Arclight

● B2C    ● Agency

We were approached to solve privacy concerns within Arclight cinemas current experience around search and geolocation. Only 1-5 users will opt-in to using auto geolocation authentication to find the nearest theaters based on their location. I sailed out to create alternative concepts/experiences to lessen the concerns of the users.

While tackling the privacy concerns of using geolocation, I revamped the complete end-to-end web experience including interaction studies.

The problem current location-based search feature in the existing experience requires users to consent to use their geolocation via a IP address, which might lead to privacy concerns and potential hesitancy from users. I need to find a way to create a seamless and user-friendly experience that still provides location-based search functionality without relying solely on geolocation authentication via IP address.

How might we create an experience that bypasses the geolocation authentication:

→ User-Provided Location: Implement a user controlled location-sharing option where users can manually input their location or choose from a list of predefined locations. This approach gives users more control over their data and addresses privacy concerns.

Following the double diamond framework, I was able to diverge in my research and scope my problem space. After Identifying any gaps, I converged and identified the specific "How Might We" statements and benefits.

What’s the better experience when breaking down the movie goers personas?

As I started to define the typical personas of movie goers in general it became clear that there where different needs based on the type of movie goer you are. I broke them up into three categories.

I conducted customer interviews with 12 participants, all identifying as POCs, between the ages of 20-28. Interviews were conducted remotely through social media (Twitter polling) and video calls. I also conducted customer survey’s through Qualtrics and Google Forms.

Some of the questions that were asked were:

→ Do you allow theater websites to use your location while searching for a movie or nearest theater?
→ Why or why not? (dependent on the answer to the above question)
→ Do you feel comfortable allowing third party companies to locate your proximity and store that data?

5 of 12 participants said they would feel more comfortable not allowing a third party company to locate their proximity and store that data.

I compared theaters and ticketing companies using geolocation-based search in the market. All of them use location authentication. I did however notice a few of them are already pinging your location. It’s subtle, but in the location field, they already have your zipcode disguised as an empty state. See the example from Fandango’s website. Dark UX Design or...?

With the research that I conducted included customer interviews around search, privacy concerns, and by location—here are the final designs from various parts of the experience along with the prototype and interactive concepts.

Lessons learned

While knowing that opting into something like a third-party company to locate your proximity and store that data is scary, it’s even scarier that I learned through research just how little most customers think about this and are concerned.

Dark UX tactics may be as equally evil as a practice to prey on the non-tech-savvy people using their products. These practices take control of a customer's decision-making—when it should be the opposite.

Lastly, as a big cinema fan, more theaters need to spend more time on their online experience as they do with their spacial experiences. There’s a huge disconnect there and should be capitalized on.