2015 saw the ground up rebuild of the Trainline app, completely revised front-end architecture and creating new patterns for key areas of the app. With careful research and gaining understanding of different users mental models of travel, we started with the Checkout; and created a checkout which has become a standard bearer for efficiency. After simplifying the checkout flow itself, we added new features Guest Checkout, Paypal and Apple Pay (less than 3 weeks after Apple announced it) as well as removing postcode to minimise friction and redesigning the stored cards flow. This has become a definitive app checkout on mobile. This checkout increased Trainline’s overall CVR from 2.68% to 3.12% which in one release (before iterations) which blew away all our team KPIs for 2015 (original target for whole team was to hit 2.80 for the calendar year).
With bi-weekly user-testing, iterating on the prototypes and collaborating with Devs and BAs to identify problems there was rapid progress. We set industry standards and Trainline’s app became a huge success in 2015, with patterns for train journeys widely copied both in the UK and internationally. The starting point for this was listing all possible information about a train journey and making using flows and analysis of the whole process to simplify it and make it as intuitive as possible. Then we could decide what information should be conveyed to the customer at each point in their journey.
We blew away internal targets on conversion and transition rates and won an Apple Best of 2015 award and achieved highly successful App Store Optimisation. Trainline is now a standard bearer for start-up mentality in a corporate environment.
I worked in close partnership with a UI designer, Our roles over-lapped somewhat and we carried out our own research. The features we added in 2015 included:
- Revised App IA, movement to a “nav bar” style menu
- Simplification of journey (previous separate journeys for live times, departure boards and buying tickets)
- Revised Checkout flows
- Implementation of Apple Pay
- Implementation of Guest Checkout
- Paypal as Payment method
- Revised My Tickets (post-purchase) section
- Implementation of rebrand
- Universal app for iPad and iPhone
- Revised Search Results page
- App Store Optimisation
UI Design credit: Rob Cleaton
