Case study · Entertainment

Seat selection on a phone in under a minute.

Ticketing across 100+ screens, rebuilt so seat selection works on a phone in under a minute.

Start a project All case studies

Client: STAR CINEMAS
Sector: Entertainment
What we built: Online ticketing and seat selection for web and mobile.
Platform: Web application with a mobile first booking flow.

In short

The old flow asked for a cinema, a film, a date and a time before it would show a single seat, which is three screens of commitment before any value. We rebuilt it around the seat map, with showtimes as a filter rather than a gate, and made the whole path work one handed on a phone in a dark foyer.

The brief

Three screens of commitment before anyone saw a seat.

The old flow asked for a cinema, a film, a date and a time before it would show a single seat. Most people were choosing on a phone, in a foyer, with the film about to start.

What had to be true

Work across 100+ screens and 16 venues
One booking system behind every site, with each venue's layout and pricing its own.
Show value before asking for choices
The seat map had to be the first thing a visitor saw, not the reward for four decisions.
Finish one handed, in the dark
Big targets, a short path and no step that needs two thumbs or good light.
Never sell the same seat twice
Holds and releases had to be correct under load on a Thursday night opening.

What we did

We rebuilt the flow around the seat map.

Showtimes became a filter on the map rather than a gate in front of it, and every step was tested on real phones in a real foyer.

01

Seat map first

The map is the landing state. Film and time narrow it down instead of unlocking it, so the first screen already shows something worth choosing.

Three gates removed from the front of the flow.

02

A path built for one thumb

Targets sized for a thumb, the next action always in reach, and nothing that needs precision in a dark room.

Tested on real devices in a venue, not a simulator.

03

Holds that behave under load

Seat holds, timeouts and release handled so two people cannot buy the same seat on a busy opening night.

Correctness over cleverness.

The work

Screens from the build.

STAR CINEMAS: Homepage with what's on and coming soon

STAR CINEMAS: Booking on a phone

STAR CINEMAS: Now showing

What changed

From four screens to a seat in under a minute.

The homepage claim, and what sits behind it.

100+

screens ticketed through one booking system

16

venues, each with its own layouts and pricing

Under a minute

from opening the site to a chosen seat, on a phone

Technology

What this was built with.

Chosen to fit the problem and the team who owns it now.

01Web

React
Next.js
TypeScript
Node.js
Laravel
WordPress

02Data and cloud

PostgreSQL
MySQL
MongoDB
AWS
Azure
Docker

03Marketing and tracking

GA4
Google Tag Manager
Search Console
Meta Pixel
Looker Studio

More case studies

The Gorgeous FlowerA same day florist whose checkout takes a delivery date and window before payment.Purpose PaymentA payments product with compliance designed in from the first sprint.DiyafahA bilingual school website built right to left from the first commit.

Tell us what the business needs. We will tell you what to build first.

Schedule a free consultation and get a written recommendation, with costs, before you commit to anything.

PROVEN RESULTS

4.7 / 5verified reviews on Google