You would think that concert tickets would be one of the simplest systems to design from a usability and IA perspective. User searches for event, selects dates and tickets and then goes through purchase funnel.
I’m constantly amazed at how often ticket companies get online wrong. Moshtix are great and I’ve always had a good experience with them, but Ticketek currently has me wanting to smash something.
I found the event (although had to use computer instead of iphone as they have some godawful code around the search button so it doesn’t work on mobile). Went to purchase tickets, everything is fine until I get to pay.
It tells me Ticketek prefers Visa but then doesn’t give me any other option to pay! I only have a mastercard - and I’m not going to go and get a Visa just because Ticketek “prefer” it. I’m not sure if this is their strategy but it’s a very poor customer experience.
I now have to get someone else with a Visa to purchase the tickets, or try my luck and show up on the night hoping there are still some available.
It’s really poor form from Ticketek. It’s fine to have sponsors but when it prevents your users from completing their key task (ie buying tickets) then you really need to look at what is more important to you - your sponsors or your users.
This post is tagged under: Design, Information Architecture, Usability
