Master Graduation Project
Reshaping the booking process of international train tickets
Team: Sarah van Coevorden
Supervisors: Jasper van Kuijk, Aniek Toet, Barth Donners and Wouter Leyds
Collaboration: Royal HaskoningDHV & Seamless Personal Mobility Lab TU Delft
Year: 2023-2024
Challenge
International train travel is a great sustainable alternative to flying for short distances. However, currently one third of travellers are unable to book a train ticket and many travellers experience complication during their train journeys. Therefore, for my Master Graduation project I collaborated with Royal HaskoningDHV to improve the bookability of international train tickets.
The primary challenge lies in the travellers’ experience while booking and managing their international train journey. However, systemic barriers such as organisational, cultural and technical challenges are also considered.
Approach
This project followed the double diamond with four phases: Discover, Define, Design and Evaluate. For this project I applied a user-centred design approach while combining service design and UX design. Given the complexity and involvement of diverse stakeholders, a holistic service design approach was adopted, considering the entire rail industry ecosystem. Finally, I adopted UX design by zooming in on an interaction level to identify usability issues and to design new interaction concepts.
Travellers and other stakeholders were continuously involved throughout the different phases of this project.
Impact
It is difficult to change a large complex system such as the international train industry in Europe, but we can help travelers navigate it. While the railway system is expected to evolve, impactful change takes time. This project explored solutions within the existing boundaries to provide an immediate positive effect on travelers.
Therefore, the project resulted in a redesigned booking platform and app that better accommodate travelers' needs, align with their decision-making processes, and overall simplify the booking process. The user tests of the final design proposal shows promising results with an excellent score on its usability, rating much higher than current platforms and services.
Need based persona’s
Need based persona’s were used to identify the different types of travellers and their needs and behaviour patterns related to the booking process. Examining the needs of the booker persona’s and the existing booking platform, I recognized that there are existing markets that already address some of these needs causing me to focus on the Efficient Booker, the Responsible Strategist and the Vulnerable Rookie.
Redesigned user journey
The user journey of travelers was mapped, highlighting the steps they take, their needs, and their experience in booking and managing their international train journey. This journey was then redesigned, identifying key touchpoints for implementation and improvement.
Redesigned booking platform
Created to be intuitive, supportive, adaptive and exciting, this redesign booking platform aims to ensure that travellers, regardless of their prior travel experience, can easily book a suitable train ticket, leaving them feeling confident and excited about their journey ahead. The booking platform is structured to align with the decision making patterns of travellers. Features such as route characteristics, alternative transfers and search filters were created to support travellers to easily recognise suitable tickets and provide the options to reduce risks of disruptions along the way.
Redesigned travel app
Unfortunately, the railway system in Europe is unreliable at times and travellers rarely make the journey as they had planned it. In case disruption occurs, the travellers are supported by the travel app that provides clear guidance for how they can continue their journey. The app’s proactive approach and intuitive steps ensure that travellers know how they can reach their final destination.
Service blueprint
A service blueprint was created to map the onstage and backstage facilities needed to make the proposed designs work. This blueprint was then discussed with the Sales, Payment & Ticketing Specialist at NSI. These discussions provided insights into the feasibility of the design proposal, revealing that to facilitate this redesigned user journey, some supportive processes need improvement. Key areas for enhancement include open communication and collaboration between carriers and ticket distributors, an updated route information database, and an EU-wide disruption protocol.
More aout this project
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Graduation report
Reshaping the booking process of international train tickets in Europe
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AD Newsarticle
Met de trein van Amsterdam naar Boedapest zonder stress: Sarah vond uit hoe dit makkelijker kan
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Treinreiziger.nl
Sarah bedacht ideale boekingswebsite voor treintickets: ‘Onervaren reiziger weet niet waar hij aan toe is’
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Interview Omroep Delft
Listen to my interview on the Radio with Omroep Delft 1:28:55 - 1:54:22
