cjy
Chuck E. Cheese: Revamping the Birthday Booking Experience
Role: Product Designer
Agency: Material Plus
Timeline: Aug-Dec 2022
project overview
As part of Chuck E. Cheese’s larger brand refresh initiative, our team was tasked with modernizing the digital booking experience for birthday parties - a critical revenue driver for the brand.
This effort spanned 10 two-week sprints with a cross-functional team of 3 product designers, a project manager, a data analyst, and a copywriter working in close collaboration with CEC’s internal development team.
The project focused on simplifying the end-to-end birthday reservation flow, improving clarity, and optimizing mobile usability for busy, on-the-go parents
prototype clip
final results
discovery process
To inform design decisions, our team conducted:
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Journey mapping to visualize friction points across the full booking and deal discovery flow
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Current state analysis
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Competitive/landscape analyses of other family entertainment and quick-service booking experiences
journey mapping
Chuck E Cheese Home
1
Find a Location
2
Birthday Party Packages
3
Book a Birthday (short form)
4
Select a Package
5
Complete Your Reservation
(long form)
6
Confirmation
7
🙂
Excitement
🧐
Concentration
Strain
🤨
Confusion
Overwhelm
😠
Confusion
Annoyance
😡
Frustration
Confusion
🫤
Uncertain/
Unconfident
😀
Excitement
Nostalgia
current state analysis (select pages)
Page that describes the 3 birthday party packages
Opens upon selecting "BIrthday Party Packages" in main navigation
Pain Points:
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Overwhelming and lengthy text
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Repetitive information
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A lot of scrolling and reading, in both desktop and especially mobile
competitive/landscape analyses
Landscape
Competitive
key pain points uncovered
☹️ Overwhelming amount of copy and unclear differentiation between birthday packages
☹️ Disjointed booking flow with multiple redirects and unnecessary steps
☹️ Inability to easily compare dates, times, and pricing variations
☹️ Poor mobile experience: difficult navigation, small touch targets, and limited flexibility for scheduling
☹️ No clear way to track selections or progress throughout the booking process
design solutions implemented
🧀 Simplified 4-step booking form with progressive disclosure and clear navigation
🧀 Sticky summary of selections across all steps for easy tracking and edits
🧀 Single- and 3-day view options to help users clearly compare pricing and availability
🧀 Refined copy on the Birthday Party Package page for faster scanning and easier decision-making
🧀 Improved visual hierarchy and mobile responsiveness for a seamless experience across devices
proposed flow
Chuck E Cheese Home
4-Step Booking Form
1. Party Details
2. Choose Package
3. Contact Info
4.Payment Info
Confirmation
KEY OBJECTIVES
✅ Eliminate redundant steps/information
✅ Use progressive disclosure for large chunks of information
✅ Streamline content into digestivle pieces or use charts
✅ Allow for "shopping" and flexibility to edit from any step
full prototype video
exploration of package selection
exploration of 1-step booking
annotations for handoff to dev
final results and impact
This redesign modernized the digital experience across deal discovery, booking, and rewards engagement. Through user research, journey mapping, and iterative design, our team simplified navigation, clarified content, and optimized mobile usability to better support busy families.
✔ 28% increase in birthday party bookings
✔ 35% boost in birthday revenue
✔ 25% increase in click-through rate
✔ A more seamless and delightful user experience — resulting in more happy families celebrating at Chuck E. Cheese
