First Rail is one of the most experienced rail operators in the UK, carrying more than 750,000 passenger daily.
I worked with Future Platforms to redesign the iOS and Android apps for several of the operators owned by First Rail. For this case study I will show work done for South Western Rail, one of their largest operators.
Alongside the app UX/UI, there was also a requirement to create a design system that could be shared across the different operators to speed up the design and development process.
Project type
iOS app
Industry
Transport
Role
Senior UX Designer
Duration
2018 - 2019
What I did
Redesigning the SWR app
Planning and requirements
Workshops were held with senior stakeholders from First Rail to identify different customer needs and improvements that needed to be made.
Planning was then done interally between the product manager and myself to identify a roadmap of new features that would be rolled out accross a 8-12 month period.
App journey enhancements
Working closely with the product manager, I began redesigning the core features of the app. I focused on the user journey and what tasks users would want to complete.
As well as improving the UX and accessibility, I also worked to improve the UI Design by focusing on visual hierarchy, typography, colours and whitespace.
Improving users account area
I worked on the redesign of some key features for the My Account area, such as the Sign In & Register flow, Season Tickets booking and Smart Cards purchase.
Some functionality for the My Account area was also embedded in an iFrame and pulled through from the SWR website, so part of this work was to integrate those features natively into the app.
Creating a design system
I created a Design System that would be shared accross First Rail's other train operators, such as Great Western Rail and Transpennine Express.
The design system included typography, colours, buttons, components and accessibility guidelines.
Outcomes & thoughts
A new set of First Rail apps launched in early 2019, resulting in increased overall customer satisfaction and an improved rating on the app store from 1 star to 4.5.
I enjoyed working on this project and learned a lot about native iOS design, building re-usable components and creating design systems in Figma.
I felt one of the biggest challenges was that the client did not allocate enough time or budget for user research in the early stages of the project.