Fresh from delivering the first incarnation of a ticketing product within Virgin Red (read about that here), Virgin decided it was time to capitalise on the successes of the app and turn it into a stand-alone project.
Working with both the original Virgin team and now the wider Virgin Group, including teams such as Branding, we set out to make travel better by creating something uniquely Virgin and beautifully customer-centered.
Introducing Virgin Trains Ticketing
Travel can be a real chore. From studying timetables to navigating turnstiles, getting from one place to another can feel like hard work. So Virgin Red thought, why not make travel easier?
Enter Virgin Trains Ticketing, the app by Virgin Red that lets you book tickets and earn points every time you travel. Virgin Trains Ticketing is open to everyone. It’s completely free. And it makes that Monday morning commute more rewarding…
Earn Points on Everyday Travel
Virgin Trains Ticketing allows Virgin Red members to ‘earn on the everyday to save for the extraordinary’. Within the app, members can book train tickets across England, Scotland, and Wales, earning Virgin Points — which they can spend with Virgin Red — as they do so.
The more train tickets purchased; the more points collected. Save them up or spend them straight away; Virgin’s universal currency never expires. So, whether you want to save on your next train ticket or you’re planning a luxury trip, Virgin Points help you get there.
Developing the Train Ticket App: All Aboard!
At Brightec, we’re all about people and making life better. So, when Virgin Red invited us to collaborate on the development of a train ticket app, we were ready to go full steam ahead.
Virgin Trains Ticketing is one of the biggest app development projects our team has ever carried out. We had to utilise every tool in our arsenal and, as always, we explored the app development journey from initial concepts, through design and development, to delivery and app release.
Working closely with Virgin Red’s team of designers and developers, user researchers and Virgin’s Global Branding team, as well as the ticketing supplier, SilverRail, we developed one of the best apps for train tickets in the UK.
How Virgin Trains Ticketing captures that moment of joy
Virgin Trains Ticketing is a functional app, designed to help people find train times and buy tickets as quickly as possible. But other companies offer applications that provide the same service and we wanted Virgin Trains Ticketing to stand out.
So, we worked closely with Virgin Red to capture that moment of joy; when a customer uses the app and knows this is Virgin’s way of doing things. We achieved this through:
User research
As part of developing Virgin Trains Ticketing, we prototyped our ideas and carried out moderated user testing on the app and its features. This allowed us to watch and understand how users were interacting with the app so that we could make improvements that more accurately served the user.
Virgin Diary Studies
With the help of Virgin Red’s Diary Studies, we gained valuable insight into the user’s figurative and literal journeys. As part of the Diary Studies, Virgin Red gave participants a phone and instructed them to walk around, get on trains and tubes, and note any difficulties they faced.
The result of this study greatly informed the app development process as it was purely focused on users’ needs and meant we addressed the real-life, daily challenges people face when they travel. For example, we learned that users want the ability to purchase railcards and look up train times without having to buy tickets. Here’s how we made this a reality.
This human-centric approach helped us capture and maintain the essence of the Virgin brand — ensuring we developed so much more than a competitor’s app with a red skin. We developed a joy-filled experience that accurately reflects Virgin’s iconic people-first approach.
Virgin’s Mantra: Test It. Does It Work?
As an award-winning app development company, we know how easy it is to make assumptions about user behaviour. While developing an app, it’s easy to say, ‘I think’ or ‘I assume that’, however, this is rarely helpful. Just like Virgin, everything we do at Brightec begins and ends with the user.
Throughout the app development process, we tested our assumptions to ensure there was quantifiable data behind every aspect of the development process, adding real certainty to the project and ensuring the final product was an app people loved to use.
Virgin Trains Ticketing’s maiden voyage
Delivering Virgin Trains Ticketing and watching it go live was an amazing feeling. This project was a huge collective achievement and one we are incredibly proud of. As a company, we are always looking to improve and working with Virgin Red allowed us to really up our game.
Virgin Red have praised the app for capturing the essence of the Virgin Red brand and the app’s reception has been overwhelmingly positive. We couldn’t be prouder that Virgin Trains Ticketing was named ‘App of the Year’ by the UK eCommerce Awards 2023 and we are excited for what the future holds.
There is more work further down the tracks
We are delighted to be continuing our work with Virgin Red and the Virgin Trains Ticketing app. It is great to have continuity on a project like this. Together we are introducing new features that go the extra mile for Virgin’s customers, providing the solid Virgin brand experience we all know and love.
Jump on board with Brightec
If you’re impressed by Virgin Trains Ticketing and you want an app that captures the essence of your brand, get in touch. We work with enterprise brands looking to elevate the customer experience and make life better for their people. We look forward to hearing from you.
Get in Touch
If you liked the sound of Virgin Trains Ticketing and you have your own app development project to discuss, get in touch today. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!