Traveling in Lombardy, always informed
We helped Trenord develop its official app, which significantly enhances and simplifies the experience for those traveling on Lombardy’s regional trains. With the new app, available for iOS and Android, users can plan their trips, purchase tickets, track train circulation in real-time, and access live information on arrivals and departures at stations.
Who is Trenord?
Trenord S.r.l. is a unique company in Italy, exclusively dedicated to the public railway transportation of an entire region, the most “mobile” in the country, where over 700,000 people – about 200 million annually – travel by train every day.
It is the first operator specialized in local rail transport, managing suburban and regional train services, the Malpensa Express airport connection, and the cross-border services Como-Chiasso and Malpensa-Bellinzona. Through the Swiss railway company TILO [in which Trenord holds a 50% stake], a total of 2,300 trips are made daily, with a large portion converging towards the Milan transport hub.
The company was founded on May 3, 2011, from the merger of the expertise, skills, and infrastructure of Trenitalia (Lombardia Regional Division) and the FNM Group (LeNORD), each holding a 50% share, with the aim of rationalizing and optimizing the railway service in Lombardy.
An app for Expo Milano 2015
The goal was to launch the official app before the start of Expo to allow tourists to easily reach the exhibition site by train, purchasing their tickets conveniently through the app.
Search, buy, and travel
We focused on the regular commuter who frequently travels the same route and wants to know if their train is delayed. Starting from personas and customer journeys, we designed a user experience that simplifies the regular actions of searching, buying, and traveling.
UI
Two UIs were created: one for Android and one for iOS.
Simplicity, adherence to native patterns, and common sense were the guiding principles throughout the entire interface design process.
A BaaS to serve the apps
An app based on a large amount of scattered data.
The BaaS (Backend as a Service) by MakeItApp.eu was used and extended to aggregate and process all scheduled and real-time train data, presenting them as uniform REST resources. The platform, developed in Node.js, is installed on-premise and resides on multiple servers to scale as needed.
The MakeItApp BaaS SDK enabled developers to significantly speed up the integration with the server, allowing them to focus more on developing the user experience.
Technologies
Fluidity and support for most devices on the market were the primary goals.
We have extensive experience with Hybrid Apps developed in Sencha Touch and Cordova, but we are also aware of their pros and cons. For the official Trenord app, we chose a native approach because it minimizes the risks of device incompatibility and provides a smoother user experience, even with lower-end devices.
Goals achieved and next steps
The app has received a positive reception from Trenord commuters, with 100,000 installations between May and July 2015. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people use the app daily.
The rating on both stores is close to 4 out of 5 stars.
Thanks to many user suggestions, we have made improvements and will continue to do so in the upcoming versions, planned for the end of this year and early 2016.
The team
The project was carried out by a Scrum team composed of developers, designers, and rail transport experts from the following companies: Intré, Mia-Platform, Nordcom and Trenord.
Download the application
