capitaine train / trainline

2014–2017

Capitaine Train was a startup selling online train tickets for France, Germany, then Italy and Spain. I joined this great team to bring my skills in web and mobile usability, organise user tests, improve the existing product, and formalise new features or services in the existing visual language. I remained the only designer working closely with the developers until Capitaine Train was acquired by Trainline in 2018. Here are some notable projects.

Apple Watch app

It displays information relevant to the journey as it approaches and when it takes place: departure platform, car and seat, connections. In order for it to be available on the day of the Apple Watch's launch in France, we spoke with Apple's teams during its design, before going to Cupertino to test and optimise it on the device.

watch app, one hour left before departure

watch app, platform number, car number, and seat number 20 minutes departure

Apple Watch cardboard prototype used to work on screen layout — the Apple Watch was not available in stores when the screens had to be designed

Account free booking

Since its creation, Capitaine Train has operated with a compulsory registration and creation of user profiles (passengers and their possible discount cards). The service's renowned ease of use relied heavily on the existence of this profile. The new booking tunnel that we set up made it possible to do away with this first step, which is often a blocking factor for people who are not familiar with the service, while preserving the ease of use. It was possible to create an account easily following an initial ticket reservation by retrieving passenger information. Compatible with the six railway companies whose tickets we sell (Deutsche Bahn, Eurostar, Renfe, SNCF, Thello, Trenitalia), and available in five languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT), the project was completed in three months by a team of eight people.

ticket booking without user account creation, passengers details

rticket booking without user account creation, checking information before sending booking confirmation by email

ticket booking without user account creation, ticket page with unique URL, used to convert to a user account

Mobile web app

PTo use Capitaine Train on a mobile phone, you had to download the application because the web version was not responsive. A new web app was therefore designed and written for this context, allowing reservations without creating an account. The interface was deliberately simple so that the service would work quickly on the least powerful devices at the time.

mobile web app, search results in german

UX at Capitaine Train

At the 2016 edition of the UX Lausanne conference, I spoke about the role of design in the service user experience.

Thibaut Sailly

interface designer