Background

Palace Cinemas is one of Australia’s most loved cinema chains, known for its boutique venues, curated film festivals, and a deep connection to European cinema culture. Founded by Antonio Zeccola, whose passion for film began in his childhood town of Muro Lucano, Italy, Palace has grown to over 20 locations across the country, blending heritage, innovation, and cinematic excellence.

To match its in-person experience with a premium digital offering, Palace partnered with AndMine to redesign its online platform. I led the UX and UI design of the new Palace Cinemas website, aiming to deliver a seamless, visually rich, and future-ready user experience that honours the brand’s cinematic roots while meeting modern user expectations.

Challenge

The previous website was functional but outdated, with key friction points impacting both casual movie-goers and frequent cinema-lovers. The business needed a fresh digital presence that balanced functionality with emotional storytelling.

Key challenges included:

• Improving the end-to-end booking journey to reduce abandonment and better support mobile users

• Reimagining the site architecture to cater for multiple cinema locations, diverse film types, and events

• Modernising the interface while maintaining the cultural richness and warmth of the Palace brand

• Showcasing the cinema experience — including in-venue dining, bars, and special events — beyond just movie listings

• Creating a flexible design system to support future content growth and seasonal film festivals

Solution

Our goal was to create an immersive, user-friendly digital platform that celebrated film culture and inspired users to discover, book, and share their cinema experiences.

Key design solutions included:

• A completely restructured information architecture, making it easier for users to filter by location, film, and session times

• A new booking flow designed around simplicity and speed, with contextual prompts and mobile-first layouts

• Enhanced film pages featuring trailers, cast info, critic reviews, and integrated session listings

• Visually rich event pages to showcase Palace’s beloved film festivals and cultural programming

• A refined UI design system, blending cinematic elegance with clear usability — using dark tones, high contrast, and rich photography to echo the in-theatre experience

• Scalable modules to support gift cards, memberships, and promotions with minimal dev overhead

Process

Discovery & UX Audit

• Analysed site analytics, booking data, and heatmaps to understand user pain points

• Conducted stakeholder interviews and mapped out strategic goals across ticketing, marketing, and customer service

• Reviewed cinema competitor and festival sites locally and internationally for best practices and differentiation

• User Flows & Wireframes

  • Mapped key user journeys for searching films, booking tickets, accessing festival content, and managing memberships

  • Developed low-fidelity wireframes to test content layout, navigation, and booking steps

  • Validated early concepts through stakeholder workshops and remote testing with regular patrons

• UI Design & Prototyping

  • Built a modular design system that could scale across multiple locations and campaigns

  • Applied a cinematic visual language with curated imagery, large typography, and layered textures to evoke emotion

  • Ensured accessibility and responsiveness were prioritised throughout — especially on smaller screens and older browsers

• Development Collaboration

  • Provided detailed UI kits, redlines, and animation specs for developers

  • Worked in close sprint-based collaboration with the development team to test and refine features

  • Participated in QA and post-launch refinements to continuously improve performance

Results

42% increase in mobile bookings within the first two months post-launch

• 26% reduction in bounce rate on film and session pages

• Significant uplift in festival engagement, with easier browsing and streamlined multi-session booking flows

• Highly positive feedback from both new and returning customers, praising the aesthetic and improved usability

• A scalable digital platform that supports future cinema openings, brand campaigns, and seasonal programming