how information on the Michigan Theaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website could be better organized. We hope this study will provide valuable insights for re-designing the Michigan Theater website, making it easier to navigate with well-organized information.

Conclusion Our primary focus was the Michigan Theaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website ticket purchasing process for evaluation. For each heuristic, we identified potential features and issues users would encounter when interacting with this system. Team members evaluated the system independently from each other and ranked the severity of each topic based on the heuristics. We combined our individual work into one table focusing on the commonalities of each evaluation. We also found the average of our individual severity rankings to determine the severity of each issue. We established six key findings as well as corresponding recommendations. These six findings were as follow: (1) users were unable to modify their orders in the checkout page, (2) the website lacked some consistency, (3) when users enter their payment information, there is no information about how many tickets they are purchasing, what movie, or how much it costs as well as members need to be able to recall their membership number to log in and receive their perks, (4) there were different ways to view the location of the movie being shown on the ticket purchasing process, (5) there was no progress bar, and (6) the order of the ticket purchasing process did not match usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations.

References Nielsen, Jakob. 1994. W8_Nielsen-HeurisiticEvaluation-UIM94.pdf. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure. com/courses/266036/files/folder/Week%208? Michigan Theater. (2019) Retrieved on March 31, 2019 from https://www.michtheater.org Naseem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Survey Wrap & Heuristic Evaluation. SI622_W19_Week08Canvas.pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/ courses/266036/files/folder/Week%208?preview=10694617

Appendices Appendix A. Heuristic Evaluation Template

Appendix B. Group Heuristic Evaluation Results

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Choose Your Own Adventure:

Card Sorting Report Discovering How Users Categorize the Michigan Theaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Information

Executive Summary A card sorting activity is an “evaluation method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site by understanding how different groups of users organize information” (Naseem, 2019). From OptimalSort (2019), our team created a remote card sorting activity for users to do at their own convenience. The participants were contacted by our stakeholders via email. Within the email was a screening questionnaire in Google Forms. We selected ten participants from those who filled out the Google Form link sent by our stakeholders. Five participants were non-members and the other five were Michigan Theater Foundation (MTF) members holding different membership levels. Our team provided participants with the link to the card sorting activity from OptimalSort (2019). Nine of the ten participants completed the card sorting activity. The results from our nine participants were evaluated and analyzed resulting in four key findings and corresponding recommendations: Key Finding #1: The median number of categories generated by participants was five. Recommendation: Reducing the number of categories to five on the homepage of the Michigan Theater website. Key Finding #2: Participants sorted the cards in to clear, distinctive categories. Recommendation: Applying a drop-down menu for all the main categories with their respective subcategories. Key Finding #3: Many participants organized the subcategories of “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together. Recommendation: It may be ideal to group “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together in order to streamline the information. Key Findings #4: From the inconsistent placement of “Cinema Chat” by the participants, we believe there may be a misunderstanding as to what it is and in what category it should be placed. Recommendation: Placing the “Cinema Chat” section as a page under the “Films & Tickets” category.

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Introduction In order to gauge how users categorized topics found on the Michigan Theater website, we requested our stakeholders to reach out to their users via email to participate in a card sorting activity. A card sorting activity is an â&#x20AC;&#x153;evaluation method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site by understanding how different groups of users organize informationâ&#x20AC;? (Naseem, 2019). We utilized a website called OptimalSort (2019) and created a remote card sorting activity for users to take at their convenience. Once all participants completed the activity, we analyzed the data to establish key findings and recommendations of improvement to the Michigan Theater website. The goals of the card sorting activity were: (1) identify what groupings of the information available on the Michigan Theater website make the most sense to users; (2) discover what category labels would make the most sense to users. The key questions of this activity were: (1) how do users group the information on the Michigan Theater website?; (2) what labels do users give the groups of cards they make? The quantity of information on Michigan Theaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website is quite vast and the card sorting activity would help to tailor the information displayed to the users.

Methods The scope we wanted to focus the card sorting activity was streamlining the available information on the Michigan Theater website. Our audience for this activity was both non-members and members of the Michigan Theater who have used the Michigan Theater website in the last 6 months and use a desktop/laptop to browse the website. We first established what topics users encountered on the Michigan Theater website. We focused primarily on the home page since it was rich with information. We placed our card ideas onto physical pieces of paper and test piloted with two members of the team with the other teammate acting as the moderator. This pilot helped us establish how long it would take the user to complete this task and be aware of any obstacle they might face. We were able to use our pilot findings to make improvements to the instructions as well as updating one of the cards for our final card sorting activity (Appendix A; Figure 1).

Figure 1. The table shows our final list of cards to be used for the study.

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We used the website OptimalSort (2019), which allowed the users to participate remotely and at their own convenience. This was an open, remote, and unmoderated card sort. An open card sort means participants sort the cards into groups and label these groups whatever they would like. In a closed card sort, however, participants must use pre-defined labels for the groups and sort items into groups they feel fit those labels. Since this card sort was remote and unmoderated, we were not physically present when the participants completed this activity and we were not able to watch it in real time or ask them questions about their thoughts or actions as they went through the activity (Naseem, 2019). For recruitment, our stakeholders sent an email to the Michigan Theater email list which included a screening form (Appendix C). We selected ten participants based on the responses to this form. Five of the participants were non-members and the other five were members who held different MTF membership level status. The participants were given the OptimalSort (2019) link for the card sorting activity. They were also asked to email us back once they completed the task because the card sorting activity was anonymous with no indications if the user was an MTF member. Nine participants completed the activity and one participant abandoned it, leaving us with five members and four non-members who completed the task.

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results We had ten participants for the card sorting activity and one of the ten participants abandoned the study. A total of nine participants completed the card sort in its entirety. Our team evaluated and analyzed the nine participants’ results and discovered four key findings and corresponding recommendations. The four key findings were the following: (1) the median number of categories was five based off the users card sorting activity; (2) discovered how participants sorted through the categories; (3) participants organized the subcategories of “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together, and (4) due to the inconsistent placement of “Cinema Chat” by the participants, there may be a misunderstanding as to what it is and in what category it should be placed.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: The median number of categories generated by participants was five. Currently, the Michigan Theater Website has eleven main categories on the homepage, which are “Schedule”, “Films”, “Concerts/Events”, “Series”, “Kids’ Programs”, “Cinetopia”, “State Theater”, “About”, “Membership & Support”, “Venue Info”, and “Contact Us” (Figure 2). Our first key finding, based on the results provided by OptimalSort (2019), is the median number of categories participants sorted cards into was five. This indicates users prefer to have a simplified, easy-to-navigate homepage. We analyzed the nine participants’ card sorting results from the OptimalSort (2019) dendrogram and categories list to identify what category labels made sense to participants (Figure 3).

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Figure 2. The Michigan Theater website navigation currently has eleven main categories (Login is not included).

Figure 3. The bar on the far left only has one category, but we know it is the participant who abandoned the study and therefore those results were not used in our analysis. The median number of categories should be five.

Recommendation: Reducing the number of categories to five on the homepage of the Michigan Theater website. Based on the results, we recommend reducing the total amount of categories currently on the Michigan Theater Website from eleven to five main categories as follows: “Films & Tickets”, “Other Events”, “Membership & Support”, “About”, and “Contact Us”. These five categories still has all the information currently present on the website, but allows for a more streamlined navigation. Key Finding #2: Participants sorted the cards in to clear, distinctive categories. Participants sorted the cards given to them into clear, distinct categories. These distinct categories were all given a label by the participant. We used the dendrogram to see the common category labels. Most of the participants did not re-use card names as labels for their groups. Recommendation: Applying a drop-down menu for all the main categories with their respective subcategories. Based on the nine participants’ card sorting results, we came up with five main categories: “Films & Tickets”, “Other Events”, “Membership & Support”, “About”, and “Contact Us”. View Appendix C for the full list of subcategories included under the main ones. The dendrogram displayed how the cards were categorized by the participants, allowing us to generate these categories (Figure 4). We recommend applying drop-down menus within each of the main category to clearly show the subcategories and better manage the Michigan Theater website hierarchy.

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Figure 4. The dendrogram helped us figure out what category labels made sense to participants.

Key Finding #3: Many participants organized the subcategories of “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together. From analyzing the similarity matrix and dendrogram provided by OptimalSort (2019), we found many participants were organizing the cards “Tickets”, “Schedule”, “All Films”, “Films at the Michigan”, and “Films at the State” together (Figure 5). These cards had stronger correlations to each other compared to others, indicating participants thought it would be intuitive to group them together. “Tickets” had its highest correlation (55% of participants grouped together) with “Schedule”, and “Schedule” had its highest correlations (77% of participants grouped together) with “All Films”, “Films at the Michigan”, and “Films at the State” (Figure 6).

Figure 5. “Tickets” had its highest correlation (55% of participants grouped together) with “Schedule”.

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Figure 6. “Schedule” had its highest correlation (77% of participants grouped together) with “All Films”, “Films at the Michigan”, and “Films at the State”.

Recommendation: It may be ideal to group “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together in order to streamline the information. We recommend grouping “Tickets”, “Schedule”, “All Films”, “Films at the Michigan”, and “Films at the State” into one category to further streamline the information on the website. Many of these subcategories also contain similar information, so it may be ideal to look further into which specific information goes into each subcategory. Key Finding #4: From the inconsistent placement of “Cinema Chat” by the participants, we believe there may be a misunderstanding as to what it is and in what category it should be placed. Participants grouped “Cinema Chat” with a wide variety of other cards. While many users grouped “Cinema Chat” with “Events”, this may be due to misunderstanding what “Cinema Chat” is. Our team discovered “Cinema Chat” was a radio program with Michigan Theater Executive Director, Russ Collins, mainly discussing movies and films. We believe some user confusion may be due to the radio website (WEMU 89.1, 2019) describing the “Cinema Chat” as including other events happening in the Ann Arbor Area and lack of visibility on the website due to its placement at the bottom of the home page. After looking into it further, it appears “Cinema Chat” is primarily about films. Due to the limited time, we were not able to confirm this with our stakeholders. Recommendation: Placing the “Cinema Chat” section as a page under the “Films & Tickets” category. We would like to ultimately recommend the “Cinema Chat” section to be included under “Films & Tickets” in the Michigan Theater website’s navigation header because its content relates mainly to films. This will hopefully reduce any user confusion regarding what “Cinema Chat” is about and also increase its visibility on the website.

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Discussion A shortcoming from our study was being limited to only ten participants due to using the free version of OptimalSort (2019). One participant abandoned the study, leaving us with only nine participants. While we believe we were able to generate meaningful findings from the data collected and tools provided by OptimalSort (2019), having more participants may have given us new insights and further strengthened our current key findings and recommendations. Additionally, we conducted an unmoderated, open, remote card sort. We may have benefited from moderating the study in person to observe the participants directly and understand further areas where they may have been struggling with, therefore improving the quality of data collected. Performing a closed card sorting after some of the open ones would have allowed us to test the categories we came up with; however, we were unable to do this due to time constraints and constraints of the OptimalSort (2019) platform since we were limited to the number of participants. In the methods section, one of the criteria for our potential participants was their use of desktop and/or laptop to browse the Michigan Theater website which we unfortunately left out from the screener of the Google Form link. This piece of information would have been beneficial to further establish how the Michigan Theater website’s information should be viewed via desktop and/or laptop. However, we do not believe this to be a large issue because due to our previous research, it seems that a vast majority of users use the Michigan Theater website on a desktop and/or laptop. On OptimalSort, we deleted the data from the participant who abandoned the study. However, we are not entirely certain that it removed this data from the dendrogram and similarity matrix. We do not believe that this data would affect those anyways because the participant only sorted one card and left all the rest unsorted, but it was difficult for us to be sure. Next, we will be conducting usability tests on the Michigan Theater website. Our hope is to discover what sorts of errors users make on the website and how easily they can perform key tasks on the website.

Conclusion In this study, we utilized card sorting as a method of discovering how to best organize the content on the homepage of the Michigan Theater website. We had nine participants, five members and four nonmembers of the Michigan Theater, sorted twenty-one cards in an unmoderated, remote, open-card sorting on OptimalSort (2019). We analyzed the results generated on the OptimalSort (2019) dendrogram and similarity matrix as well as the user-generated categories. Using the dendrogram and similarity matrix data, we were able to establish four key findings and recommendations. Our key findings and recommendations were as followed: (1) the median number of categories created by participants was five and the website should reduce the number of categories in its navigation from eleven to five; (2) it was discovered how participants sorted through the categories; (3) the participants organized the subcategories of “Tickets”, “Schedule”, and “Films” together; (4) most of the users were unable to understand what “Cinema Chat” was and to which main category it should belong.

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References Michigan Theater. (2019) Retrieved on March 28, 2019 from https://www.michtheater.org Naseem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Choose Your Own Adventure: Card Sorting, A/B Testing, Web Analytics. SI622_W19_Lecture9_CardSorting Canvas.pptx[Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/courses/266036/files/folder/Week%20 9?preview=10779906 OptimalSort. (2019) Retrieved on April 4, 2019 from https://www.optimalworkshop.com/ WEMU 89.1. (2019) Retrieved on April 7, 2019 from https://www.wemu.org/programs/cinema-chat

Appendices Appendix A. Pilot Test Findings Explained what the card sort purpose was (sort into categories, there was no wrong way to answer, you can create new items, then asked to make labels for each category). <Set-up a timer for each participant> Findings for Physical Card Sorting: 1st participant completed the card sorting task in 6 minutes and 32 seconds • Moderator dropped the cards on the floor • Make sure not to duplicate any cards for participants • Participant made the following labels for each category: Films, showtimes & tickets, other events, get involved, about • Participant stated that two of the cards could also be the label (“Contact Us” & “Cinema Chat”) • Participant made a label to reflect the drop down menu • Switch “about” card to “about the Michigan theater” • One card was left out because moderator dropped it on the floor 2nd participant completed the card sorting task in 9 minutes and 31 seconds • • • • • •

Participant states they are going to read the cards There were 2 “About the Michigan Theater cards” Participant asked if “there wasn’t a limit into how many cards in a category” I think volunteers might help in events 11 categories Participant made the following labels for each category: About & culture, Movie Schedule & Ticket purchase, events & concerts, membership, sponsor & donation, contact us

Findings for Digital Card Sorting: • You have to use all the cards • You have to label all the categories

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Appendix B. Card Sorting Screening Form

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Appendix C. Categories & Subcategories

All Films Films at the Michigan Films at the State Schedule Tickets Cinema Chat

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Usability Testing Report Evaluating the Michigan Theater Website Based on Common Tasks

Executive Summary A usability test has “real or (representative) users perform specific tasks, while being observed and captured. The user’s reaction/feedback is elicited and captured (usually). The data is analyzed.” (Naseem, slide 5, 2019). The goal of this usability test was to have participants evaluate the Michigan Theater system based on a series of tasks a user may encounter on the website by themselves. Based on the six participants’, who were non-members of the Michigan Theater, feedback from the usability testing, our key findings and corresponding recommendations to improve the Michigan Theater website are as follows: Key Finding #1: Participants were confused about the theater location for each film. Recommendation: Provide a clearer distinction of the location for each film. Key Finding #2: Three of the four participants who initially selected “Films at the Michigan” went to the “Schedule” link after scrolling through the website to select a movie. Recommendation: Listing the showtimes on the “Films” page and include a “Filter” or calendar feature. Key Finding #3: The website did not allow users to modify orders in the “Cart” page. Recommendation: Adding an “Edit” option or placing a “Remove” button next to each item of the “Cart” page. Key Findings #4: The gift card amount selection seemed unusual to participants. Recommendation: Allowing the user to input their own price amount for the gift card, rather than including numerous options. Key Finding #5: The Michigan Theater’s function of the search bar did not work as expected. Recommendation: Improving the search to more accurately include particular pieces of the Michigan Theater’s website functionality.

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Introduction A usability test has “real or (representative) users perform specific tasks, while being observed and captured. The user’s reaction/feedback is elicited and captured (usually). The data is analyzed.” (Naseem, slide 5, 2019). The main goal of this usability test was to have participants evaluate the Michigan Theater website based on a series of tasks a user may encounter on the website by themselves. One of the goals expressed by the Michigan Theater stakeholders was to find where people click most often. The stakeholders also mentioned some users still felt the website was a repository for a copious amount of information. Therefore, our goals for this study were to identify: (1) what pathways users take on the website; (2) areas where information could be further streamlined; (3) parts of the website users frequent but may have trouble using. Our four key research questions for this study were: • What types of errors do users make when purchasing movie tickets? • Where do users generally go first to try and purchase movie tickets (i.e. which pathway, since there are many)? • How do users use the website to decide what movies to see? • Are users able to purchase other items and services on the website? Based on the six participants’ feedback from the usability testing, key findings and recommendations were constructed to improve the Michigan Theater website.

Methods The first step of the usability testing was to establish a testing plan. The testing plan was based off of the readings from “Handbook of Usability Testing” (Rubin, 1994). The testing plan contained the following: purpose, problem statement/test objectives, user profile, method (test design), scenario provided with a designated task list, test environment with equipment and technical plan, moderator script, pre-questionnaire, post-questionnaire, and debriefing script (Appendix B, C, F, I). Our team decided to focus on non-members who have never used or had limited exposure to the Michigan Theater website to understand their perspective, which was expressed as a desire by our stakeholders in our initial client meeting. Our additional criteria for our selected participants were requesting consent for recording, daily use of laptop/desktop, age, and availability to participate (Appendix K). Our team sent out an email with a link to the Google Form screening questionnaire to participants who previously expressed interest in helping improve the website when we recruited for a card sorting study (Appendix A). Recruitment also occurred through a personal network and was sent informally to reach a younger demographic. We selected six participants who completed our screener with four male participants and two female participants. From the age brackets we provided in our screener, three participants were between the ages of 19-29, one was 30-39, one was 40-49, and one was 50-59. Five participants indicated they had used the Michigan Theater website 1-3 times within the last six months, and one participant indicated they had not used the website at all within the last six months.

We ran a pilot test within our team. Afterwards, we debriefed on how to improve our study. From

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this, we established how long the tasks would take to complete and that we would have participants fill out the questionnaires on paper individually before having the moderator go over the questionnaires with them during the testing. The scenario was also updated on the usability testing plan to say the participant was looking for a movie on Monday, April 15th, 2019 since we knew a movie would be showing at the Michigan Theater that day. We also included a debriefing script (Appendix F). From the testing plan, the test setting, equipment, and technical plan were established and followed (Appendix I). The testing took place in multiple meeting rooms located in the University of Michigan, North Quadrangle building. A Mac laptop with a camera and the QuickTime Player application were used to record the usability test. Two members were present at each usability test and sat on the same side of a table with the participant in between them. One team member acted as moderator and the other team member served as observer and notetaker throughout the usability testing. Each team member moderated and observed at least once. For each test, the moderator read verbatim from the script and asked the participant for consent to be recorded. When the participant verbally consented they were asked to sign a consent form (Appendix J). After the consent form was signed by the participant, the moderator started the recording on the laptop while the participant filled out a pre-test questionnaire to gauge their technology usage, behavior on movie theater websites, and additional demographic information (Appendix C). When the paperwork and initial introductions were completed, the participant was verbally provided with a scenario and five tasks, one at a time, to execute for the usability test, as follows: Scenario: You want to go see a movie on Monday, April 15th, with 3 of your friends or family members. None of you have been to the Michigan Theater before, so you want to go see a film that’s showing there, but you haven’t yet decided which movie you would like to see. Task 1: Find a movie you want to see that is playing on Monday, at the Michigan Theater. Task 2: Add 4 tickets for that movie to your cart. Task 3: One of your friends cancels, so now you only need 3 tickets. Reduce your order to only be for 3 tickets. Task 4: You really enjoyed your experience at the Michigan Theater, so now you want to purchase a membership. Purchase a first-time membership (note: do not actually have to purchase). Task 5: One of your friends really liked the Michigan Theater and has a birthday coming up. Buy your friend a $25 gift card on the website. Once the tasks were completed by the participant, they were given a post-test questionnaire to gauge their satisfaction of the Michigan Theater website (Appendix C). The moderator went over the completed post-test questionnaire with the participant and asked additional questions based on their observations during the test. After debriefing, the data collected from the usability testing was later analyzed together as a group. The Rainbow Spreadsheet was used to analyze the data and the five key findings were compiled along with corresponding recommendations (Appendix L).

Findings and Recommendations Summary Results The selected six participants for our usability testing provided us with valuable feedback. From our observations and notes, we determined five key findings and their corresponding recommendations. The key findings were: (1) Confusion about which theater each film was playing at; (2) Three participants initially selected “Films at the Michigan”, but later went to the “Schedule” link to select a movie; (3) Participants

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looked for a “Remove One” option in the “Cart” page; (4) The gift card amount selection seemed unusual to participants; (5) The Michigan Theater’s search bar does not work as expected.

Key Findings and Recommendations Key Finding #1: Participants were confused about the theater location for each film. In Task 1, Participants 1, 2, 3, and 4 selected a movie which was being shown at the State theater rather than the Michigan Theater. When the moderator redirected Participant 1 back to the task to find a movie playing at the Michigan Theater, they slightly raised their eyebrows with a surprised remark of “Oh, it’s the Michigan Theater?”. Participant 5 initially browsed through the movies playing at the State Theater and felt slightly confused as he was on the Michigan Theater website and expected to only view movies playing at the Michigan Theater. Recommendation: Provide a clearer distinction of the location for each film. Our recommendation would be to provide a clearer distinction between the Michigan Theater and State Theater on the Michigan Theater website. Having the theater’s name in bold typeface on the homepage, separating the films showing at the Michigan and the State within the “Schedule” tab, and having an icon to represent each theater are all possibilities to relieve user confusion. Key Finding #2: Three of the four participants who initially selected “Films at the Michigan” went to the “Schedule” link after scrolling through the website to select a movie. The behavior of these participants indicates that the current “Films” page may not be convenient for users who want to see a movie on a particular date, but do not know what movie they want to see. For Task 1, Participant 1 initially scrolled through the list of movies on the “Films” tab and then decided to click on the “Schedule” from the navigation bar and remarked, “Schedule is probably the better move, off the bat. It shows me the dates and time, and which theater they are at, and the title too,” and he soliloquized, “State, State, State...”. Participant 5 commented on the usability of scrolling through the list of films by saying, “It’s kind of a pain to scroll, scroll, scroll” (Figure 1). Additionally, Participant 4 had a habit of clicking the browser’s back button and took her time scrolling through the films listed on the “Schedule” page.

Figure 1. The “Schedule” page shows a long list of films showing at the Michigan Theater and the State Theater.

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Recommendation: Listing the showtimes on the “Films” page and include a “Filter” or calendar feature. Our first recommendation is to list the movie showtimes on the “Films” page. This way, if users would like to see a movie for a particular date, they will be able to find that information more easily on the “Films” page if that is where they choose to look first. We would also like to recommending providing a “Filter” option on both the “Films” and “Schedule” pages to select the films by date or to include a calendar, saving time and allowing users to easily select a movie for a given date. Key Finding #3: The website did not allow users to modify orders in the “Cart” page. Participants were only able to remove the entire purchase in the “Cart” page (Figure 2). In Task 3, all six participants realized selecting the “Remove” button would clear all the items under the selection. Participant 1 said, “the only option is to remove all the tickets or the entire thing”. Participant 2 remarked, “Okay, that’s kinda frustrating”. Participant 6 stated, “There’s no edit function”.

Figure 2. There is only a “Remove” button to let users remove the entire purchase.

Recommendation: Adding an “Edit” option or placing a “Remove” button next to each item of the “Cart” page. Adding an “Edit” option to each section of the “Cart” or placing a “Remove” button next to each item of the “Cart” page would allow users to modify each section on the “Cart” page directly. This way, users would not have to spend the time re-selecting their purchases. Key Finding #4: The gift card amount selection seemed unusual to participants. Three participants expressed they found the inclusion of $21 as a gift card option confusing or unusual (Figure 3). For example, Participant 5 said, “Why would I buy a $21 versus a $20 dollar versus $25, that’s really weird.” Participant 1 stated, “I’m kinda confused on the price set up. I guess 21 is probably a valuable amount given ticket prices, but I wouldn’t know though.”

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Figure 3. There are currently numerous options for gift card amounts.

Recommendation: Allowing the user to input their own price amount for the gift card, rather than including numerous options. While we understand there may be a reason behind the current price options, such as the gift card amount reflecting ticket prices, we would like to recommend only allowing the user to input their own price amount for the gift card, rather than including numerous options. This should help reduce confusion for the users and be easier for them to get a gift card in the exact amount they want. Key Finding #5: The Michigan Theater’s function of the search bar did not work as expected. When trying to complete the last task of purchasing a $25 gift card, Participant 4 typed “Gift Card” into the search bar. However, this did not yield the results the participant was expecting (Figure 4). The participant stated, “Hmm it doesn’t seem like when I searched, there wasn’t an option.” The results provided other pages on the website where the phrase “gift card” was included, but the actual page to purchase a gift card was not included.

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Figure 4. The search bar did not work as expected when searching for “gift cards”.

Recommendation: Improving the search to more accurately include particular pieces of the Michigan Theater’s website functionality. We would like to recommend improving the function of the search bar to be more accurate by including particular pieces of the website functionality, such as purchasing something specific. This will allow users to complete their desired task with greater efficiency.

Discussion Although we went through a pilot test together within our team, we still experienced some inconsistencies in moderation such as reading aloud all the questions on the pre-test questionnaire filled out by the participant versus selecting certain questions to read aloud. Additionally, the script was not always read verbatim. We realized this during our first debriefing session once we had completed three usability tests. A typo in one of the task was also discovered on the data logging sheet. While the moderator’s task instructions were correct, the data logger sheet had a different day for the scenario, which potentially could have caused confusion for the data logger. We recognized the importance of having the testing environment be consistent to prevent any potential biases and tried to eliminate inconsistencies with the remaining three usability tests. We initially expected and planned each usability test to be approximately an hour long, but the participants went through the tasks faster than we had anticipated. We had difficulty establishing a realistic time frame for the participants to complete the tasks due to our familiarity with the Michigan Theater

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website. While we received valuable feedback from the six participants, we could have redesigned the tasks to be more complex or included more tasks for them to complete. Additionally, task completion time recording methods were inconsistent amongst the team members. Some of us recorded with a timer versus the clock time for each of the tasks starting and ending times. For consistency, it would have been better to record the same way with a timer to obtain the most accurate times of task completion. During the usability tests, some of the participants would continue to another task, such as putting tickets in their cart after finding a movie they wanted to see, before they were prompted. We recognized we should have included “Please let us know when you believe you have completed the task.” in our moderator script. Having this prompt would have allowed the moderator and notetaker to increase the accuracy of understanding when a participant completed a task. We also observed some of the participants expressing frustration or confusion while completing the tasks, yet their responses to the post-test questionnaire were not similarly reflected. We believe this might be due to social desirability, where the participants told the moderator what they thought they wanted to hear. Questions from the pre-test questionnaire were slightly misinterpreted by the participants. For the question, “Do you primarily use a laptop or desktop daily?” two participants responded, “Yes” when the question was intended to be answered by choosing which device did they use daily. We also noticed for the question “What is your opinion of the Michigan Theater website, if any?” participants wanted to view the website while answering, but we wanted them to answer based off of their own prior experiences if they had any. For our usability testing, we focused on participants who were not members of the Michigan Theater Foundation. Given the time constraints of this course, we would have liked to do more usability tests on members of the Michigan Theater. Including participants who were MTF members would have strengthened and broadened our data and key findings. Moving forward, we would like to suggest to our stakeholders to consider doing more usability tests with their members. Our next steps are to make a video showcasing our key findings and recommendations of our project and to meet with our stakeholder to go over the semester project.

Conclusion

We selected six participants who were not members of the Michigan Theater Foundation who varied

in age for our usability testing. From our observations and notes we determined five key findings as well as corresponding recommendations: (1) Providing clearer distinction for each film to eliminate user confusion; (2) Including a “filter” or calendar feature would make it easier for users to browse through selected films; (3) Adding an “Edit” option or “Remove” link to each item on the “Cart” page; (4) The gift card amount selection was confusing to users; (5) The Michigan Theater’s search bar did not work as expected.

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References Michigan Theater. (2019) Retrieved on April 09, 2019 from https://www.michtheater.org Naseem, M. (2019). SI 622: Needs assessment and usability evaluation. Usability Testing. SI622_W19_ Week10_Canvas.pptx [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://umich.instructure.com/ courses/266036/files/folder/Week%2010?preview=10868729 Rubin, J. (1994) Handbook of Usability Testing. NY: John Wiley & Sons. Chapters 5,7, & 9-11. Retrieved from https://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/Record/01269873 Usability.gov. (2019). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Consent & Recording Release Form (Adult).â&#x20AC;? Retrieved from https://www.usability.gov/ how-to-and-tools/resources/templates/consent-recording-release-form-adult.html

Appendices Appendix A. Recruiting Messages

Appendix B. Test Script: Intro/Preamble and Task Instructions Moderator Script (Please read verbatim to make sure all participants are exposed to the same information) Hi, my name is ___________ and this is ____________. Thank you for participating in this usability testing study. We are graduate students in a class called Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation. Our team has been

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working with the Michigan Theater for the past semester. The purpose of this study is to evaluate Michigan Theater’s website based on a series of tasks a user could encounter. Your input will help to discover what is working and not working with their site. As a gentle reminder, we are testing the website’s functionality and not your performance. This session should take about an hour to complete. My role will be to moderate this session as well as taking any brief notes and my teammate will be taking notes throughout this observation. You will be given a series of tasks to complete on the website. While carrying out the task, please think aloud. Thinking aloud may include “I noticed this or I’m clicking on this” and why. You may ask questions throughout the session, but I may not respond with an answer as to simulate the scenario if you were by yourself on the website. This session will be recorded. Do we have your consent to being recorded? If so, please fill out the recording consent form before we get started. This recording will not be used outside of our class and the Michigan Theater. There will also be two questionnaires: one before the usability test and one after. Any questions before we get started? <Hit “Start Recording” buttons for the Movie Recording & Screen Recording window> <Have the participant fill out the pre-questionnaire and then go over it with them> Scenario You want to go see a movie on April 15th, Monday, with 3 of your friends or family members. None of you have been to the Michigan Theater before, so you want to go see a film that’s showing there, but you haven’t yet decided which movie you would like to see. Task Instructions Task 1: Find a movie you want to see that is playing Monday, at the Michigan Theater. Task 2: Add 4 tickets for that movie to your cart. Task 3: One of your friends cancels, so now you only need 3 tickets. Reduce your order to only be for 3 tickets. Task 4: You really enjoyed your experience at the Michigan Theater, so now you want to purchase a membership. Purchase a first-time membership (note: do not actually have to purchase). Task 5: One of your friends really liked the Michigan Theater and has a birthday coming up. Buy your friend a $25 gift card on the website.

Appendix C. Pre-Test Questionnaire and Post-Test Questionnaire Pre-test Questionnaire 1. Have you used a Mac computer before? 2. Do you primarily use a laptop or desktop daily? 3. What type of browser do you use when on a computer (Chrome, Safari, other)? 4. How often do you use movie theater websites? 5. What content do you look for in movie theater websites? 6. What age bracket do you belong to? a. 19-29 b. 30-39 c. 40-49 d. 50-59 e. 60+

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7. How do you identify your gender? a. Male b. Female c. Other (Please specify) __________ d. Prefer not to answer 8. What is your opinion of the Michigan Theater website, if any? Post-Test Questionnaire (Circle one response for each statement) 1. I found the Michigan Theater website easy to use. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 2. The Michigan Theater website is straightforward. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 3. I was able to understand the Michigan Theater website. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 4. The Michigan Theater website behaved as I expected. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 5. I was confused using the Michigan Theater website. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 6. I was able to navigate the Michigan Theater website. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree 7. I am satisfied with my experience on the Michigan Theater website. 1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neither agree nor disagree 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree

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Appendix D. Questionnaire Responses

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Appendix E. Basic task performance data (completion, timing if appropriate)

Appendix F. Debrief Notes Debrief While participant fills out post-questionnaire, go over any notes you jotted down that you would like to discuss with participant. Go over the post-test questionnaire. Ask about any observations that require more explanation from participant. Ask participant if there were any comments that had about the website. Debriefing script Thank you for participating in this usability testing. We appreciate your feedback and it will help us with our report to Michigan Theater. If you have any follow up questions/comments, you can contact us at j2a2. umsi@umich.edu. We will send you the email address to redeem your free movie tickets, please email Sarah at serlewine@michtheater.org to have the tickets added to your Michigan Theater account.

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Appendix G. Data Logging Forms

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Appendix H. Completed data logs (if feasible)

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Appendix I. Technical Plan Equipments 1 Table 3 Chairs 1 Mac Laptop with Camera 1 Mouse 1 Mac Charger 1 Timer (phone is ok) QuickTime Player Application/Program Data Logging Sheet Pen Clipboard Pencil & Paper Moderator Script Usability Recording Consent Form Pre-test Questionnaire Post-test Questionnaire Room Layout for the Usability Testing Laptop will be placed on the table in front of the participant 3 chairs will be placed on same side of table, side-by-side Technical Plan Mac laptop with camera will be placed in front of the participant To begin: Open QuickTime Player Program/Application Select “File” (on the top menu bar) > Open New Movie Recording AND New Screen Recording First, press record for the Movie Recording window Then, select record for the Screen Recording window Tap on the screen once (enabling recording of the entire screen) OR highlight the area you want to record the participants actions on the screen > Press the “Start Recording” button from your highlighted screen area/area When the interview has finished: Press/Click the “Stop Recording” button on the Screen Recording window Save the file as “ParticipantX_XXMONTHXX_Screen” Pull up the Movie Recording window > Press/Click the “Stop Recording” button Save the file as “ParticipantX_XXMONTHXX_Video”

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Appendix J. Consent & Recording Release Form (Signed consent forms are held by Janel) I agree to participate in the study conducted and recorded by the SI 622: J2A2.UMSI. I understand and consent to the use and release of the recording by [[Agency/Organization]. I understand that the information and recording is for research purposes only and that my name and image will not be used for any other purpose. I relinquish any rights to the recording and understand the recording may be copied and used by [Agency/Organization] without further permission. I understand that participation in this usability study is voluntary and I agree to immediately raise any concerns or areas of discomfort during the session with the study administrator. Please sign below to indicate that you have read and you understand the information on this form and that any questions you might have about the session have been answered. Date:_________ Please print your name: ____________________________________________________ Please sign your name: ____________________________________________________ Thank you! We appreciate your participation. 5/8/2019

Appendix K. Screening Form

Usability Testing Screening

Usability Testing Screening Please take this short screening to determine your participation eligibility. We will be selecting people based on responses to this screening and will notify you via email if you have been selected. This study will take approximately 1 hour at a meeting room in North Quad (the University of Michigan Central Campus). This activity requires you to be recorded. The recording will only be used for our team and shared with our class and stakeholders of the Michigan Theater. If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact us at j2a2.umsi@umich.edu. Thank you. * Required

1. Name (First and Last) *

2. Email Address *

3. Are you a member of the Michigan Theater? * Mark only one oval. Yes No

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2. Email Address *

3. Are you a member of the Michigan Theater? * Mark only one oval. Yes No 4. Do you consent to being recorded for this activity? (This recording will not be used outside of our class and the Michigan Theater.) * Mark only one oval. Yes No 5. How often have you used the Michigan Theater website in the last 6 months? * Mark only one oval. Never 13 times 4+ times 6. Do you use a laptop/desktop daily? * Mark only one oval. Yes No 5/8/2019

Usability Testing Screening

7. What age bracket do you belong to? * Mark only one oval. 1929

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19bzF6Aj0fIu1XuMPNHKVgA-PnERaY87e0MlJNfPYRd8/edit

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4049 5059 60+ 8. Please select all the times you are available: * Check all that apply. Usability Test 45 pm (Wednesday 4/10) Usability Test 56 pm (Wednesday 4/10) Usability Test 34 pm (Thursday 4/11) Usability Test 45 pm (Thursday 4/11) Usability Test 23 pm (Friday 4/12) Usability Test 34 pm (Friday 4/12) Usability Test 45 pm (Friday 4/12) Usability Test 56 pm (Friday 4/12)

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Appendix L. Rainbow Spreadsheet Findings User 1

User 2

User 3

User 4

User 5

User 6

Task 1 Picked/initially thought movie at the State Clicked on Films at the Michigan to start Clicked on Schedule to start Went to Schedule following going to Films Mentions watching trailer Scrolls for a while Mentions wanting to see map of Michigan Theater Task 2 Able to quickly buy tickets Task 3 Looked for "remove one" option Recognized that hitting "remove" would clear all Looked for "edit" option Expressed annoyance with popups asking about membership after answering already Task 4 Clicked on "Membership & Support" Assumed they had to create an account Confused having "renew" before buying new Clicked "Join Now" at top of chart Clicked "Join Now" at bottom of chart Wanted to see pop-up to become a member Task 5 Found Gift Cards on home page Used "Search" function Used side menu on cart page to find Gift Cards Made comment about price amounts provided Additional Comments Inconsistent language Aesthetics Wanted Google Map for location Expected drop down menu

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Findings with Frequency User 1

User 2

User 3

User 4

User 5

User 6

Frequency

Recognized that hitting "remove" would clear all

Mentions watching trailer

Able to quickly buy tickets

Clicked on "Membership & Support"

Picked/initially thought movie at the State

Clicked on Films at the Michigan to start

Scrolls for a while

Looked for "remove one" option

Clicked "Join Now" at top of chart

Went to Schedule following going to Films

Found Gift Cards on home page

Made comment about price amounts provided

Aesthetics

Clicked on Schedule to start

Used side menu on cart page to find Gift Cards

Mentions wanting to see map of Michigan Theater

Looked for "edit" option

Expressed annoyance with popups asking about membership after answering already

Assumed they had to create an account

Confused having "renew" before buying new

Clicked "Join Now" at bottom of chart

Wanted to see pop-up to become a member

Used "Search" function

Inconsistent language

Wanted Google Map for location

Expected drop down menu

Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Additional Comments

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Sample Mock-ups for the Navigation Bar:

FILMS & TICKETS

EVENTS

MEMBERSHIP & SUPPORT

OTHER EVENTS

MEMBERSHIP & SUPPORT

ABOUT

Membership

About the Michigan Theater

All Films

Events

Films at the Michigan

Concerts

Donation

Films at the State

Series

Sponsorship

Schedule

Kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Program

Seat Plaques

Tickets

Organ Schedule

Volunteers

Cinma Chat

ABOUT

Venue Information

Gift Cards Store

THANK YOU.

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Angela H. Chih | ahcdesign.com ÂŠ 2019