To start this project I had to define the scope and the depth of what I could achieve. I wanted to get an understanding of how the theatre worked but unfortunately I couldn’t get a behind the scenes look, so my focus could only be on what I saw from the customer point of view. I created a timeline as well as hypothetical journey maps, service blueprints, and stakeholder maps that would be edited later once new information was collected.

This project required me to go out to the theatre to watch customers and observe their actions and see how the business functioned. I chose to go to the movies in the evening on a weeknight so I could get a good chance of observing many different demographics of people. I had gotten there very early so I could look around and do things without getting into other customers way. I got to test the self-serve ticket machines, online ticket printers, and to take lots of photos to look back at later.

While at the theatre, I noticed a couple problems. First that the lines would form very quickly and that there was nothing to do in the lobby before or after the movie. The quick building lines makes sense based off how the move times are set up, as they all start about 10 minutes after each other, causing people to come in and head straight into the movie. Why would anyone want to hangout in the lobby, there’s nothing to do, only as couple arcade games and thats it.

Part of my research also meant I had to go to my local Cineplex and see how things ran over there. Since I was a kid, I can remember staying behind for a little while after the movies to play at their arcade, or even having fun in line to get food because they had trivia games on big screens in the lobby. When I was there I saw a group of young teenage girls hanging out at the arcade sine there were many games for the group to play.

Now that I know what I want to fix I had to figure out how to fix it. I held a workshop for my classmates so they could help me brainstorm some ideas on how to implement some fun into the waiting process. They gave me suggestions from stuff they’ve seen before or new ideas they’ve thought of, while keeping in mind budget and space restraints.

After sorting through all the ideas that were given to me. I sorted them into an affinity diagram just to see if there were any common themes or similar suggestions that I could use to help guide me to my final solution. After discussing with my professor I ended up not choosing just one option but multiple, each with different costs, potential profit, and effectiveness.

The final part of this project was compiling all my process work and information into a final report for me to present to my professor and classmates. I showed them all of the ideas I had listed by price and how effective I thought they would be. At the end I had a short period for my classmates and professor to ask me questions.

Some of the solutions I thought of were creating more seating opportunities since they had only one small bench. I included different styles and amounts so they had different price points to choose from. I also thought of some fun activities like foosball tables where people could pay to loan the ball creating income while not needing electricity. Some movie based photo opportunities based on currently running movies for friends and families to use, as well as other arcade games that groups can have fun playing while waiting in the lobby.