DISNEYLAND MOBILE APP

Improving the Disneyland mobile app one feature at a time

THE APP

The Disneyland mobile application is used at the Disneyland and California Adventure parks to buy tickets, view wait times, browse maps, locate Disney Characters, and find activities. Its purpose is to make the users' Disneyland more efficient and fun.

HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE

10 week project

TEAM MEMBERS

Darlene Vales, KimKim Horas, Kavi Mathur, Jimmy Liu, Fiora Chan

KEY GOAL

Recreate the Disneyland mobile application to be more accessible and user-friendly

THE RESEARCH

We focused on what features the Disneyland mobile app already had and focused on understanding the different target populations.

The Disneyland mobile app is for park attendees to navigate and plan their day at Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California. The home page is an interactive map with markets and filters of different points of interests. The app gives information about the wait times on rides, time of shows, places to eat, make reservations for participating restaurants, amenities, and other places they may want to go. The app can also be used as their ticket into the park, Fastpass tickets, or Photopass.

The general target population are those who are going to Downtown Disney, Disneyland, and California Adventure. The two specific target populations are Annual Passholders (avid park visitors) and those who are just visiting for the day (first time or day ticket holders).

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Six Flags and Universal Studios are both amusement parks with similar applications. We researched the application about their functionality, features, user base, and issues with the application. We, then, compared and contrasted with the Disneyland app.

COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGH

We focused on three tasks in our cognitive walkthrough.

1) The first task is finding the band events information for the "Disneyland Band at Main Street, U.S.A" for the day.

2) Use a Disney MaxPass to acquire a FASTPASS for "Guardians of Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!"

3) Reserve a seat for you and your family at Blue Bayou Restaurant.

THE INTERVIEW

We interviewed 10 users, half of which were annual-passholders and half of which were not. Each interview lasted roughly 30 minutes and were semi-structured.

The following where the semi-structured interview questions.

How many times did you visit Disneyland in the last year?
Describe what a day for you looks like at Disneyland?
How do you find your way inside Disneyland? (Do you use maps/ apps/ sign boards, or anything else?)
Do you use the app to find rides, restaurants, or entertainment?
How do you get from Ride A to Ride B? How do you find restrooms, places to eat, etc?
How often do you use the Disneyland app?
How do you use the app?
1. Give an example of a common task you do. Are there any other tasks in the app that are difficult to complete?
What features do you use most?
Are you familiar with the Disney MaxPass? How do you use it?
Are you familiar with the PhotoPass? How do you use it?
Are you an annual passholder? If so, do you use the application for find out more information about your pass? (such as block-out dates, discounts at restaurants or stores?)

**Note: Responses have been hidden to respect the user's privacy.

THE PERSONAS

We created two personas for the different types of users of the Disneyland mobile application.

Planning Process

We used online sticky notes to organize the way people use the application, what common issues users had, what comments people had, and new features that users wanted to see.

Redesign Focus

Home & Map Page

The home page navigation category bar only allowed one category to be shown at a time, so a new button that leads to a side bar was added. We also added new shortcuts for user related features. The user can change which shortcuts they want to be shown.

Tutorial Page

During user interviews and tests, we noticed that many users did not know how to fully utilize all the features. We created a tutorial for when users first download the app. We used a Mickey Mouse hand to point out specific features with simple texts to explain.

Dining Reservation Page

The dining reservation was confusing because there were not any indication if a date/time was fully booked. We showed only restaurants that were available for the date they selected by using different colors to indicate whether the restaurant is available to book on the selected date.

Organizing Filters

The original filter was confusing because there were many different button options and filled the entire screen. Our screen goal was to remove the clutter in the interface and bring more clarity towards the filter. We also added a snack/cart category, which was not previously included.

Navigating & Routing

The original map did not include location services, so it didn't really give users a sense of direction. We added a location services where they can get directions to where they want to go. Our goal was to help the user navigate through the park in a more efficient way.

AFTER SOME LOW FIDELITY DESIGNS, WE FINALIZED THE REDESIGNS

We added a more options symbol, so that users have the option to minimize all the button options and allow users to see what they want to see. It removes the clutter in the interface and brings more clarity. We also added a new filter for carts.

We added a location services to the maps. This way users can locate where they currently are (the blue dot) and can find directions to where they want to go (red icon). The blue dot will move as they get closer to their destination, but we did not include words because there are not many street names at Disneyland or California Adventure.

TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK

LESSONS LEARNED

Researching plays an important role in UI/UX designing. In addition, communication is a key role in team project work.

Most of the project was spent researching and interviewing users rather than redesigning the application itself. At first I thought it was odd because I thought redesigning was supposed to take the bulk of the time. I learned the value of researching and interviewing. If good researching and interviewing is done beforehand, then the redesign will be more effective and higher quality.

I also spend 10 weeks working with my team. I learned that communication is key in teamwork. We made sure that everyone on the team was involved. We each gave our input in all of the projects and used each other's strength to build a strong project.