VIVA AEROBUS - OCT 20
A renewed digital experience to increase the sales of flights
Designed a prototype that solves critical points in the Viva Aerobús purchase process
Increasing Digital Ticket Conversion by Reducing Friction in the Purchase Flow
| Client: | Citicinemas |
| Industry: | Entertainment / Movie Theaters |
| Role: | Product Designer End-to-End (Analysis, Design, and Development Collaboration) |
| Duration: | 8 weeks |
| Context: | Agency Project |
Context
Citicinemas had a website developed several years earlier, with clear performance, experience, and user acquisition issues. Most purchases were made as guests, registration was low, and the purchase flow had multiple steps that created friction.
Beyond the visual, the site was not designed to capture long-term user value: without active accounts, the business was losing opportunities for recurrence, loyalty, and direct communication.
As an agency project, the challenge was to act quickly, with limited information and no long-term roadmap, maximizing short-term impact without breaking the existing operation.
Problem
The main problem was not just “an old site,” but an inefficient purchase flow that combined:
- Slow performance
- Too many steps to complete a purchase
- Low account creation
- High cognitive load during ticket selection
Each additional friction increased the likelihood of abandonment and limited the growth of the digital channel.
The Key Decision
During the design of the purchase flow, we evaluated two clear alternatives:
Option A — Follow the Standard Market Pattern
Movie → number of people (adults, children, seniors) → seat selection → payment. It was a known, safe, low-risk pattern.
Option B — Break the Traditional Pattern
Movie → direct seat selection, where each selected seat automatically represented one person, building the count in real time.
This second option reduced steps and simplified the experience, but implied a clear risk: breaking user expectations, especially for people less familiar with digital flows.
We decided to move forward with the unconventional option, prioritizing friction reduction and clarity over familiarity.
In the following video, you will see the resulting interaction of combining seat selection and ticket type.
Validation Under Constraints
We tested both alternatives with real users before committing to the final solution, including older adults. The goal was not to optimize details, but to answer a critical question: Is this interaction understandable without explanation?
The answer was positive: users quickly understood the relationship between seats and ticket quantity, could correct errors easily, and completed the flow faster.
This gave us the confidence we needed to take the risk and move forward.
Other Relevant Decisions
- Performance as an enabler: migrate to a modern architecture (Next.js) to improve load times and stability.
- Registration without blocking: increase entry points to create an account or log in without interrupting the purchase, understanding that forcing registration drives abandonment.
- Step reduction: remove unnecessary screens and consolidate decisions within the same flow.
Results
After the redesign, the digital channel performance showed clear improvements in key metrics:
- Purchase flow conversion: 3% → 9%, tripling the efficiency of the digital channel.
- 34% increase in user registrations, strengthening the base of recurring customers.
- 27% increase in time on site, reflecting greater engagement during the purchase process.
- Significant improvement in technical performance, raising the Lighthouse score from 64 to 96, reducing friction and wait times.
In a context where demand varies by film type and season, the redesign helped better capture purchase intent by simplifying decisions, reducing steps, and improving site speed, converting more sessions into completed purchases.
Learnings
- Reducing friction has more impact than adding features.
- Breaking established patterns can be positive when done with judgment and validation.
- In agency contexts, clarity in decisions weighs more than methodological perfection.
- Designing simple flows is not about simplifying the problem, it is about understanding it better.
Closing
This project reinforced my approach as a Product Designer: understanding the real problem, evaluating alternatives, taking informed risks, and making decisions that balance business, technology, and experience, even in contexts with limited time and resources.
This is the result of many minds working together. Thanks to everyone involved in this creative process, especially Efrain Rochin and Ezequiel Rangel.