CONTEXT
The website and booking experience were disconnected, making it difficult for travellers to explore the route and move naturally toward booking.
Glacier Express: digital experience for Switzerland’s iconic panoramic train
2024
Lead UX/UI Designer
I redesigned the digital journey for one of Switzerland’s most iconic panoramic trains, spanning the website, interactive route experience, ticket booking, and premium Excellence Class microsite.
THE CHALLENGE
Glacier Express already offered an iconic physical experience, but its digital journey didn’t reflect the same level of quality.
The existing website had unclear navigation, fragmented content, outdated design, accessibility issues, and a slow, complex booking journey. Important information such as routes, prices, classes, gastronomy, and special requests was difficult to find.
My challenge was to create a clearer, more immersive journey that helps travellers understand the route, explore destinations, choose the right experience, and move naturally into booking.
MY ROLE
I worked across the end-to-end digital experience, from information architecture and user journeys to interaction design, visual direction, responsive behaviour, and detailed UI.
The work included the main website, interactive route experience, booking journey, Excellence Class microsite, and reusable design patterns across the ecosystem.
PERSONALIZED JOURNEYS, NOT STATIC PAGES
The experience was also designed to evolve depending on where a passenger was in their journey.
A first-time visitor might see inspiration and route discovery, while someone who had already purchased a ticket could instead see trip details, preparation information, gastronomy, or relevant services.
The concept used customer behavior and CRM data to imagine personalized experiences for different segments and stages of the journey. This shifted the website from a static information source toward a more adaptive travel companion.
We also introduced seasonal personalization: different hero animations showed the Glacier Express journey across the year, while route imagery adapted to the selected season, making exploration feel more relevant and immersive.
Some challenges.
CHALLENGE
Bring discovery and booking into one coherent journey without losing the emotional, premium character of the Glacier Express experience.
SOLUTION
Designed an interactive route that connects destinations, seasonal content, travel information, and booking actions within one continuous experience.
🔥 IMPACT
Travellers can explore the journey visually, understand their options, and move into booking with much clearer context.
DESIGNING BEYOND THE WEBSITE
The passenger experience didn’t stop after checkout.
I explored how digital touchpoints could connect before, during, and after the journey, including pre-trip communication, onboard experiences, surveys, real-time feedback, entertainment, and post-trip engagement.
Together, these patterns created a consistent experience across the full Glacier Express ecosystem.
CONTENT THAT INSPIRES AND CONVERTS
The new information architecture balanced two very different needs:
Inspiration: scenery, destinations, classes, gastronomy, imagery, reviews, and stories.
Utility: routes, timetables, prices, discounts, travel information, FAQs, and support.
Rather than separating these worlds, I designed them to work together, allowing users to move naturally from discovering the experience to planning and booking it.
THE RESULT
The redesign brought the Glacier Express website, route discovery, and booking journey into one coherent digital experience.
The new system balances storytelling with practical travel planning, while seasonal visuals and interactive route content make the journey itself part of the product experience.
The result is a digital experience that better reflects the premium character of the Glacier Express while making a complex travel journey easier to understand and navigate.