Let’s face it — We all hate Ticketmaster.

Buying tickets is way too difficult and stressful. Service fees are ridiculously high and speaking with customer service is a nightmare. But I’m not here to talk about everything we already know, I want to highlight another overlooked, yet easily fixable flaw– the ticket design.

Who has arrived at a gate last minute, unfolding your printed ticket while frantically searching for the seat location as the line builds angrily behind you? And once you finally get inside, why do you hand your ticket to an usher as if they decipher hieroglyphics before directing you where to go? Shouldn’t you be able to determine where your seats are without hesitation? I certainly think so and it’s why I decided to try and improve the user experience by redesigning the ticket below.

Design Failures

Having a ticket should get you excited. It grants you access to a future event that you’ve been looking forward to and thinking about for weeks or maybe even months. When you look at the ticket, it should make you happy. The current design fails terribly here. It’s boring, hard to read, and feels like it was made on a typewriter.

Seat Location. Seat Location. Seat Location.

Aside from the scannable barcode, the most important information on a ticket is seat location. Without even thinking I should immediately know my section, row and seat number with nothing more than a quick glance. This information is not quickly discernible and has the same font size and style as the rest of the ticket. Wait–– Am I Really Seeing Katy Perry?

After seat location the most important set of information is the event name, location, time, day and date. It should be very clear that yes, unfortunately, I am attending a Katy Perry concert and it starts promptly on Saturday at 7:30pm. All of this information is buried at the bottom of the ticket and hard to read because of the small font size and poor line spacing. Issued To/Order Number.

Issued to and order number is the first set of information displayed, but why? Although this is useful to include in the ticket, I don’t believe it’s so important it should be read first. I don’t think I’ve ever attended a concert where my name was referenced while the ticket was scanned. Order number is an internally generated identifier and useful to track purchases, but it can be relegated to a less important area in my opinion. No Branding?

Ticketmaster missed a great branding opportunity here. Aside from their logo it is nearly impossible to determine this was purchased on Ticketmaster. This is a perfect chance to add a dash of color to a dull grey scheme that doesn’t match the style of the website or mobile app. 3 Shades of Grey.

Dark text on top of various shades of grey only make the remaining text even more difficult to read. Although this information is internally generated code for invoice/payment tracking, it doesn’t have to be nearly impossible to read.

Design Improvements

At first glance, I believe this redesign improves on a number of aspects. It takes a stale monotone look and brightens it up. By adding color and removing the grey background it makes the ticket look more lively and easier to read. In my opinion, it also creates a factor of excitement that was missing from the original version.

Seat Location At Last.

I moved the seat location to the middle and aligned left so it’s the first piece of information you see. I added a blue ribbon behind it with Ticketmaster’s brand color and changed the font color to white to show a stark contrast. I also increased the size so it’s the largest text on the ticket and chose a clear, bold and readable font. Never Late Again.

I placed Katy Perry and Tacoma Dome above the seat location and increased the font size, letter and line spacing. I moved the time, day and date to the bottom of the ticket and formatted the same. I wanted to modernize the aesthetic with a flat design but also keep a retro feel, so I chose a font I thought captured this. Secondary Information.

I moved the issued to and order number text to the right of the seat location to place slightly less emphasis on them but kept the same font size and style as the previous information. Branding? Yes please!

I changed the Ticketmaster logo to the website’s shade of blue, and removed the black background so it’s cleaner and easier on the eyes. As I mentioned previously, I added the blue ribbon behind the seat location to help highlight the ticket was purchased on Ticketmaster. I kept the watermark on the left side as I believe it adds an element of authenticity. 0 Shades of Grey.

I grouped the remaining text and placed them below the seat location and reduced the font to signify the information is less important than everything else. I also removed the grey background as it just makes it harder to read.

I enjoyed working on this project and would love any feedback as I’m always trying to learn and improve my design techniques. Thank you for reading!