KIWIRAIL / INTERISLANDER
Bringing the future digital experience onboard the Interislander to life
UX/UI | Service Design | CX Design
In a significant transformation of New Zealand's vital inter-island connection, I led the digital workstream within the wider service design project for Kiwirail's next-generation Interislander ferry experience. The project focused on reimagining passenger services for two new custom-built vessels, engaging crew and staff to design future-facing solutions to create incredible experiences for passengers travelling across Te Moana-o-Raukawa Cook Strait.
In anticipation of the arrival of two new custom-built ferries, Kiwirail needed to bring the future experience on board Interislander ships to life by focusing on staff and crew engagement and following a customer-centred approach.
My job was to bring the digital elements of the desired future state to life in a way that staff and crew could connect with and support the overarching design of the onboard experience and services that would enable and support it.
The challenge
Kiwirail faced a complex challenge integrating new vessels with existing systems while transforming the entire passenger experience. Key goals identified at the start of the project included:
Bridging the gap between physical infrastructure and service delivery
Engaging a workforce feeling disconnected from change and unsure how it would impact them
Managing significant operational service transformation
Within the broader transformation, other challenges with a specific digital implication included:
Designing cohesive digital experiences across multiple touchpoints and environments
Translating physical service requirements into digital solutions
Ensuring digital systems supported operations and vice versa
Designing for diverse user groups with vastly different needs and preferences - from overseas tourists to
truck drivers to students and families
Investigating different options available for the range of solutions required, including non-web based applications and requirements for these
Kiwirail recognised their existing systems and services would need to be updated, improved or, in some cases, something completely new would need to be implemented to enable the desired experience for passengers.
They also needed to understand where those gaps were, what they were and what desirable, viable and feasible solutions looked like.
The scale and complexity of the project meant they needed a robust process with a high degree of engagement with those who understood the operation of these services best to mitigate risk and understand the impact of these changes.
APPROACH
1.
Prototype
Built physical and digital mockups of spaces and interactions that demonstrated the desired future state experience in a way that staff and crew could easily test and provide feedback on through a series of physical prototyping workshops.
2.
Iterate
Gather and synthesise feedback on what we heard, and make changes to the prototypes to reflect those changes to iterate on and refine early ideas based on a range of different operational and customer experience needs and requirements.
3.
Design
Develop user scenarios and journey flows to prototype digital interactions.
Turn tested and refined ideas into detailed designs through design tools such as digital prototypes, service identities, outlines and blueprints.
4.
Communicate
Share these designs through a range of outputs to communicate the desired experience in varying levels of detail for a wide audience of staff, crew and customer experience focused team members to help them connect with and visualise recommended actions.
MY ROLE
Build a hollistic view of the future digital services and interactions within the context of the wider service experience for passengers travelling on the Interislander.
My focus was ensuring digital touchpoints seamlessly integrated with the physical service experience, working alongside the Project Lead to translate passenger experiences into digital solutions. I was responsible for leading the delivery of digital elements of the work while supporting the project lead and working with other team members to deliver and facilitate prototyping workshops with staff and crew, helping capture feedback and translating ideas into detailed service designs.
A summary of key responsibilities:
Led the digital direction and digital design strategy, working with senior executives, customer experience leads and web SMEs to identify opportunities and dependencies for digital elements within the broader experience and services.
Identified and develop key digital interactions within key experiences identified for prototyping e.g. Food and beverage, Booking and check-in
Modernise their digital experience, identifying opportunities to take advantage of new and existing technology throughout the digital interactions passengers would have across different service touchpoints
Worked collaboratively with another digital designer to develop ideas and outline solutions ready for prototyping and testing with staff and crew
Worked with digital designer to developed low fidelity wireframes and test early ideas for how these digital solutions could support and enhance the desired future experience
Captured ideas and feedback on designs, iterating to refined and highly resolved designs
Supported the development and facilitation of interactive prototyping workshops
Worked with other team members to synthesise insights into actionable recommendations and detailed service blueprints
Prototyping workshops
We started with a long-list of services and broke them down into 5 key experiences to bring to life and act out through the prototyping workshops. Across these experiences, I identified where there were likely to be or could be digital interactions then built prototypes of those interactions to test with staff and crew.
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Food & Beverage
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Pets
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Luggage
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Booking & Check-in
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Vehicles
Digital touchpoints were brought to life through low fidelity mockups and paper prototype spaces
Using the physical spaces we had created, I tested different scenarios such as self-checkout and food ordering kiosks, engaging with staff to test the designs and thinking through how this would work in real life, including the systems needed to support them.
In one instance, we scrapped an idea entirely because as soon as we started testing the scenario with staff, they provided feedback that clearly illustrated why this wouldn’t work within the wider context of that space and the way that outlet was serviced.
This process demonstrated the value of testing early in a low-cost way and built trust and buy-in with participants as they saw their feedback implemented in real time.
I captured feedback and added, subtracted or edited elements of the proposed designs in line with wider service design decisions throughout
By bringing the passenger experience and supporting digital elements to life in situ. I was able to gather rich, detailed and meaningful feedback that shaped the overall intent and requirements of each flow across different digital touchpoints.
This approach resulted in thoughtful design iterations and strong concepts with a clear sense of what was important in each scenario that guided later design refinements.
DIGITAL PROTOTYPING
Through the workshops, I identified that across the 5 overarching experiences, the digital experience and touchpoints could be refined into 2 broad categories:
Booking & Check-in
Food & Beverage
To create a clear brief for the digital prototypes to be developed, I mapped the key interactions across these experiences and established what was needed for each one i.e. whether a high fidelity prototype was needed that would then be developed, or whether something simple that could be used to test functionality and establish requirements for a third-party software provider to build a solution.
This approach helped Kiwirail identify early on where they might need to engage external resources and what technical capabilities they would need to ensure they had internally to build and implement the different elements of the digital services they would be providing. These requirements also flowed into the detailed service blueprints.
Design system
Prototype development
Once we had a sense of the different screen types and user flows we would be developing, I worked alongside another digital designer to build up a component library in medium fidelity we could use throughout the prototype.
We decided to keep the prototype simple and ‘unbranded’ in style so that it was a blank canvas for any future development and the focus for feedback was on the content and interactions rather than the appearance as this was our key focus.
Once we had created a strong foundation of elements and components to start building the prototype, we mapped out the key user flows across the different device types we would be building and set out the key information to include and any challenges to resolve within the different interactions and tasks.
This was a mixture of improvement or digitisation of existing functionality - in particular within the booking and check-in journey - and entirely new user flows such as number plate recognition for vehicle passengers and adding luggage to a booking to work in with the development of an updated luggage service.
Booking & Check-in
Online check-in concept mockup
Check-in kiosk mockup
Booking - Walk on passengers
Check-in - Walk on passengers (on device)
Check-in - Walk on passengers (in terminal)
2. Food & Beverage
Self-checkout concept mockup
Order to table concept mockup
Testing scenarios
We developed the base prototype through 5 iterations over the course of ~6 months from the start of the workshops through to the final service blueprint development until we reached a cohesive, functional and refined design ready for targeted usability testing of critical scenarios.
I then curated 6 scenarios that would cover the full range of functionality offered across different passenger types and needs such as walk-on vs. drive-on, with pets, accessibility requirements, booking add-ons and more. These scenarios were user story driven, using prototype passengers based on findings around travel tendencies and preferences uncovered through the workshops, interviews and observations.
Value & ongoing impact
While the project was ultimately placed on hold, the people-centred, experience-focused approach taken has insulated the future design to a degree and Kiwirail has still been able to make effective changes to their services based on the work done. A key part of the value me and the team delivered was taking the organisation on a journey by involving people at all levels across the business. By helping them connect to and influence the vision for the future, we were able to work collaboratively towards a shared, cohesive vision.
The comprehensive and highly considered booking flow wireframes developed over the course of this project have proven to have lasting value and impact. Since we wrapped up, a digital agency was engaged to build upon our work and implement elements of the design still relevant to the operation of the Interislanders existing ships and services. They have developed and implemented updates to the booking platform that maintains the user-centred principles we established and using certain functionality such as accessibility messaging in their booking screens to help passengers select the right trip for them and their needs and the ability to book return trips with different paramters, recognising each trip is different.
This implementation, which went live in late 2024, demonstrates the value of our approach of creating resilient, user-focused digital solutions that can adapt to changing business circumstances.
Client quote
“I feel like this is the most genuine opportunity to constructively contribute to the future that our frontline teams have been given. They’re walking away feeling like they’ve had a chance to contribute.”
Client quote