
TimeOut TixIn Mobile App
TimeOut TixIn Case Study: Ticket Mobile Out for TimeOut
We have created a ticketing app, TimeOut TixIn, for TimeOut New York that takes left-over tickets from businesses and ticket-holders who can no longer attend an event and sells them to people within a 48-hour window. We researched, designed, tested, iterated, and presented our ideas to potential mock-stakeholders.
Ella Kaplan UX Portfolio

Case Study Overview
Project
We have created a ticketing app, TimeOut TixIn, for TimeOut New York that takes left-over tickets from businesses and ticket-holders who can no longer attend an event and sells them to people within a 48-hour window. We researched, designed, tested, iterated, and presented our ideas to potential mock-stakeholders.
Company
Time Out Group is the leading global media company and entertainment business that inspires and enables people to make the most of the city. They started off as a magazine, focusing their articles on the best things to do and visit for a variety of cities. They have been keeping up with new technologies and expanded their platform, having a website, mobile apps, and acquiring a ticketing software.
My Role
Working in a team with 2 other UX Designers, I led the team in mid-fidelity and high-fidelity mock-ups, participated in research, and presenting to mock-stakeholders.
Understanding
Hypothesis
There are so many events that are happening in New York City. Event-related businesses tend to lose money when they don’t sell out their events. Additionally, consumers have very limited options to get tickets to an event last-minute.
How might we connect fans who want to get tickets to events that can adapt to their last-minute schedule with businesses who have leftover tickets?
User Interviews
To validate our hypothesis, we sent out a screener survey and selected 5 respondents within our targeted demographic to interview. During the interviews, we asked open-ended questions about ticket-purchasing habits and experiences. We then synthesized the interviews by categorizing them into common themes.
Research Synthesis: Affinity Mapping
Key Insights
• Personal interest influence the person’s decision to go to an event
• Events are a social endeavor; people tend to rely on their friends to know about them or attend them
• Usually missing an event is caused by a sudden or unexpected situation
• There is no reliable place to resell tickets
• The context of the events (where it is, about the artist) is relevant at the time of buying a ticket
Defining Our Users’ Needs
Persona
To fully understand our research synthesis and empathize with the user, we created a persona. Our persona, Rebecca, is a fictionalized character created to represent the users that we interviewed, with all of her details and facts pulled directly from our research. We used Rebecca to help formulate our problem statement and inform our design decisions.
TimeOut TixIn Persona
Problem Statement
There are so many events that are happening in New York City. Event-related businesses tend to lose money when they don’t sell out their events, and ticket-holders who can’t attend an event find it difficult to resell and recoup the cost. Additionally, consumers have very limited options to get tickets to an event last-minute.
How might we connect fans who want to get last-minute tickets to events with businesses who have leftover tickets and other people who can no longer go to events they have tickets for?
Translating Research to Design
Solution
In order to address our problem statement, we created TimeOut TixIn, a last-minute ticket mobile app that allows businesses and ticket-holders who can no longer go to an event sell tickets to people within a 48-hour window. In order to address the insights found in our research, we aligned our design solution with Rebecca’s needs.
TimeOut TixIn: Affordable Ticket Solution
TimeOut TixIn: Events Last Minute Solution
TimeOut TixIn: Wide Range of Events Solution
TimeOut TixIn: Social Media Soultion
User Journey
To understand how Rebecca would use our app, we created a user journey map that outlines Rebecca’s personal, application and emotional experience while interacting with the app.
TimeOut TixIn User Journey
Bringing the Solution to Life
Ideation
Before jumping into design, we conducted a design studio to generate all possible design solutions and features for our mobile app. Once we completed the design studio, we prioritized our ideas and features by completing a feature prioritization matrix and MoSCow map which helped identify the minimal viable product (MVP). We then sketched out low-fidelity wireframes, in which we began to formulate screens and identify user flows.
TimeOut TixIn: Design Studio
Mid-Fidelity
From ideation, we then created a mid-fidelity prototype of our app. In order to focus on the usability aspect of the design, we refrained from using any color or graphical elements at this stage. We created our frames in Sketch and transferred them to inVision to create an interactive prototype.
TimeOut Tixin: Mid-Fidelity Frames
Usability
Test I
To make sure we designed the “right thing”, we conducted a usability test on our mid-fidelity prototype. In this first usability test, we found that our app was relatively easy to use. However, the major insight we found was that no one understood the main differentiator and purpose of the app: that we were creating a market place that centered on last-minute availability.
TimeOut TixIn Usability Test I
Hi-Fidelity Iterations
In order to address the insights from Usability Test I, we added an introduction screen in our first time user experience (FTUE), cut down the time we offered tickets from 2 weeks to 48 hours, and added a message from the reseller on the ticket information screen.
Along with implementing these iterations, we moved from a mid-fidelity to a high-fidelity prototype, integrating colors, typography, graphical elements and imagery into our prototype. We specifically chose elements that aligned with TimeOut’s existing brand.
TimeOut TixIn Style Guide
Usability
Test II
In order to test our iterations, we conducted a second usability test on our high-fidelity prototype. In this second round of usability testing, not only did our completion rate increase in the first task, but all of our users understood the value of our product. One of our users quoted “I love that you don’t feel like you’re getting ripped off by scalpers, like on StubHub or Ticketmaster.”
TimeOut TixIn Usability Test II
“I love that you don’t feel like you are getting ripped off by scalpers like StubHub or Ticketmaster”
TimeOut Partnership
Opportunity
In addressing this need, we decided that TimeOut would be the perfect partner for this endeavor. In our user research, we found that people associated TimeOut with the magazine, and that very few (close to none) knew that TimeOut actually sold tickets. This app will help generate traffic and revenue to the ticket portion of TimeOut, as well as give TimeOut recognition as a hub for tickets both first-run and resold from other users.
KPIs
In order to measure the success of our app, we have selected the following KPIs:
• Total number of tickets sold
• Tickets resold by users
• Tickets sold by businesses/venues
• Percentage of tickets bought elsewhere
• Tickets sold within 48 hours, 24 hours, 12 hours, 2 hours
Conclusion
Next Steps
• Move into Phase II: Designing and building re-selling and business interfaces
• Allow users to onboard tickets from elsewhere
• Integrate into TimeOut’s existing platforms
Reflection
During this project, I had the real opportunity to hone my design skills, leading our team in the creation of both mid-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes. This was a fantastic opportunity to practice selling and pitching a design idea to stakeholders. In previous case studies, we were focused on sharing in a presentation-format our process, where in this case it was more about sharing the idea itself. Along with this, we faced illness, time restrictions, and late nights, but through it all, we were so proud with the product we created.