Traintrek

ROLE

PRODUCT DESIGNER

SKILLS

USER RESEARCH
INTERACTION DESIGN
FIGMA PROTOTYPING

TEAM

MADISON MCLEAN
THEO TZANKINOV
OLIVER CHEN

TIMELINE

SUMMER 2025
8 WEEKS

CONTEXT

What is TrainTrek?

In Seattle, buses and light rail cover much of the city, yet many younger commuters still prefer to drive. While safety, cleanliness, and speed concerns remain, one major barrier is the lack of clear incentive to choose public transit over a car.

TrainTrek bridges this gap by rewarding riders for their trips. With points earned for every ride, a focused map of participating businesses, and easy QR code redemption, TrainTrek turns public transit into a rewarding habit.

CHALLENGE

Create a digital product / service that increases public transportation usage in the Seattle area.

SOLUTION

Your commute, rewarded

TrainTrek is a mobile app designed to encourage public transportation through rewards and incentives. By linking your transit card, you earn points for every ride, then redeem them for discounts at participating local businesses.

Overview, nearby rewards, summary, and achievement screens keep commuters updated with their point totals and their progress.

Users can browse for participating businesses to use their points at.

Promotion details, location, and necessary information are displayed on one easily scannable page.

Claimed promotions can be found in the scan page. TrainTrek also provides a personal wallet, so that commuters can use their points in person without needed to redeem a promotion in the app.

On the business-focused side of TrainTrek, businesses are given a summary of their promotion details and general information of their store.

USER RESEARCH

Understanding the problem

Through surveys and short 30 minute interviews, we uncovered key perceptions and insights:

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

What transportation apps are currently out there?

We conducted a competitor analysis comparing other common transportation and transportation-adjacent apps. We focused on how these apps promote transportation usage and leveraged the use of an interactive map.

INSIGHT

Commuting is more than just riding the bus

During our user research, we also found that many people, specifically students, haven't ventured much outside of campus throughout the several years they have been in college.

We wanted to improve public transportation ridership by invoking behavioral changes — that the bus wasn't just a mode of transport but a way to explore your city.

CHALLENGES

Our main factors to consider

HMW

How might we promote public transportation usage by making commuting more rewarding and attractive?

IDEATION

Figuring out our plan of attack

We visited and considered two ways to implement our idea. One idea focused on promoting the discovery of a city, and the other focused on promoting the businesses that would participate with the rewards program.

DESIGN

Exploring option 1

We decided to proceed with option 1. Our main concern with option 2 was its potential to be seen as a competitor to large apps such as Google Maps and Yelp, and unless we implemented everything they had and more, we were worried that we'd end up with a less successful product.

The explore page recommends the user with fun and popular Seattle destinations, and the estimated points earned if visited using transit. The rewards page displays a list of participating businesses offering discounts in exchange for points.

ROADBLOCK

A fatal flaw we ignored

Partway through designing option 1, I realized one fatal flaw with this system. Seattle transit operates on a tap-on only system, meaning that there was no reliable way to keep track of a persons commute length. This meant that points had to be at a certain fixed amount of points per ride, making the explore page lose its value.

PIVOT

Pivoting to option 2

Having realized this, I decided to pivot the app to option 2: including a map, but this time refraining from providing details and fully focusing on participating businesses. With this, there were some things to consider when refocusing the final app around option 2:

Our main design challenges

FINAL DESIGN

Turning everyday transit rides into a rewarding habit

We put riders and businesses to the forefront of public transportation, encouraging the idea that taking public transportation is a habit that should rewarded and celebrated.

REFLECTION

What TrainTrek taught me about design

This experience taught me that product design is not just about designing an experience, but understanding how it can fit into a larger ecosystem. I was constantly challenged to consider all the possible stakeholders of the app, from commuters, to small businesses, to users with malicious intent. I had fun iterating from a city discovery app where transportation was a second thought, to a focused reward system where PT was at the forefront.