A Wonderful Ticket Buying Experience:
Amtrak ushers passengers across the US on a nation-wide train system. However the process of booking the tickets from Amtrak’s website to do so could be improved, inspiring more passengers to ride with Amtrak. New and seasoned travelers alike could use a site more designed for their goals. This project was conducted by me, as the UX designer. The resources and scope were very limited, but there was a lengthy timeline.This project is a hypothetical proposal, not done with Amtrak. Hilariously leading to Amtrak fixing an important problem I noticed halfway through designing the solution.
Responsive Website Project
1 UX Designer Team
Travel Website
3 month project ending June2025
Amtrak Reimagined
Broken up into 2 phases with a conclusion
An Iteration of Amtrak
Phase 1
Laying the Ground Work
The Initial Problem
Users find the site confusing and hard to use, especially the mobile version of the website.
The Initial Goal
Make the Amtrak website booking process more intuitive through improved responsive design.
The Research
The Research Goal
Discover the true nature of this problem for users , and understand how other companies are addressing this problem.
Competitive UX Pattern Analysis
A review of the UX booking patterns on 3 competitor travel sites, to see how our competitors are approaching user needs.
Other companies have more intuitive filters, a cleaner search bar, and the ability to either see stations on a map or search by address.
User Interviews
Goal:
We want to learn how people wish they could book their trains so we can make the booking process on our website more intuitive.
The Interviews
5 interviews of 5 participants, 4 of the them remote, and 1 in-person.
(4/5) There's a lack of Information with station search and information displayed of stations
(4/5) Confusion with price and information want on trains (in train results page)
(3/5) Adding train ticket to cart on desktop website (not intuitive - confusing)
The Affinity Mapping
To draw deeper meaning from the user interviews.
There is a need for making the website train booking process more intuitive on Amtrak
The Research Conclusion
Other companies are doing a better job of fulfilling our user's needs than we are in the intuitiveness of our website. A problem that we can fix.
Persona Derived from the Research
To not lose sight of the results of user interviews when crafting a solution to serve them.
Phase 2
Designing the Solution
The New User Flow
To understand the steps users have to take currently to purchase a train ticket to gauge areas of improvement.
The Wireframes
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Initial Low Fidelity Wireframes
Low Fidelity Usability Test
Technically did 2 tests, as the 1st test did not provide enough usable data, so these are the results of the 2nd low fidelity usability test.
5 participants clicking through a low fi prototype while their sharing screen over zoom in a moderated usability test.
Goal:
To gauge how intuitive users actually find our new designs. Done so while they are in the low fidelity stage, to allow for greater flexibility in improvement.
Home Screen Search Bar
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(4/5) Did task quickly and easily
Train Results Page
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(4/5) Notes for train selection layout to feel less off
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(4/5) Participants considered there to be something off about the purchase button
Traveler Details Page
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(3/5) lack of clarity on filling out the 3 traveler details
There are lots of small changes to keep in mind for future iterations.
Low Fidelity Wireframe Iterations and Notes
High Fidelity Wireframes
High Fidelity Wireframes Before Testing
High Fidelity Usability Testing
8 remote usability tests run through Maze of 1 Flow: Buying a Ticket.
Goal:
Ascertain if the final design is actually intuitive to users.
(2/8) users did not complete the flow (75% success rate)
1 due to not finding the clickable price button to add the tickets to cart,
1 because after searching for the train tickets thought the task was complete
8.6 out 10 average rating of how easy the flow was to do
There are some crucial changes that need to be made before launching the new design.
Conclusion
This is the end of me working on this project, however....
Next Steps for the Project
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Make a 2nd usability test with the revised frames to make sure users see the price buttons and assume that is where they need to click. This iteration should not be launched on the website until the flow is effective.
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There are plenty of secondary priority revisions that could be addressed in this usability test, or it could be added to the docket for later.
Reflection on How to Be a Better Designer
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Learned how to come back to a challenging project after being away from it for so long
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I wonder if I love making affinity maps too much
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Making a robust low fi usability test that generates a lot of valuable data in a stage that allows for a lot of flexibility in fixing the design
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I have some growing to do with HMWs and crafting project goals, organizing feature sets
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Have a reason for any change to the existing UI, changed too much of the UI of Amtrak without strict reasons