Cashier
Box office and concessions
- Worst ten minutes
- The queue before the 19:30 shows.
- Needs
- Tickets and food in one basket, seats in two taps, the total always in the same place.
ConceptCinema POS2026
A cinema POS built forthe minutes before the lights go down.
Houselights is a concept redesign of a legacy Windows till for a cinema that also runs a kitchen: one touch-first system for the box office, concessions, table service and the kitchen line, with a browser back office for planners.
- Role
- Product design end to end: research plan, flows, UI and a working prototype
- Surfaces
- 15.6″ touch tills, a kitchen display and a browser back office
- Design system
- One touch-first component set in light and dark, with Phosphor icons
- Status
- Concept, 2026. Every screen on this page is clickable.
Live prototype
Two tickets and a combo, in six taps.
- Tap 19:30
- Best 2 seats
- Add tickets
- Duo combo
- Charge
- Card
Problem
Built for a keyboard. Used in a rush.
Cinema tills tend to grow one module at a time. Tickets, concessions and the restaurant end up on separate screens with separate baskets, built around F-keys and a mouse. Staff work around it every night, and every new starter has to learn the shortcuts before they can serve a queue.
- 01Legacy tillSeparate baskets
Tickets and popcorn are two transactions, so a family pays twice and the queue waits twice.
HouselightsOne basket for everythingTickets, food, drinks and rewards sit in one order. Food for a Lounge screening can go straight to a seat.
- 02Legacy tillF-keys and tiny targets
Fast for veterans, slow for new starters, and useless on touch glass.
HouselightsThumbs first44 px minimum targets, 56 px for everyday actions and a 64 px Charge button that never moves.
- 03Legacy tillAvailability as text
“151/180” says nothing about where two people can sit together.
HouselightsAvailability you can seeEvery showtime has a fill bar and a count, and one tap opens a seat map with Best seats.
- 04Legacy tillApprovals that block the till
A comp ticket freezes the screen until a manager walks over with a PIN.
HouselightsApprovals travel, people stayComps and refunds go to the duty manager's phone, and the cashier keeps serving.
- 05Legacy tillGrey on grey
Sold out, paused and allergy notes look the same, so the important ones get missed.
HouselightsStates that stand outColour, an icon and plain words together, so nothing depends on colour alone. Allergies are red on every screen they reach.
People
Five roles, one system. Each with a worst ten minutes.
I designed every surface around the moment its user is under the most pressure, because that is where a till earns or loses trust.
Server
Restaurant and in-seat
- Worst ten minutes
- Turning tables before a sold-out Lounge screening.
- Needs
- Table status at a glance, orders by guest, desserts sent to seat C4.
Kitchen
Hot line and pass
- Worst ten minutes
- Twelve tickets landing inside five minutes.
- Needs
- What to cook next, allergies that can't be missed, identical items grouped.
Duty manager
Everywhere, phone in hand
- Worst ten minutes
- A refund at Till 1 while Screen 4 has a projector fault.
- Needs
- Approve comps and refunds remotely, pause items, check cash floats.
Planner
Back office, at a desk
- Worst ten minutes
- The afternoon next week's schedule locks.
- Needs
- A week across six screens, price cards, bulk vouchers, saved reports.
Screens
Inside Houselights. Six surfaces, one order.
Every screen below is live. Tap through them the way staff would; nothing is sent or charged.
From showtime to seats in two taps
The schedule is the till's home screen. Every showtime carries its own availability, so a cashier can answer “anything at half seven?” without opening a session.
- Availability reads three ways: a fill bar, a seat count and colour. Sold-out showings stay visible.
- Showings in their ad and trailer window stay on sale, labelled with the film's start time.
- Seat types are shapes as well as colours: wheelchair spaces, carer seats, premium seats and sofa pairs.
- A comp ticket asks the duty manager on their phone while the queue keeps moving.
Modifiers you can't skip, upsells that show the maths
Concessions pay for the cinema. The fast path is the default and the profitable path is one tap away.
- Required choices stay flagged until they're made, and the Add button says what's missing.
- Popular defaults are pre-selected, so a combo is a single tap and can be edited in the basket.
- The combo upsell shows the extra cost and the saving, so the cashier can say it in one sentence.
- Low stock and paused items say why and until when. Bar items ask for a Challenge 25 ID check.
A floor plan that knows about the film
Most diners here have tickets. The table knows which screening its party is going to, so held desserts can follow them to their seats.
- Table state uses colour, an icon and minutes since the last change.
- Joined tables act as one order and split back cleanly.
- Orders are grouped by guest, with allergies pinned to the guest rather than the table.
- Held courses can move to another table or to cinema seats, timed for after the trailers.
The kitchen sees what to cook next
The kitchen display is dark and readable from the pass. It is the one surface where motion earns its place: timers count up live.
- Tickets turn amber at 5 minutes and red at 10.
- Allergies are full-width red bars with the allergen in words.
- Each ticket shows where it's going and by when, including the film's end time for in-seat orders.
- All-day counts group identical items across tickets; one tap marks every portion done.
Know the guest first, then take the money
Attaching a customer at the start changes what the till offers: member prices, rewards, and allergies that follow the order into the kitchen.
- Benefits show up as actions: redeem, top up, use points.
- Allergies saved in a profile go onto kitchen tickets automatically.
- Bills split evenly or by item, and each part can use a different tender.
- Vouchers show what they cover and what stays on them; cash offers the likely notes and the change.
Next week's schedule in one view
Planners work at a desk with a mouse and a deadline. The office runs in the browser, uses the same tokens as the tills and fits more on screen.
- Each showing draws its ad lead-in, the feature and the cleaning gap, so clashes are visible before anyone does the maths.
- Select several showings to change price cards, shift start times or swap screens at once.
- Conflicts explain themselves and offer a fix.
- Price-card suggestions come from real occupancy, with the evidence next to the button.
Process
How I run a redesign like this. From the shop floor out.
Operational software gets judged on a busy Friday, not in a review meeting, so the work starts and ends with the people using it. I agree the first release, the phases after it and the deliverables before any screens.
- 01
Discover
Weeks 1–2Stakeholder interviews, a shadowed evening shift at the box office, bar and pass, timed tasks on the current till, and a list of the hardware in use.
- 02
Define
Week 3Roles and permissions, information architecture, core flows, and a written first release with the phases after it.
- 03
Design
Weeks 4–7Wireframes, then high-fidelity screens and a component library in light and dark, alongside a clickable prototype.
- 04
Validate
Every sprintSessions with staff from each role on real terminals, with tap counts and time on task compared against the current till.
- 05
Hand off
OngoingSpecs for every state and edge case, annotated flows, and weekly design QA with the developers.
Research findingsRoles and permissionsInformation architectureUser flowsWireframesHi-fi screens, light and darkFigma component libraryClickable prototypeDeveloper specsDesign QA