UI/UX Designs
Uplift PTV Website’s Timetable Search and Findability.
The Timetable screens on the PTV website have consistently been a source of frustration for users, and this trend has persisted into 2022, with a substantial amount of negative feedback received. Common complaints center around two primary issues: users find the timetables challenging to locate, and they struggle to figure out how to download a PDF version. As timetables are currently under scrutiny as part of the Future Experiences initiative, there’s a recognized necessity to identify ‘quick wins’ that can offer significant improvements to the overall user experience.
I gathered and synthesized customer feedback to formulate a problem statement. This process aimed to cultivate empathy for customer pain points, enabling the development of data-driven design solutions that enhance the experience for Victorian public transport users.
The timetables pages on the PTV website continue to be a desired journey planning tool by a smaller, yet vocal contingent of our customers. Yet, promoting other planning tools have made finding these pages difficult from different parts of the website. This is a problem for our customers who prefer using timetables to view the scheduled times of a particular service, in an online or pdf format, as it is easier for them to know public transport times. How might we improve the experience for customers to easily find scheduled information?
Pain points identified and hypothesised Our initial analysis of customer feedback and analytics identified a few touchpoints as quick wins to improve the customer’s experience to find scheduled information. However, our analysis also identified other pain points related to finding timetable information which would require additional research.
I generated numerous iterations of concepts for each touchpoint and conducted user testing sessions with public transport users of Victoria. Based on the insights gathered from these tests, I refined and updated the designs to reach the final version.
I introduced a timetable button to the suggested search autocomplete modal, strategically placing it in the middle. This ensures that highly used functions, like planning a journey and checking departures, still take priority while making the timetable easily accessible.
Another call to action “Timetable” button was introduced here.
While recognizing the need for a holistic approach to the timetable experience, we’ve observed a significant amount of feedback and complaints at DTP regarding users struggling to find and download timetables. In response, I introduced a clear Call-to-Action (CTA) button labeled “Download Timetable” on the timetable page, ensuring its visibility on both smaller screens and with larger text settings.
To create a straightforward and cost-effective user flow for a quick win, I implemented a timetable finder modal, utilizing an existing component. This approach aims to simplify the process and address the user’s need efficiently.
Upon implementing these updates on the PTV website, our data revealed a notable increase in timetable downloads, indicating a positive impact. Additionally, we received numerous positive feedback messages from users, affirming the success of the changes.
With the addition of new entry points, daily views of timetable pages increased by nearly 300% from Thursday onwards. The effect has been greatest for mobile devices.
The greater prominence of the ‘Download timetable’ button mean PDF download volumes have tripled from their previous rate.
In good news, most of those timetable downloads happened on mobile devices. Previously mobile phones accounted for only a tiny share of downloads (which we know didn’t match the user base, and indicated clear difficulty finding the download function).
Quick Links
PTV Design System, Multimodal Journey Planner, Accessible Tram/Tram Stop on Map, V/Line Train and Coach, Uplift Timetable Search, TW Design System, Future of Disruptions, Low Floor Tram Indicator, Mode Preference UI, Global Search, Help and Support, Capacity Indicator, Memento Media, Community Project, Improving Map UI/UX, SaaS Products.
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