Charity Loves UX Lead UX · Product & people

Responsive service design · Commerce

Showboat Drive-In

A redesigned drive-in experience that reduces queues by connecting discovery, purchase, arrival, concessions, and access preferences.

TypeResponsive concept study
RoleUX design & research
Primary userBusy moviegoers and families
FocusService design · Commerce · Accessibility
Showboat Drive-In high-fidelity checkout experience with order summary, payment methods, and secure checkout actions.
Final checkout experience — one part of the connected Showboat service ecosystem.

Overview

Redesigning the entire moviegoing journey—not just ticket checkout.

Showboat is a responsive web and app concept built around a simple service promise: let guests preview movies, buy tickets and concessions, choose preferences, and arrive ready to enjoy the film.

The experience problem crossed digital and physical touchpoints. Moviegoers struggled to find information, felt rushed during purchases at the theater, and sometimes abandoned food or ticket transactions because of queues.

Experience goal: Tickets, concessions, parking, and accessibility preferences in one understandable flow.

Portfolio context: This is a concept redesign intended to demonstrate service thinking, responsive interaction design, and accessibility considerations.

Process

Connect the moments before, during, and after arrival.

Personas and journey mapping helped reveal that the “line problem” was really a coordination problem across discovery, purchase, arrival, concessions, and viewing preferences.

01

Frame

Clarify the user, context, constraint, and decision.

02

Learn

Build evidence through research and journey analysis.

03

Make

Explore flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.

04

Validate

Test, identify friction, and revise the experience.

Showboat user flow diagram mapping discovery, ticketing, parking, concessions, payment, and post-purchase decisions.
User flow mapping the decision points and dependencies across the end-to-end moviegoing journey.

Final experience

One visual system across the full night out.

The high-fidelity direction carries the same drive-in identity across discovery, arrival planning, membership, secondary services, and checkout while keeping each task easy to scan.

01Discovery + ticketing
Showboat high-fidelity homepage with search, how-it-works guidance, date selection, current movies, and booking actions.
The main experience combines search, movie discovery, date selection, and clear booking actions without separating the service into disconnected entry points.
02Parking selection
Showboat mobile parking reservation screen with date selection, parking availability, and selectable spaces.
Parking becomes part of the booking journey, helping guests make an arrival decision before reaching the venue.
03VIP member experience
Showboat mobile VIP member profile with member details, rewards, preferences, favorites, and navigation.
The member view brings identity, preferences, rewards, and favorites together in one recognizable place.
04Merchandise + theater rental
Showboat high-fidelity page featuring branded merchandise and private theater rental information.
Secondary services use the same hierarchy, brand system, and calls to action so merchandise and theater rental still feel part of one product.
05Checkout
Showboat desktop checkout with cart items, promo code, payment methods, order summary, and secure payment action.
Checkout consolidates the cart, discounts, payment choices, order summary, and reassurance cues into a single focused transaction.

Research insights

The strongest pain points lived between channels.

01

Information was hard to locate

Users could not easily find details about the films they wanted to see.

02

Purchasing felt rushed

At-theater transactions created pressure, especially for families managing multiple needs.

03

Queues reduced revenue and enjoyment

Long lines made guests irritable and led some to abandon tickets or concessions.

Design decisions

Let people build the night before they enter the lot.

A

Lead with what is playing

Make movie discovery, time, screen, rating, and accessibility information immediately scannable.

B

Unify the transaction

Combine tickets, concessions, merchandise, and reservation details in a single progressive flow.

C

Capture preferences early

Allow parking, subtitles, captioning, and related needs to be selected before arrival.

D

Design the handoff to the physical venue

Provide clear confirmation, arrival instructions, pickup status, and what to expect next.

Accessibility

Personalization should include access needs by default.

The concept brings captions, subtitles, descriptions, and parking preferences into the main booking path rather than hiding them in a separate help area. A production version would require testing with disabled moviegoers, venue staff, and families using a range of devices and assistive technologies.

Reflection

Service design changes what counts as the product.

The interface is not finished when payment succeeds. The experience continues through arrival, parking, food pickup, playback setup, support, and departure.

The leadership opportunity is to align digital product, venue operations, commerce, and accessibility around one end-to-end journey.

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