Abstract

Drawing on the controversy of the Oasis Live 25’ sales, this dissertation assesses and evaluates what expectations users’ have for online event ticketing websites by assessing a sample of three ticketing websites. A literature review, online user survey, data analysis, and a visual analysis of three separate case studies combine in this dissertation to provide a comprehensive view of the topic area.

An online survey was conducted to collect experiences from participants to learn of their expectations for buying event tickets online, and to share their perceptions of the sample event ticketing vendors. Findings from the online survey reveal that the key user expectations of event ticketing websites are: clarity, ease of use, efficiency, and visibility of information (artist, pricing, venue, seats, date & time).

Websites of three top event ticketing brands, Ticketmaster, axs and See Tickets were analysed using an established framework to assess if expectations are met by evaluating the use and effectiveness of website design attributes to meet user expectations. The study finds that event ticketing agents axs and Ticketmaster effectively meet expectations the most, but See Tickets falls short in certain areas. The study also reveals that the sample of websites all suffer from a significant lack of information of key user expectations (artist, pricing, venue, seats, date & time).

The study concludes in stating the importance of user expectations for developing effective user experiences and their influence on user decision making. As well as providing suggestions for improvements for the sample event ticketing websites.

Awarded a final mark of 80