Cutting a regional rail ticket purchase from nine taps to three

Client

Kestrel Rail

Role

Lead product designer, front-end

Timeline

Feb – Jul 2026 · 22 weeks

Stack

Figma, React Native, TypeScript, Storybook

The problem

Six in ten Kestrel riders started buying a ticket in the app and finished at the station machine. Fares were shown last, saved journeys were buried in a menu, and the payment sheet reset on every network drop.

Process

Audit. Mapped 9 taps and 4 dead ends in the old purchase flow with 14 riders at Ardrossan station.

Prototype. Three flows tested in Figma; the saved-journey card won 11 of 14 sessions.

Build. Shipped a 38-component React Native kit with the in-house team, behind a feature flag.

Measure. Staged rollout to 10%, then 100% after two weeks of clean payment metrics.

“Ines ran research in the morning and merged the components by evening. We shipped a quarter early.”

Jonah Weiss — Head of Digital, Kestrel Rail

3 taps

to buy a ticket, down from 9

+31%

mobile ticket sales in 8 weeks

−42%

support tickets about fares

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