Northern Rail

Consolidating Multiple Platforms into a Future-Proof iOS and Android app

Northern Rail is the largest train operator in the UK, covering more miles and stations than any other provider. They run around 81.4 million passenger journeys annually. When I joined, they were undergoing a digital transformation, having just formed a new product team with four PMs and myself as the UX Lead. The team was gradually taking ownership of their digital products. First up was the customer-facing app used by frontline staff to handle customer service queries. The longer-term strategy was to evolve this single app into a new way of working for staff across the network.

Role

Lead Product Designer

Date & Duration

Jul 2022 - Sept 2024
2 Years

(not the duration of the project just time at Northerm)

Tools Used

Figma
Miro
User Testing
qualtrics

The problem statement

"How might we provide customer facing staff with the right information to answers customer queries in person quickly and effectively?"

The Process

The process was anything but linere. We had around 8 months selling in the vision and working with CX to understand the customer problems so large amounts of station visits and customer centre observations were done. As well as providng the staff with the data they needed a large part of the project was the technical developemnt of an orcastraion layer to help bridge all the data points in the organision.

Once budget was signed off. We used alot of mixed method research to start the project. Workshops with users, workshops with stakeholders and a few showding days in person to observe how they handle those questions in person.

The design cycle was test and learn approach to get the data in the right shape and understand the needs for each personas we had identified were answered.  I never got ot realise the project through to completion as the budget didn't extend that far.

Results

Feedback was strong were staff saying this was first time anyone had included them in the design process

The app got picked by the wider train network in UK and others in talk to colabarte on the project

UX Methods used

Field Study
Service Design
Journey Mapping
Workshop Facilitation
User Flow Mapping

UX Methods used

Wireframing & Prototyping
High-fidelity UI Design
User Story Creation
Focus Group
Retrospective Think-Aloud Protocol

Artifacts. Research

Setting the Product Foundations

Alongside the Head of Product, we defined the product principles and UX process to ensure all designs adhered to a consistent standard. Key features were documented and completed in Jira, ready for development.

Now setting the UI foundations

Having not worked on the design system in earlier projects, I needed to integrate with it and extend it for both iOS and Android. This meant aligning native platform standards with the existing system while ensuring consistency across mobile and responsive web. At this scale, a strong design system is essential not just for visual consistency, but for efficient team collaboration and a seamless user experience across devices.

Key Feature: Live train times

The data we gathered from user interviews, surveys, and workshops pointed to key questions centered around train logistics, for example: Where is my train? Why is it delayed? What platform is it on? Frontline staff had access to this data, but it was slow and inconsistent, so we knew this was the first area to focus on. We took a design > test > refine approach to get the solution right.

Key Feature: Live train times

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