All the best apps have a ‘wow moment’

The best apps have a key ‘wow moment’ – whether it’s when Uber transforms the way you think about travel forever, when Amazon Prime Now gets that item you need to your door within an hour, or simply the moment you get addicted to your new favorite game.

I just had a ‘wow moment’ with an app that I wanted to share with you.

Dice.fm is a London-based startup that has been gradually expanding its live music ticket-buying service around the UK. You’ll understand why it just gave me a ‘wow moment’ with a bit of context….

I’d grown numb to a pain point

I’ve bought tickets for two live shows this week. Yesterday it was an upcoming appearance by Beck, through a traditional online seller. I had to fill in my address, check (or un-check) multiple boxes, including agreeing to pay an extra £2 for the ability to request a refund if I need to (surely that should be illegal), and deciding between paying to print the ticket myself (what?!) or paying more to have it mailed to me.

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I then had to choose between entering my card details or getting redirected to PayPal. I chose the latter, easier option but it still made the whole process far more painful than it should have been.

In total, buying the Beck ticket took me about four minutes. I hated it but thought nothing of it – that’s the just the way it is, right?

Then today I bought a ticket to see the brilliant Avec Sans. They were being sold through Dice.fm, so I downloaded the app, found the gig and got ready to go through the nightmare ticket-buying process again.

Except I didn’t have to.

Buying a ticket in Dice.fm is easy. You choose the number of tickets you want, select Apple Pay, scan your fingerprint and that’s it. There’s no booking fee and the ticket is stored within the app, ready to be scanned on the door when you arrive.

It was a real ‘wow’ moment – one that will make buying live music tickets the old way in the future just seem antiquated.

Dice.fm isn’t perfect – refunds aren’t guaranteed if the show isn’t sold out with people on a wait list, and you need to email the company and explain the situation. Also, the buying process would have been a little more involved first time if I hadn’t have been using Apple Pay, but you only need to save your card details once.

Still, the sheer speed and lack of hassle and fees makes Dice.fm a joy to use, especially for low-cost shows or impulse buys on the same night as a band is playing.

‘Wow moments’ are a good sign you’re doing something truly life-changing for your users. If your app doesn’t have one, why not?