Key Takeaways
- Baymard has new qualitative UX research on Event Ticketing UX
- The research uncovered UX issues and identified UX solutions specific to Event Ticketing users and sites
- At a high level, Event Ticketing users struggle with pricing communication and seat-selection transparency, leading to numerous abandonments during our test sessions
Key Stats
- 2,400+ hours usability testing, analyzing, and researching the UX of Event Ticketing sites
- 463 qualitative participant/site usability test sessions following the “Think Aloud” protocol
- 2,800+ medium-to-severe usability issues in testing
Today at Baymard, we’re announcing the launch of our new Event Ticketing UX research.
This research study focused on primary and secondary ticketing marketplaces, venue platforms, and performing arts centers offering a wide variety of event tickets, including concerts, theatrical performances, sporting events, comedy shows, and live venue entertainment across the USA and UK:
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Major Ticketing Marketplaces & Secondary Vendors: TicketMaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, AXS, Vivid Seats, TickPick, Gametime, Event Tickets Center, TicketWeb, Eventbrite, and Broadway.com
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Venues & Performing Arts Centers: Royal Albert Hall, National Theatre, Barbican, LA Phil, and Fox Theatre
During testing, the participants encountered 2,800+ medium-to-severe usability issues as they attempted to use Event Ticketing sites to explore options and eventually purchase tickets.
Our analysis of these issues has resulted in 370+ guidelines on Event Ticketing industry UX, available in our research findings.
In this article, we’ll provide 3 high-level observations on where users on Event Ticketing sites struggle the most:
- Opaque pricing and late-stage surcharges
- Delayed constraint filtering and hidden unavailability for ticket options
- High interaction cost for spatial and sightline evaluation of individual seats
Unclear Pricing and Ticket Availability Communication Drives Site Abandonment
Shopping for event tickets differs fundamentally from traditional B2C ecommerce because users are not purchasing physical, returnable objects — they are committing to irreversible, future experiences.
While product shopping is conversion-driven and relies on spec comparisons, experience shopping is confidence-driven and must be designed for hesitation.
Because a live event cannot be returned, any poor outcome results in permanently lost time, money, and emotional energy.
”They told me that’s sold out…How do you know what’s available?” While trying to find tickets for “Nurse John” on Ticketmaster.com (first image), this participant became increasingly annoyed at not being able to see which shows still had tickets available. ”This is really frustrating to me. Why would they show me tickets that aren’t even available? That’s dumb”, she remarked, after clicking through to a third event only to discover on the partner page that there were “No more tickets” (second image). Scarcity is a regular challenge on Event Ticketing sites, and many sites fail to handle “sold out” or “low inventory” events well.
Consequently, users approach ticketing platforms with low trust and high anxiety, seeking maximum reassurance before committing.
Despite this need for early clarity, the central UX failure across Event Ticketing sites is hiding essential decision-making data until after users have committed significant effort.
Forcing users into deep-funnel interactions to reveal basic facts about total costs, contiguous seat availability, or physical sightlines multiplies interaction costs and triggers continuous backtracking (“pogo-sticking”).
Across our usability testing, this lack of upfront transparency consistently manifested in three foundational UX issues that severely impede user evaluation and drive site abandonment.
1) Opaque Pricing and Late-Stage Surcharges
”It doesn’t tell you immediately on here how much the tickets are. So why would I hit ‘Buy Now’ if I don’t know how much the tickets are? The last thing I’m going to do is hit ‘Buy Now’ if I don’t know how much it costs.” While searching for tickets to “Haïm Leads Handel & Bach” at the LA Phil (Android), this participant was both perplexed and annoyed by the absence of pricing information in the showtime listings on the “Event Details” page (first image). To discover the cost of attendance, she was forced to navigate to the “Seat Selection” page (second image) — a deep funnel level that many users are unwilling to reach without first confirming a price range. This demonstrates how withholding costs risks immediate funnel abandonment, as users are unlikely to commit to a specific performance without basic price transparency.
”The one thing this one’s lacking is the price. It’s not telling me”, one participant complained while scanning the showtime listings for “PAW Patrol Live!” on StubHub.com (iOS) (first image). Wanting to purchase 5 tickets for his family, price was a critical factor. ”Cause that’s the thing…my kids may watch this for 20 minutes and then they don’t want to see it anymore. So I want to know how much [it is].” To find out, he had to select a date, enter his ticket quantity in a blocking overlay (second image), wait for the seat map to load, and scroll through the ticket listings where the prices were finally revealed (third image). By withholding costs until late in the funnel, the site left a poor impression on the participant and, ultimately, risked abandonment from a price-conscious customer.
When evaluating tickets across live events, users need upfront price transparency so they can quickly compare options against their budget with confidence.
Yet ticketing platforms routinely obstruct this process by hiding total costs until late in the booking funnel.
In testing, participants experienced severe friction when showtime listings and section maps omitted ticket prices, forcing labor-intensive, cross-page price tracking just to uncover basic costs (see guidelines #3117 and #3123).
”$75 in fees, really?…You know they’re just nickeling and diming me. I am not that interested in committing to this.” After selecting 2 seats for a $360 total to “& Juliet” at the Fox Theatre (iOS) (first image), this participant navigated through multiple subsequent pages, investing time and effort into evaluating add-ons and booking parking tickets. However, upon finally arriving at the cart, she was shocked to discover that the final total was heavily inflated by a wave of unexpected surcharges — including $75 in ticket fees and a $3 parking fee (second image), as well as a $5 “Order Charge” (third image). “That’s garbage. You know what? Bake it into the cake. If you want to make the tickets cost more, then I can choose from there, but don’t suddenly add on my fees.” Disgusted by the total lack of upfront pricing transparency, she immediately abandoned her cart to look for tickets elsewhere.
Furthermore, withholding mandatory service fees until the final cart or order review pages triggered intense sticker shock and eroded platform credibility, driving anxious buyers to abandon checkout entirely in favor of transparent competitors (see guideline #3135).
2) Delayed Constraint Filtering and Hidden Unavailability
When searching for tickets, users need immediate clarity on availability and an easy way to specify their group size right from the start.
Yet ticketing platforms routinely turn ticket discovery into an exhaustive trial-and-error process by hiding these essential constraints.
”So this is where I would start to get very frustrated”, complained a participant shopping for tickets on the “Event Details” page (iOS) to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Barbican (first image). After finding a suitable date on the “Showtime Listing” page (second image) she navigated to the seat map — only to find a few single seats available (third image). Spending almost 4 minutes repeating this process for 2 separate performances and finding insufficient seating on both, she became visibly annoyed. ”I think at this point I would just look for a different show”, she continued and returned to the event list, discouraged by the effort to manually check every date for seats.
In testing, participants repeatedly hit frustrating dead ends deep in the funnel simply because event listings failed to signal a “Sold Out” status early in the flow.
Moreover, because sitting together is a often non-negotiable requirement for group buyers, failing to prompt for ticket quantity prior to showtime, section, or seat-selection pages forced continuous backtracking as users repeatedly loaded seat maps only to find scattered single seats (see guidelines #3114, #3120, and #3126).
3) High Interaction Cost for Spatial and Sightline Evaluation
When assessing ticket value, in addition to weighing price, users will also need to carefully weigh seat location and sightline quality — a detailed evaluation process where they naturally invest considerable time.
Yet ticketing interfaces routinely undermine this process by imposing heavy interaction friction.
”I’m trying to click into it. It doesn’t want to click.” While searching for 2 tickets to a “Lakers vs. Heat” game on TickPick.com, this participant attempted to use the zone map to view seats in section 110. However, when clicking on a section failed to filter and update the ticket listings, she assumed the feature was broken. ”I would say this is a bit faulty in terms of the navigation, because it’s not letting me click”, she explained, repeatedly attempting to interact with the map. This lack of responsiveness prevented her from exploring specific sections and evaluating her ticket options as intended. Combined with higher prices than those seen on a previous site, the broken interaction became a tipping point for abandonment. Frustrated, she chose to return to a competitor offering better deals, prioritizing both price and functional reliability over TickPick’s “faulty” experience.
Multiplying these unnecessary clicks across multiple candidate events, dates, and venue sections quickly causes fatigue, frustration, and site abandonment.
In testing, participants struggled when venue maps acted as static graphics rather than dynamic section filters or failed to highlight a selected listing’s exact physical location.
”I don’t know how this works…It doesn’t seem to give me that information…Yeah, I would not proceed.” This participant was looking for 5 tickets to a classical music concert on AXS.com (iOS) and arrived on the “Ticket Details” page after selecting a ticket within his budget. Wanting to verify his exact seating location and evaluate the stage view, he was disappointed to find only a static map image. Left feeling highly uncertain about the seat’s proximity and perspective, he criticized the lack of information: ”I prefer websites…that kind of tells you like, how it views…There’s a great website, where once you click on a specific seat, it gives you a picture from that seat.” Refusing to complete the transaction blindly, he abandoned the funnel to search for the same ticket on alternative platforms that offer superior visual clarity and interactive seat views.
Furthermore, when sites omitted embedded “Seat-View” previews on the “Ticket Selection” and “Ticket Details” pages, anxious buyers worried about sightline obstructions were frequently driven completely out of the booking funnel to search for venue photos externally (see guidelines #3138, #3452, and #3455).
Provide Transparency, Early Constraint Filtering, and Frictionless Evaluation for Event Ticketing Users
”Wow, this has the seat view too. Oh, this has everything…this is extremely helpful.” While browsing tickets to an ice hockey game on Gametime.co, this participant hovered over a “Price Pin” on the venue map, which activated a tooltip with a “Seat-View” image, and was instantly impressed. “I like this combination,” she continued, referring to the map interactivity and the “Seat-View” thumbnails. ”That really allows me to stay on the page the entire time.” Because the “Ticket Selection” page presented these views both in the listing panel and as interactive tooltips on the venue map, she was able to evaluate seat quality, location, and cost simultaneously without having to navigate deeper into the funnel — empowering her to make an efficient, informed selection.
”Oh, that’s cool. Okay, so this is showing me the view from those seats, which is pretty good. So I’m going to select that.” While evaluating her options on the interactive seat map for a concert at the LA Phil (Android), this participant tapped on a seat she was interested in (first image). This triggered an overlay featuring a photograph of the actual seat view, providing immediate visual context regarding the stage perspective (second image). Satisfied with the clear visibility, she proceeded to confidently buy her tickets.
To resolve these friction points and foster purchasing confidence, event ticketing platforms must shift from deep-funnel data disclosure to an upfront, user-centered evaluation flow.
Platforms can resolve user friction by aligning the booking journey with users’ core needs for early clarity, financial predictability, and visual reassurance.
This requires satisfying users’ need for transparent pricing from their very first interaction — eliminating the anxiety of hidden fees and late-stage sticker shock.
It also means respecting group buyers’ nonnegotiable requirements by validating capacity upfront, sparing them from tedious trial-and-error searches.
Finally, platforms must support users’ need to evaluate ticket value by providing seamless spatial context around seat location and sightlines, giving them the confidence required to commit without leaving the sales funnel.
Users with access to the Event Ticketing industry research can start with the 37 “Essential” UX guidelines, before moving on to consider the rest of the 370+ guidelines on improving Event Ticketing UX.
Implementing the recommendations provided within will help to ensure users have what they need to evaluate ticket options transparently, increasing their confidence when making a purchase decision.
Getting access: all 370+ Event Ticketing UX guidelines are available today within Baymard. (If you already have access through your account, open the Event Ticketing study.)
If you want to know how your desktop site, mobile site, or app performs and compares, then learn more about getting Baymard to conduct a UX Audit of your site or app.
