[Case 04]
VIA Rail
Transportation & Travel
VIA Rail
Optimizing and enhancing the VIA Rail website's purchase path.
[Project Overview]
The VIA Rail website serves as a booking platform for travelers in Canada, providing ticket reservations and essential rail service information. This case study presents in-depth research and analysis focused on optimizing and streamlining the purchase journey for a smoother user experience.
[Project Goal]
The project focused on understanding user behaviors, pain points, and preferences throughout the ticket purchasing journey, and the primary goal is to create a high-level persona and journey map of the target user.
[Focus]
Transportation & Travel
[Timeline]
November 2023 - December 2023
[My Role]
UX Researcher
[Team]
(Me), Cindy T., Faneeasa I., Razielle S.
[Research Process]
1. Competitve Analysis
2. Heuristic Evaluation
3. User Interviews
4. Persona & Journey Map
[Competitive Analysis]
I started off by studying the online ticket purchasing processes of competitor platforms to identify industry best practices and areas of differentiation. I compared the current VIA Rail purchase path to that of Rail Ninja and National Rail, two direct competitors in the market, using the following criteria:
Business goals
User goals
Usability heuristics
Summary and analysis
[Heuristic Evaluation]
Our team then conducted a heuristic evaluation of the VIA Rail website based on established usability principles and guidelines. We identified and documented usability issues and violations, such as consistency, error prevention, flexibility, and user control. This evaluation provided valuable insights into areas of the website that needed improvement from a usability standpoint.
[User Interviews]
Our team conducted 8 in-depth interviews with current VIA Rail users to gather insights into their experiences, challenges, and expectations when purchasing tickets online. Prior to this, we created a project plan and screener to narrow down our objectives, methodology, timeline, budget, and participant pool.
[Participants]
All 8 participants had experience booking train tickets online, with three specifically having booked through VIA Rail. Our findings from our initial desk research had already highlighted key areas for improvement for VIA Rail, which helped us navigate the interviews. We organized our data into the following categories based on themes and patterns identified during the interviews:
Insights
Pre-purchase habits: A lot of planning takes place before users purchase their tickets and it is beneficial to know how VIA Rail can help with this process.
Navigation: Users expressed frustration with the complexity of navigating through the website to find relevant information and complete transactions.
Pricing structure: Confusion regarding fare options, discounts, and additional fees contributed to hesitancy and abandonment during the purchase process.
[Visualizing Insights]
Based on the qualitative and quantitative data gathered from our research, we developed a high-level, representative user persona and journey map. These tools encapsulate key insights into user behaviors, motivations, and pain points, allowing us to better understand and anticipate user needs throughout their experience.
[Next Steps]