SM Cinema’s Online Movie Ticket Reservation

You must have already heard about SM Cinema’s online movie ticket reservation with a twist.  Why with a twist?  Because unlike Ayala Cinema’s Sureseats (movigoers who buy tickets online get their actual tickets  at the movie counter), SM Cinema lets movie goers claim their reserved tickets by just swiping their cellphone through an automated machine.  Tickets are automatically released and printed without the aid of ticket tellers and the like.

The bCode Cellphone Scanner

The innovative “cellphone swiping twist” is actually awesome but I’m just wondering why SM Cinema is kinda too late in developing an online movie ticket reservation system.  Ayala Cinema had already have one since like 2 years ago.  Anyway, this latest development would surely benefit movie goers with fast-paced lifestyle and people who are always online.

Problem with the Website’s Navigational Structure

For the benefit of our fellow homo sapiens who are not internet savvy, I want to warn everyone though that the basic login – logout process of the SM Cinema website is not user friendly and has poor navigational structure.

Not user-friendly because it’s the only member-oriented website I know which has no basic Log-in and Log-out navigation located either at the upper left or right corner of the member’s dashboard or administration page.  You need to undergo confusing page to page steps to find the Log out or Log in menu.  This, is actually very stressful especially to users who don’t want to waste their time clicking useless links and browsing uninteresting pages.

Just take this specific situation I encountered after I registered online.

After I completed my registration by clicking the confirmation link sent to my email, I was redirected back to SM Cinema’s homepage.  I immediately look for the log in button or link with the intention of checking my account settings.

To my disappointment, there’s really no log-in button or link on the index or home page.  Later, I found out that you need to select a movie and then select schedule of viewing before you can log in.  In short they wanted the members to reserve a ticket first before they can view their account.  This, is actually very amusing.  They should know that not all the times the users log-in just to reserve a ticket.  Sometimes, they just browse what movies are in or if they wanted to update their account information like passwords or credit card details.

The same goes with the Log-out navigation.  This is actually very risky since most users might forget to log out leaving all their important account information like their credit cards open to internet criminals. Same problem with the log in navigation, the log out button or link can’t be easily found on the member’s page. You need to go through like two deep links to access the log-out link menu.

I hope as of this writing, the navigational problems that I encountered have already been corrected.  SM Cinema should take into consideration first the security of the information provided by their website members.  Also, they should be more aware how important proper navigational structure is as part of their site’s usability.

Check SM Cinema’s website: www.smcinema.com.

Happy movie watching to everyone and Advance Merry Christmas. (:

About Empress

Empress is a tech enthusiast who loves to read and write. She founded Empress Content Writing & Digital Marketing Services to help small entrepreneurs grow their business.

6 thoughts on “SM Cinema’s Online Movie Ticket Reservation

  1. Its nice to know SM has this kind of feature, so i dont have to wait for hours to buy the ticket, id rather pay P20+ more to scan my phone for a ticket which has no line to wait, i booked X-Men: First Class already, and it was super swift and i was the first to got in-line, i got in the first…. although the next other day… this booking system failed for me, coz i was trying to book online the next day for the Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides but the system error keeps poping up, so i had to drive myself there just to find out that the movie is chaged from 3:30pm to 3:00pm, then after i get back it was said it was canceled -_-” i watched Green Lantern instead..

  2. just wanted to add that… the reason why it was canceled is because of Transformers 3: The Dark Moon Premiere test run into some problems thats why the pirates of caribbean 3:30PM was canceled. June 28,2011 for Transformers 3: The Dark Moon Premiere @ 7:30PM – 9:45PM

  3. thank you for this very informative blog about online tickets. it has been a year an a half since you wrote this, but the online process hasn’t improved. this is only the 2nd time i’m buying tickets online, and i’m so glad i found your blog to help me through the process. you’re so right about this not being user-friendly. again, thanks! keep up the great blog you have here. =)

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