Ferrylane · ferry booking
Case file / 0
2
Finding the right crossing, faster
Saga
Role
Lead product designer at Latchfield
Team
1 designer, 1 researcher, 3 engineers, 1 PM
Tools
Figma, Lookback, Dovetail
Discipline
UX research
Pinned summary
The 30-second version
Travellers took too long to book because each sailing kept its price, vehicle rules and ticket type on a separate page. I watched people plan real trips and tested one view that compares a day’s crossings. Median booking time fell by 32%.
1
−32%
booking time
+14%
mobile bookings completed
−45%
calls to change a sailing
Illustrative demo metrics.
Problem frame
Challenge
People booked with three tabs open and still chose the wrong sailing.
Each departure opened its own page, so travellers could not compare times and fares side by side. Vehicle limits appeared only after a fare was chosen. Flexible tickets were explained at checkout in small print. In the call centre logs, one call in four was about changing a sailing booked by mistake. The aim was a shorter booking that kept each fare’s conditions visible.
Evidence → direction
Approach
We started by watching people plan real trips.
Fourteen travellers booked a trip of their own in remote Lookback sessions. They included foot passengers, drivers towing caravans and a family travelling with a dog. I tagged every moment someone went back a step and grouped the clips in Dovetail. Most returns came from two questions: “Will my vehicle fit?” and “Can I change this later?” We then tested two layouts that answered both before payment.
Decision log
Decisions & trade-offs
Each choice traded screen space for fewer surprises at checkout.
01
Compare one day
Every crossing on the chosen date sits in one list. Choosing got faster, but people saw fewer days at once.
02
Ask about the vehicle first
Length and height come before the timetable. Fares were correct earlier, but the first step got longer.
03
Spell out ticket rules
Each fare says “Free changes until 24 hours before” in plain words. Calls dropped, but cards grew taller on phones.
Gallery / Final flow
The booking screen
The final screen compares three crossings side by side.
After release
Outcome
Bookings got shorter, and fewer people called to fix a mistake.
The new flow went to half of web traffic for four weeks. Median booking time fell by an illustrative 32%, from about seven minutes to under five. Calls to change a sailing dropped by 45%. Drivers said the vehicle step felt slower at first. Even so, fewer of them reached payment with the wrong fare.
Next iteration
Learnings
Most travellers chose a fare by what it let them change later, so ticket rules belong next to the price. Next I would test the flow on busy summer weekends, when sailings sell out.
NC
Saga brought clips of real bookings to every review, so our debates ended with evidence.
Sample
Niamh Corrow, head of digital at Ferrylane
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