VR
VR Group, a service provider operating in Finland and Sweden, specializes in the travel and logistics sectors. The company manages freight and passenger rail traffic and has a workforce of approximately 6,300 individuals. VR Group’s annual net sales reach approximately one billion euros.
Client
VR Group
Service
Product Design
Industry
Travel
Date
01.02.2022 - Current
Executive Summary
Challenge
The Inventory system is core to VR Group’s sales and operational functions. It manages the seat data needed for ticket sales and enables planners to prepare trains for sales-readiness by configuring templates, modifying published train data, and planning allotments. However, its aging frontend presented usability and maintenance challenges, creating inefficiencies in workflow processes. A complete redesign was required to modernize the system, improve operational efficiency, and align with VR Group’s broader digital transformation efforts.
Role
As the Product Designer, Robert spearheaded the design renewal for the system’s front-end. His responsibilities included conceptualizing and delivering creative solutions, prototyping in Figma, and validating designs with key stakeholders such as distribution planners, business teams, and the development team. He played a pivotal role in balancing user needs, technical feasibility, and business objectives, ensuring consistent alignment across all stakeholders. His work led to the creation of polished Figma prototypes that served as the foundation for development.
Process
Outcome
The renewed Inventory system front-end delivered significant improvements in workflow efficiency and usability for VR Group's distribution planners and operational users.
Key outcomes included:
Automation of manual tasks: Repetitive, error-prone actions were replaced with automated functionalities integrated into workflows.
Scalability and consistency: Reusable components and maintainable design tokens in the React-based app ensured UI consistency and simplified future updates.
User-driven enhancements: Through continuous feedback loops with end users, the team addressed critical pain points, resulting in measurable improvements to task efficiency and usability.
By delivering modernized and user-centric solutions, the redesign strengthened VR Group's operational efficiency and aligned with its broader digital transformation goals.
UX Design
UX design work was closely collaborated with both users and developers. Transparency and a collaborative decision-making process were employed to iterate and find solutions that satisfied technical constraints and real-world processes.
It became evident that the existing Design System and developed components were not suitable for the nature of the system. Inventory required efficient and compact components, but the available components were primarily focused on sparsity and accessibility. Therefore, Robert engaged in discussions with horizontal teams to explore the possibility of collaboration. He facilitated workshops to develop a mission statement for internal applications, which served as a guiding principle for UI design and component development. This mission statement was used as a launching platform to initiate discussions about a secondary Design System that could be utilized in internal projects.
Image: Picture of Train-page
Service Design
Early in the project, it became apparent that the processes used in the system were outdated and did not align with current real-world processes. Consequently, the project scope was expanded beyond a purely UX focus to incorporate aspects of Service Design. This expansion emphasized the processes surrounding the system. Through this work, Robert established contact with a new user group that had never been involved in the development cycle.
Image: Workshop results
Image: Lander-page
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