TYPE:
SCHOOL PROJECT
TIME:
THIRD SEMESTER
CLASS:
CAPSTONE PROJECT
PROFESSOR:
GEORGE PARAVANTES
TIFF is awesome, but I make it an even better experience
THE PROBLEM
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of the world's largest film festivals, attracting thousands of attendees each year. With a vast selection of films, events, and venues, attendees can find it challenging to discover relevant screenings, plan their schedules, purchase tickets, and manage their festival experience efficiently. This complexity can lead to confusion, missed opportunities, and a less enjoyable festival experience.
THE SOLUTION
To streamline the TIFF experience, we designed the TIFF App—a centralized platform that brings film discovery, schedule planning, and ticket management into one seamless experience.
Films & Events: Browse the complete festival lineup and filter screenings by festival schedule, country of origin, or your personal availability. Quickly purchase tickets through the app.
My Planning: Create a personalized festival plan by adding your availability across the 11-day festival and selecting the films you want to watch. The app compares both schedules to highlight the screenings that fits your available time.
Tickets: Manage upcoming and past screenings, access digital tickets, rate and review films, and vote for the People's Choice Award. User reviews also help others discover highly rated and lesser-known films.
BACKGROUND
Currently, TIFF does not offer a dedicated mobile app to support attendees throughout the festival. Instead, users must rely on three separate websites to complete their festival journey: TIFF.net to explore the festival lineup and discover films, 2025.tiffr.com to plan their schedule, and Ticketmaster to purchase and manage tickets. This fragmented experience requires users to switch between platforms, making it less convenient to navigate the festival.
RESEARCH
To better understand the TIFF experience, there was no better approach than experiencing the festival firsthand. I volunteered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), allowing me to observe attendee behavior, interact with festival-goers, and identify common pain points. I conducted three research methods to validate user needs and uncover opportunities for improvement.
1. Observational Research
I observed attendees at screenings, rush lines, and theatre entrances using the POEMS Framework (People, Objects, Environments, Messages, and Services).
Key Insights
People: TIFF attracts a wide range of attendees, including many older adults who struggled to navigate the website-based experience, especially when purchasing tickets for high-demand screenings.
Objects: Most attendees relied on their smartphones to access tickets, but the web experience was occasionally unreliable or difficult to load.
Environment: Many users had difficulty locating the correct theatre, particularly because TIFF uses multiple venues and several buildings contain more than one screening room.
Messages: Word of mouth heavily influenced film discovery. Recommendations from friends, volunteers, or other attendees often determined what films users chose to watch.
Services: Volunteers scanned digital tickets at each screening, but website-generated tickets were sometimes difficult for scanners to read, slowing down entry.
2. User Interviews
Building on these observations, I interviewed 4 TIFF attendees to better understand their motivations, frustrations, and festival habits. The interviews were synthesized into an User Journey Map, helping identify recurring pain points and unmet needs throughout the festival experience.
3. Usability Testing
To evaluate the current digital experience, I conducted usability testing with 10 participants, including both experienced TIFF attendees and first-time users. Participants completed three core tasks:
Browse and filter films
Purchase a ticket
Access a purchased ticket
Using Affinity Diagramming, I grouped observations into the following themes.
Complicated ticket purchasing: The ticketing process was confusing due to membership rules, voucher exchanges, multiple steps, and barcode access issues.
No real-time rush line information: Users wanted live updates on queue lengths and estimated wait times to better plan their day.
Difficult information architecture: Important details such as showtimes, languages, genres, and screening formats were difficult to find.
Disconnected planning experience: Scheduling tools lacked calendar integration and conflict detection, making it difficult to build a realistic festival itinerary.
Limited film discovery: Participants wanted better filtering (especially by country), personalized recommendations, trailers, and ways to discover hidden gems.
Accessibility concerns: Low contrast, inconsistent terminology, limited feedback, and slow responsiveness created challenges, particularly for less tech-savvy users.
HOW MIGHT WE?
How might we simplify the fragmented TIFF experience by combining film discovery, personalized planning, ticket management, and real-time festival information into one intuitive mobile app that is accessible for attendees of all experience levels?
IDEATION
Based on our research, we designed the TIFF App to solve the fragmented festival experience while making it more personalized and enjoyable.
Feature 1: Simplified Film Discovery
Browse the complete festival lineup, filter by schedule, country, or personal availability, and purchase tickets in one place.
Feature 2: Community Reviews
Users can rate and review films after each screening. Popular and highly rated films are featured on the Home page, encouraging word-of-mouth discovery.
Feature 3: Personalized Planning
Users add their availability and desired screenings, allowing the app to generate a personalized festival schedule with no time conflicts.
Information Architecture
The app is organized into five main sections: Home, Films & Events, My Planning, Tickets, and Account.
DESIGN
After defining the core user flows and information architecture, I sketched the main screens to explore layouts and interactions. The design focused on simplifying the festival experience by reducing unnecessary steps and making key actions—discovering films, planning schedules, and managing tickets—easy to access.
I then translated the sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma, refining the navigation, content hierarchy, and user flows before developing the final high-fidelity interface.
