Learning from other teams to inform our cinema website redesign

In our last piece, we shared how we conducted user research to inform the redesign process for our future BFI Cinemas site.

But how did the team decide what ideas to test with users in the first place?  

The short answer: by learning from other teams.

One of the core BFI values is “bring it together”, and I wanted to give some examples of our collaborative approach, as it’s been an essential part of the design process.

After all, no great film is made without a great cast and crew.

Our discovery process continued with research into the needs of 16 loyal visitors of BFI Southbank cinemas (who we identify as ‘frequent bookers’ attending at least twice a year). It showed us a few areas where we could improve the site.

One of the clearest pain points seemed to be a difficulty finding the right film information at the right time. So we spoke to the Audience Insight team and looked at their survey responses to get to the bottom of the issues.

There’s nothing more humbling than reading customer complaints, but it’s pretty helpful. Feedback ranged from the constructive (“I really lack images in the list of movies” and “It’s not easy to find show times”) to the gloriously provocative:

By looking into the comments and conducting an evaluation of the current BFI Southbank website, it felt like the problem was structural. The site presents few films on its homepage and, instead, forces users to navigate by date or collection.

If you browse by date, the site lists all the available showtimes, but with no images to entice the users to see the films.

If you browse by collection, the site gives attractive imagery and intriguing descriptions but forces you to click into each and every film to find the showtimes.

Users clearly needed both, and this insight drove the design of the ‘showcard’, a component that combines images, titles, showtimes and more (as explored in our previous UX note).

These are glaring issues that we’ve previously had to accept due to technical limitations (such as a box office system that struggles with our multi-faceted programme, and a legacy publishing process that was reliant on the production of our printed guide). This was the first opportunity we’ve had in a decade to do a proper, user-centred redesign and to fix these limitations once and for all.

In the same frequent bookers report, one of our loyal visitors delivered a damning quote:

This prompted us to investigate whether same-day and short-notice bookings were a common user need (we expected they were, but wanted to properly examine this).

The Customer Data and Insight team provided us with PowerBI reporting which confirmed our suspicions: half of all Southbank bookings happen within a week of the screening, and almost a quarter are for screenings on the same day.

On the current site, to book a ticket for the same day, users must hunt down a small, tucked-away calendar tool – awkwardly placed over to the right on desktop, and sometimes hidden at the bottom of the page on mobile.

Our design response was to test buttons for ‘Today’, ‘Tomorrow’ and the rest of the week, along with a carousel highlighting that day’s films and events on the homepage.

These buttons have proven hugely valuable in our testing, with users consistently gravitating to use them.

Our frequent bookers report proved that the BFI would be nothing without its wide-ranging programme of films.

However, the frequent bookers group and the Box Office team told us that visitors don’t always understand the terminology we use (for example, ‘Seasons’) and they can find this quite alienating.

Anna, a fellow UX designer, led a workshop with the Programming team, which helped us to understand how films are categorised and grouped.

I was new to the team at the time, so it was especially inspiring to see the Programming team’s passion for film and, in particular, to learn how important Seasons were to the programme structure.

It was a similar story when I caught up with the Brand team. These are the creative masterminds behind our iconic posters and artwork, so they know a thing or two about celebrating the personality of our Seasons. They agreed that Seasons were a core part of the BFI’s brand but were being let down slightly by the website.

And it was a fair sentiment. On the current site, Seasons are hidden behind an unexciting ‘Find out more’ link, increasing the interaction cost and relying too heavily on users knowing our programme structure and terminology.

We applied the old scriptwriting adage of “Show, don’t tell”; we pulled a few of the top upcoming seasons straight on to the homepage and, for each season, we showcased some of the films that would be part of it.

We also collaborated with the Brand team on an improved visual design for these elements (and can share more on this in a future post).

Suddenly, some of the most unique and exciting parts of our programme had been brought to life.

Finally, the frequent bookers report revealed what users loved most about the BFI’s cinemas. There was a lot of positive feedback for our venues, our customers, and our screening rooms (especially the recently renovated NFT1).

Similarly, those who know about our bar, cafe and restaurant frequently wax lyrical about the chance to meet up with friends before their film for a drink or a bite to eat.

We wanted to show off these interiors and the community atmosphere on offer at the venue. After all, as an independent cinema, it really sets us apart from some of the multiplexes.

Hyde Park Picture House is a prime example of how to entice people to visit a venue, thanks to its evocative photography.

But we also had a challenge to overcome. The Audience Insights team had told us that some visitors didn’t even realise that Southbank and IMAX were separate cinemas, leading to stress and frustration. Our solution was to try to emphasise this point from the very start, and to show the exteriors of the two venues as clearly as possible.

Working with the Marketing team, we explored how best to communicate these unique qualities. We added venue photography throughout the site to highlight the welcoming interiors, as well as exterior shots to introduce the two distinct cinemas.

We also pulled together a video to bring it all together – showcasing the venues, the cinemas, the food, and the atmosphere. After all, we should know better than most that “the moving image brings stories to life”.

Of course, we’ve spoken to many other teams throughout the process, but hopefully this gives a sense of how collaborative this work was.

There truly are no small parts!

The UX team has been very busy over the past few months.

We’re building a content strategy to make sure all the writing on our site is as perfect for users as possible.

We’ve been taking the beta through a diary study research process, and we’re currently analysing the results to inform future iterations of the design.  

And we’re working with the Brand team to further refine the visual design.

We’ll keep you updated on all this work, so keep an eye out for future UX notes!

Jeremy Brown is a User Experience Designer in the Technology and Digital Transformation team at the BFI. Feel free to drop him a message on LinkedIn or explore his UX/UI portfolio.

If you’re interested in supporting the BFI’s digital work as a sponsor or donor, please get in touch with us at philanthropy@bfi.org.uk 

The BFI would like to thank the BFI Trust, The Uggla Family Foundation, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for supporting elements of our digital transformation.