Gametime

Gametime was a great place for me to learn more about the buyer’s psyche. It was the very first e-commerce focused app I worked with and I was super excited to learn all about what really makes the users hit that “Buy” button.

As Head of Design, I teamed up with the VP of Product to launch and test a brand new app in 4 months called “LastCall”. This new app utilized the existing Gametime ticket marketplace engine and offered a unique value proposition of heavily discounted last minute tickets (especially after an event had already started).

I also built and scaled up a UX research department in partnership with the UX team. Managing a the team of 3 designers, we improved our design system, existing features, increased the retention rate through new on-boarding, and launched and managed the web app.

We aligned closely to the 3 personas that we defined as a team.

Here are the main questions that we focused on amongst many others before we began concepting:

How do they usually purchase a ticket?

Are they aware of last minute savings? 

What segment of users will be interested in this deal?

We analyzed competitors’ purchase flows against our initial design.

Below, are the problems we focused upon as a team and solved throughout design iterations:

1. Users did not know about the primary Gametime app and generally didn’t have much trust in buying tickets from us.

2. Moreover, users did not feel confident purchasing from the new MVP, as exact seats were not specified immediately after purchase.

3. Due to the nature of last minute ticket purchasing, we had to convince the users that they would get their exact seat the day of the event.

4. We also had to prompt them to maintain interest in the fact that by waiting to purchase, they would receive a significant discount by waiting until the last minute to buy a ticket.

Here’s the before and after of the purchasing flow.

Before: Original check out process was built to be as quick and simple as possible. However, users did not like this option as they couldn’t trust the process.

Here are the elements we added to improve the design:

• Seat and Map view of the zone: Users really liked that they could visualize their seat zone in both ways.

• “SeatBuy Price Guarantee” emblem and copy: This caught the users’ eyes and even when users didn’t fully read the copy, it provided a sense of confidence.

• An additional confirmation page before the purchase: This provided users a chance to double check what they were purchasing before committing to purchase.

• Purchasing processing bar: Even though we didn’t need this processing bar (because the purchasing was virtually instantaneous), letting the users know that “we are processing” put them at ease.

• Confirmation card + “add to calendar” + Uber & Lyft info: It was very interesting to see how many of the users responded immediately to “add to calendar” button. Users seemed to really enjoy having options for additional steps after they had finished purchasing and made note that listing known transportation options enhanced trust of Gametime even as a new user.

This new direction eventually came out as a new app called “LastCall” and increased last-minute ticket sales by over 220% growth in the 12 months that followed.

As a Design Leader, I established and was responsible for:

• Worked with Executive Team, including CEO, VP of Product, Product Strategists to constantly create and innovate big picture concept and design (both UI and UX) to test and launch.

• Collaborated directly with Executive Team to strategize and restructure cross-functional, constantly improving the product by looking at data and related trends closely with the Analytics team.

• Started and managed a UX research department; developed a design process that embodied the company's User Centric approach by partnering with the UX research team, Data Scientists and first hand qualitative user research.

• Managed and lead a team of designers to develop a cohesive app experience across all platforms (iOS, Android and Web), conducted 1:1s, design critiques, brainstorms, updates and strategies.

• Launched the web based app experience from scratch within 3 months; maintained and personalized the web platform specific experience.

• Collaborated with the marketing department to unify look and feel from the app through consumer marketing/branding experience.

Here’s a reco from Matthew who reported to me directly

“Jihee shattered our conventional product team to be more open, empathetic, and creative. Her breadth of experience leading companies like Smule and Hooked fit Gametime.

As a product designer, she focused on strengthening our user experience. She worked with the Data team to research and improve our users' satisfaction.

As my peer and mentor, Jihee was always open from the very beginning. She fostered my professional growth with productivity tips and hacks.

Jihee will be a huge advantage in accelerating any places that she choose to go. Her passionate teamwork and delightful design speaks throughout her work.”

- Matthew Lew, Product Designer