The main page of the TTC site: An information architecture disaster?
On January 1st, Reading Toronto and other Toronto bloggers made a proposal to the Toronto Transit Commission Chair, Adam Giambrone.
We have a challenge and an offer for the TTC: Toronto bloggers are more than willing to offer their insights into how the TTC site might be designed (look at the reaction to a proposed route map). Why not give us a call and ask for our input. We'd be able to go to our readers for their ideas too. This makes sense to us and takes advantage of the "Wisdom of Crowds," phenomenon the Internet provides.
Well, we talked to Councillor Giambrone, and to his credit he likes the idea and has invited our (after all, you are Time Magazine's
person of the year) input. Giambrone informed us that an RFP has already been issued for a redesign of the TTC web site. Our timing is right. We can influence the site's design and structure.
Here is our question to you:
How would you improve the TTC web site? You can answer that question here, as a comment to this posting, or on any other of the Toronto blogging sites.
Spacing.ca,
Blogto.com, and
Torontoist.com have also asked their readers for suggestions. In about two weeks we will review all the ideas and forward them to the TTC.
Our involvement won't end there. The bloggers will track how well the new TTC Chair responds to our suggestions and if we can make a positive difference to the way the agency connects with its users. This promises to be an epic journey. Stay tuned.
[email this story] Posted by R Ouellette on 01/04 at 09:35 AM
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Like Google Maps, I want to be able to type in a destination address, execute a search and be taken to a map segment that shows the nearest TTC route; then I’d like to be able to use that route information to construct a travel plan from my point of origin.
The current system expects a user to know what route number he/she wants which is, of course, backwards thinking.
Posted by on 01/04 at 08:29 PM
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I’d like to see the TTC open up the site’s data to web developers. Let people have a choice between public or private solutions.
Posted by
Michael on 01/04 at 08:44 PM
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- See my wishlist on my site.
Posted by
Ian Stevens on {comment_date format=’%m/%d’} at {comment_date format=’%h:%i %A’}
Posted by
Ian Stevens on 01/04 at 10:31 PM
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Why stop with the TTC? The City of Toronto’s website is even worse, designed by bureaucrats to confuse and frustrate. Try paying a parking ticket on line. One would think that this would be fairly high up on the list of things that people do here, yet where is it? Oh, under more links under that non-verb “accessing City Hall” then eight clicks through, including the longest EULA I have ever seen, a stupid acknowledgement of “this is a secure site” and to top it all off, a $ 1.50 charge for the privilege of paying online instead of making them handle a cheque. And try and find the zoning bylaw (not there) or even the buildings department. Worst. Website. Ever.
Posted by on 01/05 at 10:41 AM
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The TTC site truly is a disaster, and I look forward to it being improved. I find the city site awkward but usable, I found the pay a ticket from a drop down box on the home page. As a person involved in government websites, there are privacy, legal and other requirements that don’t exist or are not taken as seriously in the private sector, so some of the verbiage comes from that.
Posted by
Bob Krawczyk on 01/05 at 10:40 PM
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1. Absolutely vital: The TTC website should be visual (map-focused) first and textual second. Put a route map at the centre—there’s plenty of room at the sides, top, and bottom for text and menus.
2. TTC.ca should open with a map of the city, interactive, scalable and clickable. Route information should pop up whenever a cursor is passed over a route. Clicking routes should produce more detailed information.
3. If the map / site is properly geo-referenced, users should be able to type origin, route, destination, address, even well-known landmark information into a search box, and have the site produce a recommended route.
4. If the TTC is concerned about users confusing surface, LRT, and subway routes, it should be possible to switch between ‘views’ (e.g., the way Google maps allow users to switch between satellite and hybrid views)
5. Design the website to be accessible even (perhaps especially) to those who are unfamiliar with the city and the TTC.
6. I would love to see a function enabling users to personalize / customize their own route maps by selecting favourite routes, adding information (festivals, locations, literary landmarks, schedules), and so on.
Posted by
Amy Lavender Harris on 01/06 at 09:35 AM
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As a transit user who recently moved to Toronto from London (UK) I find the TTC website to be an appalling disgrace.
At a bare minimum it needs a route planner. The route planner should allow the user to plan routes
a) from point A to point B using addresses or to/from points of interest or to/from stations
b) using selectable modes of tranport such as bus only or bus and subway
c) that connect with bicycle paths
d) that avoid stairs for wheel chair users and people with heavy loads to carry.
e) that start immediately or another time or day in the future
f) that include directions for walking or riding a cycle path to or from the transit start/end point, preferably with downloadable/printable maps.
g) that include estimated travel time for the trip as well as info about the frequency of any buses that may be involved
Posted by Lavinia on 01/08 at 03:24 PM
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The organization I work with put in a bid to update the poorly organized site, but found that the technical platform for the site and its associated servers owned by the city are inflexible. They are running on old Java servers. Really they should build with .NET or they face the unreliability and lack of scalability without open source.
Unfortunately the city is not ready to pony-up for new and better servers for the TTC site despite the large amount of traffic, and increased traffic should the site become more user friendly.
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:53 PM
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- Whoa there Jesse-Clare! The TTC does not need to be on a .NET/Microsoft financial treadmill requiring $$$ to upgrade to the latest Server version every few years just to be able to patch the numerous security issues. This may suit consultants but it does not necessarily suit taxpayers and riders who fund the TTC.
Operating systems like Linux, websites like Slashdot and platforms like Apache have proven the ability of open source to cope with enormous numbers of hits and there are plenty of well proven content management systems. Start your reading on open source scalability here.
As for the website itself, there are two main areas as I see it.
- Passenger information - Route maps, fares, accessibility, schedules, service changes and journey planning, TTC merchandise and managing metropass discount plan accounts especially for families who get multiple passes.
- Corporate information - meeting minutes, tendering information and so on.
For simplicity I would separate those into two separate websites, possibly even on separate optimised servers due to the differing platforms which may be most suitable - www.ttc.ca for passenger and www.toronto.ca/ttc for corporate (at present the latter redirects to the former) with a single link on each one to the other "Passenger Information"/"Corporate Information".
The first page should be optimised for fast load time - no java applets or flash please! Statistics should be regularly checked so deeplinked pages with large hit numbers get promoted to the first page.
For the corporate information the meeting minutes and reports should be much easier to read (formatted in XML or PDF) and include all attachments.
It would be nice too if TTC equipped all vehicles with GPS and opened the data so we could see on a google mashup when the next bus/streetcar was likely to arrive, something like this for example.
Posted by
Mark Dowling on {comment_date format=’%m/%d’} at {comment_date format=’%h:%i %A’}
Posted by
Mark Dowling on 01/09 at 12:37 PM
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Inspired by these comments, a small crew of BarCamp Toronto mavens gathered at the Radiant Core offices to bring together this feedback and our own thoughts on a Better Way for the TTC website. It’s very comprehensive. Check it out here.
Posted by
Mark Kuznicki on 01/16 at 12:37 PM
