Case Study
Smart Event Ticketing & QR Entry
Event ticketing and QR check-in for organizers and guests
01Problem
Event entry breaks down at exactly the wrong moment — the door, under a queue. This platform had to serve two very different users at once: organizers building and analyzing events, and guests getting through the gate fast with a QR ticket that actually scans.
02Constraints
- Two distinct user journeys — organizers and guests — had to be designed and built under time pressure.
- Check-in had to be reliable enough for a live door; validation logic could not be an afterthought.
- Attendee flows had to be mobile-optimized — guests are on their phones at the venue.
03Approach
- Led organizer tooling: event creation, ticket customization, and dashboard analytics.
- Implemented QR-based check-in using a third-party scanning SDK and validated the entry logic across simulated live events.
- Built mobile-optimized attendee flows: viewing, managing, and downloading tickets, QR preview, and email delivery confirmation.
Two audiences, one build — the prioritization was about not shortchanging either.
- Balanced organizer depth (analytics, customization) against guest speed (fast, scannable entry) instead of over-investing in one side.
- Treated check-in reliability as the product’s core promise, and simulated live events to validate entry logic before trusting it at a real door.
04Architecture
A Next.js / Node.js web app over MySQL, with a third-party QR scanning SDK handling check-in and email for ticket delivery.
- ▸Next.js — organizer and attendee web app
- ▸Node.js — events, tickets, check-in validation
- ▸MySQL — events, tickets, check-in records
- ▸Third-party QR scanning SDK — gate check-in
- ▸Email delivery — tickets and confirmations
05Decisions & Tradeoffs
Used a third-party QR scanning SDK instead of building scanning from scratch.
↳Reliable, battle-tested scanning and faster delivery, at the cost of a dependency and its constraints.
Validated entry logic against simulated live events before real use.
↳Extra setup time, but door-time failures — the most visible kind — were caught early.
Delivered tickets by email with confirmation rather than requiring an app install.
↳Universal, trusted delivery, but less control over the post-purchase experience than a dedicated app would give.
06Outcome
Shipped
- Organizer tooling for event creation, ticket customization, and dashboard analytics.
- QR-based check-in via a third-party SDK, validated across simulated live events.
- Mobile-optimized attendee flows with QR preview and email delivery confirmation.