Trainline
App onboarding
Trainline's onboarding has been reimagined to offer a more personalized and engaging experience, allowing new users to quickly understand the app’s full range of features and maximize its value.
Problem framing
Despite delivering user-requested features, user retention continues to decline.
🧐 Customer problem
Many new users are unaware of the app’s full benefits and recent feature releases, which impacts their engagement. Additionally, users often face challenges completing the onboarding process quickly, resulting in frustration and increased drop-offs.
💸 Business problem
Currently, 80% of new users in the EU do not make an initial purchase. Although 67% revisit after their first interaction, 33% do not re-engage within three months, impacting both conversion rates and customer retention.
Identifying key user pain points day by day
To understand user needs and expectations and craft a process that uniquely defines Trainline as a company, we ran a discovery workshop with the relevant stakeholders.
Empathy building
In our discovery workshop, we engaged stakeholders and analyzed data to identify key user pain points. We uncovered the following issues:
Complex navigation: Confusing onboarding due to unintuitive navigation.
Overwhelming information: Excessive information upfront causes user disengagement.
Lack of personalisation: Onboarding is not tailored to different user types (e.g., new vs. experienced users).
Inconsistent design elements: Visual and functional inconsistencies disrupt user experience and increase frustration.
Framing the problem
We thoroughly analyzed insights and, in our second session, conducted targeted exercises to define the core problem clearly. We adapted a 'How Might We' and ‘Hopes and Fears’ exercise to generate solution oriented questions, focusing on aligning potential solutions with the Trainline app experience.
Ideating solutions
As we dove into brainstorming and ideation, things got messy! To clarify the onboarding strategy and vision, we organized an ideation session. We kicked off with a lightning demos exercise for inspiration, moved into a Crazy 8’s activity to generate ideas quickly, and wrapped up by presenting and voting on each concept.
After three intensive days, the team held a follow-up session with the leads. Using a prioritization matrix, they evaluated each opportunity’s alignment with OKRs, ensuring strong strategic fit. The leads achieved clear alignment, resulting in a focused roadmap and priorities for the project.
Strategising solutions after defining key improvement areas
We prioritise the different areas that we wanted to tackle so, to be able to have a robust strategy and have clear phases to start testing
💪
Enhance high value actions
🔍
Identify locations with the highest user engagement
👋
Onboard users on new app features
Wireframes & user testing
We started by testing a broad flow framework to gauge user reactions and needs throughout the process. The flow diagram provided a tangible overview, helping us identify potential issues early on and establish a user-centered foundation for the design journey.
After user testing, we made a few tweaks to the diagram, then proceeded to develop the UI for the screens.
Bringing the onboarding to live ⭐️
To understand user needs and expectations and craft a process that uniquely defines Trainline as a company, we ran a discovery workshop with the relevant stakeholders.
Splash screen
Bring delight into the app by aligning with brand campaigns.
Giving new app users an engaging, memorable brand experience before system and privacy prompts appear helps build trust and strengthens consideration.
✅️ UK CVR 0.027% ✅️ EU CVR 0.010%
👥️ 8,210 New customers (yearly)
Onboarding reassurance
By reinforcing Trainline's value proposition within the app, we boost brand recall and encourage new users to book with us.
To enhance user engagement, we modernized visuals and animations for a seamless onboarding experience. Crafting a cohesive narrative with friendly language gave the app a warm, human touch.
✅️ CVR 0.09%
App tour
Providing new app users with an engaging brand experience before system prompts helps build trust.
The final step in humanizing the Trainline app is the App Tour, which introduces key tools and features, guiding users to explore the app effortlessly. This feature empowers users with timely, contextual guidance, helping them discover the app's full potential.
❎ NC CVR increase
Measuring overall success
♥️ Customer satisfaction
A CSAT survey was sent to customers who downloaded the app and went through the onboarding process, the CSTA score went from 42% to 66%.
🤟 Customer retention
We evaluated customer retention through the 'M2 Retention' metric. The results demonstrated a noteworthy increase of 13% in user retention.
We are anticipating that this will increase even more over the months.
Last thoughts on the project 💭
Enhance targeting & deep linking:
Customise experiences for organic vs. paid users.
Differentiate onboarding for users arriving post-web purchase vs. app download via ads.
Gather insights:
Identify what works and areas for improvement.
Explore scalability to other segments (e.g., introducing features to existing users).
Assess UK user outcomes to refine the app tour experience.
Design refinements:
Adjust specific screens based on user feedback and data insights for better engagement.