Client: Scandlines

Designing Passenger Flows on the World’s Largest Fleet of Hybrid Ferries

retail, wayfinding

Challenge

The global ferry industry carries over 11.7 million passengers daily and contributes more than $60 billion annually to the global economy. Efficient passenger flows are essential to safety, operational performance, and revenue generation.

Scandlines operates the world’s largest fleet of hybrid ferries and is a key player in cross-sea transport in Northern Europe. However, the company faced a significant challenge: congestion and confusion when large groups of passengers simultaneously ascended from the car deck. This created bottlenecks, stress, and caused many passengers to miss out on the onboard facilities—leading to lost commercial opportunities during the short travel time.

“Krukow helped us optimize wayfinding and increase the customer experience by creating awareness about offerings aboard our ferries.”

Mette Bartholdy Richardt from Scandlines

Approach

Scandlines partnered med Krukow to redesign the passenger journey and improve flow aboard its ferries.

The collaboration involved:

Behavioral research and field studies to map current flows and identify barriers.
Analysis of passenger behavior drivers such as herd mentality, time pressure, and decision fatigue.
Development of behavior-led design strategies to create intuitive, stress-free journeys that also increased commercial engagement.

Solution

The project focused on three core strategies:

Create intuitive wayfinding solutions – to counter herd behavior and distribute passengers across all onboard areas.
Optimize the tax-free shop flow – to increase exposure, encourage visits, and drive engagement.
Provide visual and time management feedback – to improve passengers’ ability to navigate and plan their limited time onboard.

Impact

Through behavior-led design, Scandlines achieved measurable improvements:

Reduced congestion and stress during onboarding from the car deck.
Increased visits and sales in the tax-free shop, boosting revenue.
Created calmer, more intuitive journeys, improving customer satisfaction.
Strengthened Scandlines’ brand reputation and competitive position.

Conclusion

This project demonstrates how user-centric design and mindful nudges can transform passenger flows into a strategic lever for operational efficiency, revenue growth, and customer experience. Scandlines’ story is a compelling example of how large-scale transport operators can unlock business potential by designing for real human behavior.