.png){kind=icon}
HKIFF
Redesign HKIFF website
(Passion Project)
HKIFFS is a nonprofit organization that supports the development of the non-mainstream film industry in Hong Kong. HKIFF organise annual Film Festival and presents year-round screenings.Due to Covid-19 all film screening are cancelled and transform to digital screening. HKIFF Online micro-site is created to performs as the virtual festival platform .
HKIFF needs to provide better digital screening experience because
1, Virtual festival is here to stay.
“57% Film festivals went either fully online or took place in a hybrid form in 2020”
2. Virtual festival is not yet perfect.
“64% of participants identified audience engagement as a key challenge i in maintaining a virtual festiva modell.”
.png)
This project aims to redesign the HKIFF website and seamlessly integrate the microsite-HKIFF online to create a virtual experience as good as physical edition.
UX Research, UI Designer, Branding
EMPATHIZE
DEFINE
IDEATE
Testing
PROTOTYPE
Based on existing statistics, I understand that the cinema industry is undergoing digitalization rapidly. My second market research focuses on exploring the market trends, demographics, and virtual transition of the film festival, and cinema industry.
Here are some of the key insights that I discovered:
market trends
box office takings lower than the pre-COVID year in Hong Kong
source: Hong Kong Box Office Ltd, 2021
revenue soar in the subscription online video streaming sector in the Asia Pacific region
source: Media Partners Asia Ltd, 2020
festival organiser think that festival will remain hybrid.
source: Associazione Festival Italiani di Cinema, 2020
The cinema industry is shifting to digitalization.
Demographics
film festival audiences having a bachelor’s degree or higher
source: FilmEx, 2021
film festival participants were between the ages of 18–34
source: Sundance Institute, 2021
Film festival audiences identified as higher education.
Virtual transition
organizer agree hybrid festival Increasing accessibility for audiences who may not have been able to attend physically
source: Whistler Film Festival, 2021
of filmmakers prefer live Q&A to pre-recorded in virtual festivals
source: FilmEx, 2021
of the audience want opportunities to interact with filmmakers and other audience in virtual festival
source: FilmEx, 2021
Virtual film festival helps increase in accessibility and each larger audiences however audience feel lack of interaction.
A lot of film festival have transition to virtual and hybrid formats, I wanted to take a closer look how they emerge the new model and whats their common practice. I identified some top film festival organizations similar to HKIFFS in other countries: TIFF, IFFR, Göteborg, and BFI.
I evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each to see how HKIFFS could fill in any gaps moving forward.
To learn about user experiences with HKIFF and HKIFF online, I conducted user interviews. I interviewed 5 people between the ages of 24-40, 10-15 minutes each, asking open-ended questions to learn about their experiences.
“I am missing the in-person reaction to films presented.”
“It was great to see oversea director in-person on Zoom interview”
Through the user interviews, I found that while many people had their own, unique experiences with film festival. Using an affinity map, I was able to synthesize all of the findings and uncover these key insights.
.png)
People build relationship with other people through participating in film festival
People tend to believe in opinions and get inspired by influencers
People like to stay connected with the community
People want the virtual platform shaped in the same way as a physical edition
01
To be able to network and interact with other people
02
To be able to get the best recommendations
03
To be able to get the sense belonging and satisfaction from engaging in the community
04
To be able to stimulate the collective viewing experience
I summarise all my research to create two personas and it helps me to further understand the user's goal and pain.
“It's a big problem when I am in my own digital space there’s a gap of opportunities to interact with filmmakers and other audience, I feel like missed out from the community.”
“Festivals are what the filmmakers make of them, but the important thing is to have people attend and engage in the experience. ”
“It's a big problem when I am in my own digital space there’s a gap of opportunities to interact with filmmakers and other audience, I feel like missed out from the community.”
“Festivals are what the filmmakers make of them, but the important thing is to have people attend and engage in the experience. ”
Taking the insights and needs, I started to dig deeper to better understand what HKIFF's problems are by creating point-of-view (POV) statements and How Might We (HMW) questions that would help drive my brainstorming process.
01
John needs to be able to network and interact with other people because he build relationship with other people through participants in film event.
02
John needs to be able to get the best recommendations because he believe in opinions and get inspired by influencers.
03
John needs to be able to get the sense belonging and satisfaction from engaging in the community because he like to stay connected with the community.
04
John needs to be able to stimulate the collective viewing experience because he wants the virtual platform shaped in the same way as a physical edition.
How might we help user to build relationship through interacting with others in the community?
How might we help user to get the best recommendations from influencers that he trust and inspire him?
How might we help user to keep connected with the community?
How might we help user experiences the same collective viewing as the physical edition while he is using the virtual platform?
Taking the HMW questions, I had generated a lot of different ideas for these problems. I started to defining the UX strategy to get a clear view of what we’re trying to achieve and where the business and user goals align.
.png)
Now that I knew which solutions I would be moving forward with, I wanted to understand how these new features would fit into the existing architecture of HKIFF’s website.
.png)
Using everything I learned throughout this phase, I then worked on creating lofi wireframe sketches to make informed decisions on how to design these new screens to help our users complete these tasks and meet their goals.
.png)
Using the low-fi, limited functionality prototype I created, I started to test my design on users to measure its usability and identify any areas of improvement.
Overview
Method: Remote, moderated usability testing (Think Aloud)
Participants: 4
Age: 27-38 years
Average Time: 5-10minutes
Task Completion Rate: 100%
Error-Free Rate: 88.9%
.png)
2/4 users had difficulty finding the HKIFF online from Film Main-page
People want to have more obvious signifier to access to HKIFF online
4/4 users confused about the affordance of hybrid program
People need more hints or explanation on hybrid program
4/4 users some confusion when booking ticket/ watch film on HKIFF Online
1/4 user had difficulty to locate the “Watch Online” button
.png)
“I can’t follow all the community news and often missed screening or event that I want to join.”
“It’s important to have people attend and engage in the experience. ”
“Going to HKIFF screening is like I am a part of somthing special.”
“ I values creative talents opinions and I trust their taste on movie choice.”
“I am missing the in-person reaction to films presented.”
.png)
.png)
.png)