Getting around Lombardy while always keeping informed thanks to Trenord

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The new Trenord app makes getting around on regional trains even easier. Trips, real time info, purchase tickets and subscriptions renewal.

  • Services

    User Research
    UI Design
    Product Design
    Experience Mapping

  • Areas

    Transportation

We helped Trenord create its official app, which improves and simplifies the experience of travelers on regional trains in the Lombardy area, in the northwest of Italy.

With the new app, available for iOS and Android, users can plan their trip, buy tickets, follow train movements in real time, and consult live info on arrivals and departures from stations.

About Trenord

Trenord S.r.l. is a unique company in Italy because it deals exclusively with public rail transportation in the most “mobile” region in the country, where more than 700,000 people-about 200 million a year-move by train every day.

It is the first operator to manage suburban and regional rail service, Malpensa Express airport connection service, and Como-Chiasso and Malpensa-Bellinzona cross-border service. The company was established on May 3, 2011, by combining the experience, expertise and facilities of Trenitalia (Lombardy Regional Division) and FNM Group (LeNORD) – 50% participants each – in order to rationalize and optimize rail service in Lombardy.

An App for Expo Milano 2015 as well

The goal set was to come out with the official app by the start of the Expo, to allow tourists to reach the exhibition site by train, conveniently buying their tickets from the app.

 

Searching, buying and traveling

We thought about the frequent traveler who often travels the same route and wants to know if their train is delayed. Starting from the personas and customer journey we designed a user experience that simplifies the habitual actions of searching, buying, and traveling.

User Interface

We created two user interfaces: one for the Android operating system and one for iOS. Simplicity, respect for native patterns, and common sense guided the entire interface design process.

 

A BaaS to Serve Applications

An app based on a vast amount of dispersed data. The BaaS (Backend as a Service) provided by MakeItApp.eu was used and expanded to aggregate and process all data related to scheduling and actual train travel, exposing it as uniform REST resources. The platform, developed in Node.js, is installed on-premise and deployed on multiple servers to ensure scalability as needed. MakeItApp’s BaaS SDK has enabled developers to greatly accelerate integration with the server and focus more on developing the user experience.

Technologies

Our first goal was fluidity and support for most devices on the market. We have a lot of experience with hybrid apps developed in Sencha Touch and Cordova but we know both their strengths and weaknesses. For the official Trenord app, we chose native because it allows us to reduce the risks of device non-compatibility and a smoother user experience even with non-top-of-the-line devices.

 

The team

The project was implemented by a Scrum Team composed of developers, designers and rail transportation experts from the following companies: Intré, MakeItApp.eu, Nordcom and Trenord.

The impact of our work

  • 100k Installations in 2 months
  • 10k People use the app daily
  • 4 iOS App store One year after launch
  • 4 Google Play store One year after launch
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