TTC to Unveil New Website Today!
UPDATE: The new web site is online now! Here you go.
A year an a half ago Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto publically stated something Torontonians knew for many years: the TTC website is an unspeakably ugly, utterly useless and ultimately user-unfriendly monstrosity that should have been put out of its misery umpty years ago.
And so, he offered the TTC a challenge of redesigning their website with the help of Toronto bloggers and their communities. They (and we) all jumped at the opportunity. blogTO, Torontoist, Spacing and other T.O. blogs, message boards and chat rooms logged dozens of comments suggesting improvements to the TTC website: implement a trip planner, make navigation more intuitive, and PLEASE no more scrolling announcements!
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone accepted the challenge, and today the TTC let the media take a sneak peek at their new site. Read on to find out about the new design and features soon to come!
The new website definitely looks much slicker than the old version (I typed this sentence before I actually saw the demo - there is just no way anybody could have come up with a worse design, after all). While not mind-bogglingly beautiful, the design is at least clean and, unlike the previous design, won't induce epilepsy. Usability is tougher to judge from a short PowerPoint demonstration, but it is clear that a lot of work has been done to make the information easier to find.
The site has been brought up to modern Web standards: it is claimed to be print-friendly, includes RSS feed for service alerts, and strives to be fully accessible. Each subway station and bus route now has its own page and, thankfully, the awful drop-down boxes are now gone, as are the ridiculous maps in PDF format. You can search the whole site, as well as vehicle routes, either by number or by route name. The TTC estimates that site won't be fully functional until mid- to late July, but the beta version of the site is going online today. There will be an opportunity for site users to fill out surveys and comment on what they like and dislike, before the site design is finallized.
And what about all the cool features like the Trip Planner or live service updates? Well, they are coming! But you'll have to wait a bit. Adam Giambrone estimates that the first of those will be the eCommerce feature, to be implemented later this summer. By the fall you can expect to receive notifications of service delays on subway lines and surface routes you subscribed to (by e-mail or text messages). Also by fall a really cool "next vehicle arrival" feature is supposedly coming. You'll be able to see TTC vehicles on the map in real time (they're all GPS-equipped), and an estimated time of next vehicle arrival will be given. This system will eventually be implemented not only on the website, but on subway platforms and later at bus stops. Finally, by early 2009 a much-awaited Trip Planner is supposed to be completed! Input your starting point and your destination - receive directions on how to get there via the TTC. Oh yeah, baby!
And the price tag? Well, all the new programs and services desribed above supposedly cost on the order of $6-7 million, of which the web page design itself was approximately $400K - this was the TTC's advertisement budget for the year. I say - smart move. TTC's advertisement campaigns are invariably a subject of ridicule anyway; a modern and useful website is something they need far more than more posters of people wearing pig masks.
Comments (31)
New TTC website = awesome.The old website was an embarassment, the new one is simple and easy to use. I love it. Check it out the link below.http://beta.ttc.ca/
Best thing ever: putting fares and service disruptions right there on the front page.Give the people the basic information they need in the easiest place to find it: the first page they visit.Looking forward to the full implementation. Anyone know what agency/studio did the work on this one?
I hope the TTC has look at http://www.transitchicago.com/ ad other US transit authority web pages that use Google Maps to provide trip planning. A couple months ago Google Maps started listing "metro" stations in major cities. The TTC could probably save a lot of cash by adopting this and make a lot of users very happy.
There are lots I like, but look at this little touch of fancy: they used a subway line graphic to indicate different categories of information!
Nice.Although where's the iconic font and subway tile patterns? Extend the brand to all mediums you use to communicate with the public!
There are some graphical nitpicks, but it's a massive improvement. I like the "next scheduled streetcar" column on the streetcar route pages.
"You'll be able to see TTC vehicles on the map in real time (they're all GPS-equipped)"Real-time Streetcar Conga Lines!
"Multi-language translations coming soon" Cool! So much better than "One language translations!"Seriously, this is leaps and bounds better than the old.
Much much better. I'd like to see subway station entrance maps though, with automatic and accessible entrances marked off.
Anyone know what studio worked on this? Also, isn't a 400K budget for this site kind of... insane?
I for one would like to welcome the TTC's new Beta website to the year 1999! Let's have that trip planner that they're talking about and I'll host the Year 2002 welcoming party. Seriously though, I was mapping my way all around Germany using 7 levels of transportation (foot, bus, tram, local/regional/inter-city/inter-country rail) in mid-2003. Even Ottawa's transit system (!!) implemented a trip planner in 2004 or so. Good to see some strides forward though.
The survey on that beta site crashed with HTTP Status 500, when I made a comment. Must be something I said.
holy amazing batman!! the new site is fantastic looking! the next bus time is great! i live 30 seconds from a stop and knowing iv got about 5 min. till the next one will come in handy for rainy days.
Ok, ok sure. It's a very nice and shiny, useful website.So how much will it cost to view it when it goes live?
If they built the site on a better platform than JSP they wouldn't have attracted and gotten screwed over by some high priced consultancy eager to rip the city off for a $400k web design.
Um. Couldn't they have hired a web designer to do this? It looks like something circa 1995. It's awful. Really. The TTC is hopeless.
I'm going to hold off on comments regarding the cost of the site until I see the trip planner and next bus systems, as that could potentially warrent the $400,000 price tag.While it may not be worth $400,000 now, it may very well be when finished.That said, I like the design. Things are surprisingly easy to find. One thing I would add would be a 'print this page' feature on the route pages that would include the map image and schedule information on a handy 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.
@Ryan L.: The cost of the trip planner application is not included in the $400,000 price tag. The trip planner was a separate project that cost $1.5 million, if I remember correctly.It looks like the TTC handed Devlin $400,000 and allowed them free reign on information architecture, usability, and design. It's quite obvious no effort was made in these areas. While it may be true that Devlin's team is underqualified in these areas, the blame lies on the TTC as they had and still have no idea what a transit website, as a product, should be.Am I being harsh? Hmmm. I know high school and college students that can produce websites of greater quality! Just because this "beta version" is 10x better than the previous version doesn't mean we should settle for a terrible website out of the gate.
screwface - what would you have used? WebSphere? asp.net? ph-fricken-p? I would have gone asp, but the Microsoft cost is a factor.
If people want to use Google Maps, they'd better make sure that the stations are correct.
For starters, Google has Eglinton West, Glencairn, Lawrence West and Yorkdale on Dufferin. The northern University/Spadina Line stations are on Keele. And they put St Clair West right at Bathurst. North York Centre doesn't appear to exist at all.
Pretty hot, TTC, pretty hot. Between this and a genuinely positive customer service interaction I had earlier this week, I'm sorta wondering: HAS THE TTC BEEN REPLACED BY HELPFUL ALIENS??
Helpless plea: dear TTC, it's really okay. We don't need your trip planner, or even your e-commerce engine. We get it. You're a transit agency, not a media company.So instead of hiring Web designers who drop a few hundred thou', then need to get hired and paid again whenever you want to update things, SPEND THE MONEY ON DATA FEEDS ALREADY. Then Ludacris's high school and college buddies, and Sean's Facebook and Myspace widget implementers, and our friends at myttc.ca and, well, everyone could put 'em together to their heart's content. Update 'em, too, without even a multi-month call for tenders, etc. Now wouldn't that be grand?
the site looks great and the layout and usability appears to be well thought out. Are there still some buggy things about it and content missing? Sure, that's what "beta" means folks - duh! Comments about usability and design and information architecture that morons like "ludacris" make are just that, ludicrous.Good job ttc - and yes, i'm surprised at myself to say that about anything the ttc does
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