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Seamless User Interface: Quno/SilverRail

Top Line Result: Intuitive user interface wraps around existing application, making complex information easy to access.

Situational Analysis 

SilverRail Technologies provides efficient systems to consolidate the often-complex world of rail, making it easier to buy and sell rail travel. With multiple systems, complex inventories, and legacy governmental systems making it complex for travel agents to know what inventory is out there, travelers to find the right ticket at the right price, and rail systems to know how much of their capacity is being utilized, SilverRail provides such systems, similar to ones that have made booking air travel simpler for years. Rail is experiencing a renaissance as its environmental benefits and efficiency make it popular with increasing numbers of travelers; the time for such a platform was now. SilverRail developed a system that interacts with national and private rail services worldwide, bringing together all ticketing and routes into a single platform. Tour operators, travel agencies, and resellers can easily see what’s available and book, bringing rail bookings into the modern age.

SilverRail wanted to make it easier for resellers to use their product, and to create a product that made it incredibly easy for the general public to book tickets directly through the same system. They had a robust but complex internal system built on Java that incorporated numerous international rail services’ APIs. Having built a multi-country B2B system, SilverRail were looking to launch a consumer facing brand for the first time, focused on the UK market. The company’s new Quno booking platform aimed to make vast amounts of data easy to access and use. The user interface, initially consumer-facing but with expansion possibilities for B2B, needed to be:

  • Appealing to consumers and casual users
  • Intuitive, bringing simplicity to complex timetables and pricing structures
  • Convey the brand’s modern, simplicity-based image
  • Not break the underlying system

Although the company has an in-house B2B user experience team, SilverRail needed a team with experience building consumer applications. For a consumer web application that will be used every day by the general public, often in time-critical ways, it was crucial that the interface be very simple, pull data quickly, and not experience problems in real-world use, including users potentially hitting wrong buttons or having to navigate back.

Strategy & Solution

The company tapped OHO Interactive to design a Drupal-based wrapper around the underlying Java application, providing a seamless and easy-to-use interface: 

  • British Rail’s legacy, complex rail ticketing system is not visible to users—only the simple user interface is, providing clear options for every journey, including avoiding or traveling via specific stations, flexible or less costly tickets, and timetables, all in a very simple matrix
  • Witty, rail-style breadcrumbs and buttons help users navigate through the system with a minimum of screens, and return to earlier options easily
  • Only the minimum of details required to process a transaction are asked of users, for greater speed and privacy
  • Intuitive search shows all options for a given destination in a format that mimics web search, not traditional timetables
  • A sidebar on every screen shows itinerary details, total cost, and total passengers at all times, making verification easy before purchase—there is no need to click away from the transaction and on to a separate shopping cart to see the total number of tickets

The Quno interface developed by OHO was cited as “the best display of any UK rail booking site” by BusinessTraveler.com. The site has received high usability ratings from end users, industry publications, and the press. The interface integrates seamlessly with the underlying application, making it straightforward for travel agents and travelers alike to use the system. "OHO was a perfect partner for us, to help translate our B2B model and expertise into a consumer facing brand, including the consumer oriented front end and wrapper around our core technology."