From data to experience: behind the scenes of a rethought Retrainspective 2025

As the year draws to a close, more than 10 million eligible users are discovering their Retrainspective: a customized assessment of their train journeys over the year and the way they travel. In 2025, SNCF Connect wanted to go one step further to reinvent this device and offer a more engaging, more personal experience capable of reaching a wide audience while remaining true to the brand's DNA. 


The objective of this edition: to make Retrainspective a celebration of lifestyles, thanks to a hyper-customisation mechanism never before deployed on this scale. The result: over 800,000 possible combinations, a singular artistic universe and a completely redesigned user journey.


The 2025 edition thus marks a turning point. While the user remains at the center of the experience, the strength of the project lies above all in the collaboration of the teams. Data, Tech, UX, Brand & Marketing, Animation, Cloud and Communications have worked together to build an experience that combines technical rigor and artistic freedom.

A data strategy at the heart of the user journey

For this edition, data is much more than a technical foundation: it inspires the experience and guarantees its effectiveness, even when it's aimed at millions of users.

This early integration has enabled us to build an experience based on an intelligent reading of behaviors: frequency of journeys, sensitivity to travel, active periods, types of mobility... Each piece of data becomes a personality marker and is part of a simple, fun narrative.

Guaranteed performance
 

With almost 200 million journeys collected, data represents a major technical challenge. We have to handle masses of information, guarantee its quality, and then transform it into understandable, useful and engaging content.
 

"We didn't want to lose customers in their retrospective user journey with too much data. If a user has only made 3 trips in a year, it doesn't make sense to push 10 data at them." Lucas Dragone, Data Scientist
 

Hyper-customisation also implies a multitude of real-time calculations: emissions avoided, passenger profiles, accessories unlocked...

" Technically, integrating such a massive device on the home page, used by millions of users, requires ensuring that all assets remain fast and stable, " Alexandre Bisiaux, Home Page Lead Developer.

From data to emotional experience

The other major challenge of Rétrainspective 2025 is to turn what is sometimes very factual data into an aesthetic and entertaining experience. To achieve this, UX, Design, Motion and Marketing worked together from the earliest stages of the project.

Collaboration with artist Maria Do Rosa Rio Frade gave this edition a unique visual signature, thanks to the creation of a universe totally imagined for the project.

On the UX side, the challenge was to design a user journey that was both fluid and attractive, while integrating a gamification dimension to boost retention.
 

The principle is based on a system of accessories that the user gradually unlocks. The most active passengers can accumulate up to nine, creating a collection effect. At the end of the user journey, each user unlocks their own avatar, fully customized with their accessories. This enables maximum identification without exclusionary segmentation, and the variations create a "series" effect reminiscent of collectibles such as Labubu™ or Sonny Angels™.

Light animations for an optimal experience
 

The teams were careful to limit the impact of this project by lightening its weight to reduce consumption and improve performance, and guaranteeing its accessibility, whether on the app or on the web, with or without a mouse, and with or without a screen reader. For example, the use of Rive, a vector animation technology, greatly reduces the weight of media.
 

The experience also benefits from a caching system, enabling the user to load his or her balance sheet only once, thus limiting data consumption and reinforcing sobriety.
 

A structured, multidisciplinary team
 

Behind Rétrainspective lies a wide diversity of business lines on both the Tech and Product sides, with a multitude of complementary profiles: Product Owner, Developer (Lead, front, back), Data Scientists, Designers (UX, motion), cloud specialists, QA and communication.
 

" The project kicked off with a multi-disciplinary technical POC* to validate key principles such as data binding and customisation. In just a few days, we generated a viable concept for retrospective, which gave us the confidence to develop it on a large scale " Paul Mougin, UX Manager at SNCF Connect & Tech.
 

To avoid discrepancies between departments, the steering committee then established a strong collaborative routine.
 

"Quite early on in the project, all the teams were mobilized. Every week, we organized a synchronization meeting with all departments, to ensure a commune and aligned vision." Marion Lemaire, Product Manager SNCF Connect at SNCF Connect & Tech

To avoid discrepancies between departments, management then established a strong collaborative routine.
 

"Quite early on in the project, all the teams were mobilised. Every week, we held a synchronisation meeting with all departments to ensure a common and aligned vision." Marion Lemaire, Product Manager SNCF Connect at SNCF Connect & Tech

A test phase to optimise navigation 

The final stage aimed to ensure that Rétrainspective was working properly through a massive testing phase designed to identify any malfunctions, such as:
 

• Correcting complex technical issues such as deep links.
• Managing the load on the home page.
• Creating nearly 30 test accounts to cover all types of profiles and ensure a smooth experience.
• Aligning technical environments and content.
   

This ensures the robustness of the system, taking into account the variety of cases and its high level of customisation.

Retrainspective 2025 shows how a simple idea (taking stock of one's year's travels) can become an immersive, customized experience. The combination of technical rigor, data, artistic creation and UX makes this edition more ambitious than ever.
 

For SNCF Connect & Tech, it's a symbolic project, bringing together a wide range of expertise and a commune desire: to enhance the value of each user and the responsible choices they make while on the move.

<sup>1_{To receive your personalised statement, you must have purchased at least two eligible journeys (journeys in France and cross-border journeys) and have a customer account. 
For more information: My Rétrainspective: your report for the year 2025 - SNCF Connect}

*Technical POC: small-scale demonstration to prove the technical feasibility of an idea or technology before committing significant resources.</sup>