Cinema Society · Product design and UX transformation

From a disconnected voucher website to a complete cinema experience

How I helped Network and Cinema Society take a new purchasing journey from initial prototype to production in two development sprints, with plans to reuse the experience across other commercial partnerships.

“World class.”
David, Cinema Society, describing the UX and design

Role: UX strategy, product design, prototyping, end-to-end journeys and collaborative delivery.
Delivery: About a week of initial prototyping, followed by two development sprints.

Outcomes

40% increase in members accessing the service
44% faster median time from account creation to first purchase
55% of new users purchasing within five minutes, up from 38%
44.2% year-on-year sales growth in October 2026
72% year-on-year commission growth in October 2026
Planned reuse of the experience across other partners

The first three are the UX outcomes, measured before and after launch. The October growth had other causes too. The results section below explains how each was measured, and what it can and can't tell us.

The problem

Members of Network's schemes, such as Health Service Discounts, who wanted cinema vouchers clicked through to Cinema Society's own website. There they faced two buttons, to sign up or log in, and had to set up a new Cinema Society account, linked to their membership ID, before they could buy anything.

Many didn't realise they had left for a completely different site. Some then bypassed their scheme's site or app altogether and logged in directly with Cinema Society. It was confusing, and David at Cinema Society handled the support enquiries himself, sometimes at weekends.

The opportunity was a better way to buy, and fewer avoidable helpdesk enquiries.

My contribution

I recognised the opportunity and built an interactive prototype in about a week. I pitched it to Cinema Society, and they were enthusiastic about the direction straight away.

Then I worked directly with their team during development, extending the prototype and completing the UX as they built it. This was not a conventional design handover.

The shipped journey

This is a multi-step purchasing and fulfilment journey, not a one-click checkout. Members can now:

Find a participating cinema near them.
Choose the cinema.
Choose how many vouchers they need.
Add optional food and drink packages.
Pay.
Reveal their vouchers and QR codes, ready to use.

How cinema vouchers work: an illustrated clapperboard with a discount badge, a line on buying discounted vouchers and redeeming them when booking, and Next and Skip buttons — First, how cinema vouchers work.

Find my nearest cinema: a postcode field, Use my location and a Find cinemas button, with links to My orders and Basket — Find the nearest cinema by postcode or location.

Cinemas near you for postcode M1 2HF: Odeon, Vue and Cineworld in Bolton with their addresses, and a filter — Choose the cinema.

Checkout for Odeon Middlebrook, Bolton: an adult and a child ticket and a Munchbox, with an upgrade offer for food and drinks above the Checkout button — Add food and drink, then check out.

Order complete at Cineworld Bolton: purchase and expiry dates, the order number, an In cinema tab and a QR code and voucher code for each ticket — Vouchers and QR codes, ready to use in the cinema.

My orders: past Cineworld orders with purchase and expiry dates, order details, View order and Buy again — Every order kept in one place, with Buy again.

Clear instructions, guidance and FAQs appear at the stages where people need them.

Before

Leave the scheme's site for Cinema Society's own website
Choose between sign up and log in, and create a separate Cinema Society account
Buy vouchers, often logging in directly with Cinema Society next time and bypassing the scheme

After

Stay signed in with the scheme's own log-in (single sign-on), with no separate account
Find a cinema, choose vouchers and add food and drink
Pay, then reveal vouchers and QR codes in the same journey

Collaboration and delivery

Cinema Society committed its own developers to shipping the experience. The prototype took about a week, before development began.

We finished the remaining UX together during two development sprints, and the product shipped within that window. Their developers wrote the production code. My part was the prototype, the journeys and the design decisions, made with them while they built it.

Results

Better access and faster purchasing were the main UX goals.

40% more members accessed the service.
The median time from creating an account to a first purchase fell by 44%.
55% of new users bought within five minutes, up from 38%.

We compared 14-day windows before and after launch, across three membership schemes, leaving out the switchover days. These are measured observations, not a controlled experiment. SSO also changed the point at which accounts are created, so the time-to-purchase figures are indicative.

The commercial results support that picture. In October 2026, sales grew 44.2% and commission 72% year on year. Film releases, the time of year and marketing all played a part, so the new experience is one reason for that growth, not the only one.

Beyond Network

Cinema Society sells its offer through many companies, membership organisations and employee benefits schemes. Following the Network project, it plans to reuse the experience with other partners.

That rollout hasn't happened yet. But a partner choosing to build its wider offer on this work is strong validation of the product direction, and shows how far the experience could go.

Future concept: film discovery

I also built a working prototype on a film API. It showed:

Films currently showing.
Upcoming releases.
Nearby participating cinemas.
Local cinema showtimes.

Cinema tickets, but cheaper: a couple with popcorn in a cinema, above a postcode box with Use my location and Find films — The prototype starts with films, not vouchers.

Films showing today: Send Help and The Housemaid, with certificates, cast, a short synopsis and running times, under a day picker — What's on near you, day by day.

Choosing seats for The Housemaid at Vue Bolton, 18:00: seat types from Super saver to Ultra lux, and discounted tickets at £5.99 instead of £7.99 — Then seats and discounted tickets for a showing.

The idea is to make Cinema Society somewhere members come to discover films, rather than only returning after checking cinema listings somewhere else. It's a working product concept and a future opportunity. It has not shipped.

Good design doesn't just solve the problem in front of you. It creates opportunities you didn't have before.