Centralising a Fragmented Digital Ticket Platform & Community
At a Glance
Role
Solo Product Designer (End-to-End)
Timeline
12-Week Academic Term, 2026
Tools
Figma, Google Antigravity, Illustrator, Blender
Project Overview
This case study is two experiments in one.
The first: fixing a ticketing system that relied on third-party platforms the festival never owned, which meant 88% of ticket attempts were abandoned before completion.
The second: proving an AI-enhanced design workflow could solve it faster, without cutting corners on research or craft.
One became a centralised mobile app, custom rMQR assets, and an offline kiosk. The other became a process I'd now build on and bring to every project.
Design Goal
Build a centralised mobile ecosystem that eliminates booking friction and retains community data.
Process Goal
Accelerate design exploration by building-on and implementing an AI-enhanced workflow.
Research & Discovery
Problem Statement
Portobello Film Festival relies on a fragmented, third-party dependent ecosystem that creates severe friction for ticket purchasing and community engagement. This disjointed infrastructure results in a complete lack of audience data retention.
Competitor Audit
An audit of major cultural and film festival platforms revealed that treating digital touchpoints as a unified engine for community communication and native ticketing is not a bonus feature, it is the baseline industry standard.
Quantitative Data
To map broader audience behaviours, I deployed a targeted survey across multiple cultural event communities to analyse how modern attendees discover and consume independent media.
Do you prefer to buy tickets online in advance or at the physical venue?
Have you ever abandoned a ticket purchase because the website redirected you to a external platform?
Key Insights From Research
While 76% of participants prefer online booking as their primary acquisition method, a staggering 88% have abandoned a ticket purchase explicitly because a web portal redirected them away to an external third-party platform.
Understanding Our Users
Based on these research insights, I validated my findings by synthesising them into two contrasting user personas to serve as my core layout constraints:
Demands high-velocity interface interactions. They are deeply keen to feel part of an exclusive cultural group
Demands ultimate visual simplicity, high-contrast typography, and straightforward navigation paths that function seamlessly
ideation
Accelerated Prototyping
Rather than following a rigid, traditional design path of drawing isolated paper wireframes, I chose to lean into an AI-enhanced layout workflow using Figma Make. This allowed me to rapidly generate and stress-test structural UI components in real-time, compressing my initial wireframing cycle.
User Testing
To stress-test these initial layouts, I moved into a service role-playing and co-creation workshop, collaborating directly with peers to critically analyse any friction within our applications.
This collaborative session exposed a major navigation hurdle: the initial automated search flow was too rigid, forcing users into a linear path that made finding specific events frustrating.
service mapping
Structural Service Architecture
To thoroughly understand the operational needs of the application before styling components, I mapped the ecosystem through an extended Service Blueprint framework. This systemic blueprint allowed me to ground my user flows against backend requirements across key operational rows.
Systems Integration: Architected a 9-stage service ecosystem tracking attendee touchpoints directly down to backend support layers, including the CMS database, Google Maps API, and GDPR agreements.
Business Accountability: Extended standard mapping layers to include row-level metrics. Connecting features like the Organic Cover Share directly to targeted Cart Conversion Rates (%) and Social Click-Through Rates (CTR).
from findings into interface
Design Guidelines
To explore solutions rapidly, I utilised Figma Make to generate and test structural layout iterations. Once the basic structures were validated, I established clear design guidelines to balance the festival's identity with accessible standards.
I inherited Futura PT (the typeface from PFF’s official logo) strictly for main headers to ground the app in the festival's independent, historic visual culture.
I utilised Inter for all section titles and body copy to maximize contrast, scanning speed, and layout scaling on smaller mobile viewports.
Colors were sampled directly from PFF’s current website to maintain immediate community recognition while adjusting contrast steps for accessibility.
Key Features
The Solutions
The final high-fidelity interface focuses on core touchpoints designed to directly solve the problems discovered in the research.
Internal Ticketing Engine
The Solution
A fully native checkout flow keeping the purchase inside the app
The Value Metric
Seamless ticket purchasing for the attendee, while permanently fixing the lack of user data retention for the festival organisers
Target KPI: Cart Conversion Rate (%)
Centralised Community Hub
The Solution
A dedicated space for official updates and communication streams
The Value Metric
Centralises community engagement, keeping followers connected directly inside the product's ecosystem
Target KPI: Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Sustainable Travel Planner
The Solution
An integrated routing tool that calculates public transport paths between the festival's scattered venues
The Value Metric
Helps attendees navigate physical locations effortlessly while actively highlighting the festival's sustainability goals
Target KPI: Feature Usage Rate (%)
Growth Loop
Designing for zero-budget growth. Beyond eliminating user friction, the digital ecosystem leverages the festival's deep-rooted creative subculture to turn attendees into active brand advocates.
Organic Marketing Loop
The Solution
Rewards attendees with an exclusive, alternative film cover created in collaboration with local independent artists. Instead of pushing standard promotional templates, this feature fosters a genuine sense of belonging and shared cultural identity
The Value Metric
Drives free organic marketing and increases digital and in-person engagement across the community without extra advertising spend
Target KPI: Organic Social Shares & Referral Registrations
further exploration
Spatial Prototyping & App Scaffolding
This sandbox enabled me to evaluate physical audience touchpoints alongside modern front-end AI generation capabilities.
I modelled a physical, hybrid container installation designed for outdoor festival events, serving as a unified physical touchpoint for merchandise sales, live director Q&As, and external film projections.
To push the project past static layouts and actively test modern AI capabilities, I used Antigravity to explore exporting the Figma Make prototype directly into a responsive React front-end shell.
reflection
Embracing Modern Workflows
Previously, my design process entirely avoided automated tools. This project served as an accelerated design exploration through an AI-enhanced workflow via Figma Make. By utilising automation to quickly clear out baseline structural layouts, I compressed my wireframing cycles, proving that AI can radically accelerate production speed when guided by strong human critique.
Designing for Business Objectives
Moving away from purely conceptual student briefs, this project forced me to treat design through a commercial lens. Every interface decision was engineered to impact real organisational metrics from optimising checkout, protecting user data retention, to leveraging the social "Alt-Cover" feature as a zero-cost organic acquisition strategy.
The Power of System Mapping
By thoroughly mapping Portobello Film Festival's fragmented infrastructure, I learned that impactful UX isn't just about making beautiful screens. It is about deeply understanding a business’s operational bottlenecks and translating those challenges into a functional, revenue-protecting digital ecosystem.