A ticket in 37 seconds.
I designed the app around one idea — everything that isn't the ticket gets out of the way.
Workshops, prototyping and visual design
Buying a train ticket took ages.
One minute fifty, across five steps. Platform pickers, list filters, promo codes, loyalty cards, metro add‑ons. Every one of them had been added for a good reason. Together they buried the thing people opened the app for.
Then the ticket arrived as a PDF you were expected to print — a significant pain point when you have just landed somewhere with no signal.
Story about greener rides and happier customers.
Stacking everything on top made the app crowded, confusing and stressful.
Most of my work was bringing clarity back.
The call was made together with the technology lead, in a room with the audit taped to the wall. It only worked because we wrote removal down as a goal — left unsaid, every feature finds someone to defend it.
Five steps became three.
Nothing useful was thrown away. Promo codes and railway cards moved into checkout. The metro pass and the loyalty card went — almost nobody used them.
It works when nothing else does.
The ticket now lives in the app and in the phone's wallet. No signal on landing, no hunting through email, no printer. The thing you paid for is simply there.
Now happy customers speak up too.
Four in five poor ratings were about payments and downloads, not the product. So I gave bug reports a home inside the app, then asked for a rating right after a ride went well.
Asked after a completed ride, not on launch.
Faster to buy. Better to live with.
To buy a ticket and use it
was 1m 50s
Reviews from real journeys
was 700
Average customer rating
on the app store
Worth putting on a poster.
Making the change this large was deliberate. It gave the brand something to campaign on, and gave customers proof that someone had listened.
Let's make your technology
feel effortless.
I partner with CTOs navigating complex product challenges, founders leveraging design as a strategic advantage, and recruiters hiring for high-impact roles. If that sounds like you, I'd love to hear what you're working on.
hello@youex.design