Metro App Redesign

Yandex Metro offers interactive subway maps for 32 cities (including all Russians cities with metro systems, Istanbul, San-Francisco, Rome and many others) with route times and trip planning that accounts for closed stations and entrances.

I joined the project to help with app redesign. I was the only designer working on the new app from the beginning of the project to its release. This is how the app looked before the redesign:

Problem & Goal

• Huge technical debt.
• Routing algorithm didn't account for subway wait times, closed stations of entrances and therefore didn't offer precise route time estimation.
• Poor UX of the map and interface.

Process & Result

I designed a whole new app interface and subway maps themselves. The proposed design system included a set of elements and principles, allowing us to create lots of new maps programmatically using just station metadata like coordinates and transfers (i.e. with no manual work involved).

While the old map used to be not much better than a background image users hardly interacted with, the new map became a part of the interface itself. We introduced three zoom levels with different details and density depending on the job of a specific level. Visual responses to tap and swipe gestures made interaction experience more intuitive and efficient.

We built the new map engine from scratch, improved routing algorithm and redesigned app functionality. Navigation changed to provide a better overview of multiple route options and make detailed route page more discoverable. We added helpful details about station facilities, transfers, exists and open times.

We started offering in-app advertising placement—a dismissible card at the bottom of the screen that opens a promo page on tap. Those promo pages performed quite well without being too annoying and distracting.

The new version of the app was rolled out in December 2018 and received lots of positive reviews. Improved app functionality and performance, better user experience, and further smaller improvements based on users feedback helped us significantly increase app adoption, rating and number of monthly active users.