Regional Transportation District
Optimizing a Transit Website to Help Riders Navigate Schedules and Ticketing
The Regional Transit District is Metro Denver's public transit system; offering bus, regional shuttles, lightrail, and commuter rail services to the Front Range.
RTD came to us with two goals: get off their old CMS, and make it easier to access schedules. Their existing CMS contract was expiring, and after 8 years on it, it was difficult to update.
The primary audience included both frequent and occasional transit users, so we couldn't rely on users learning through repeated use.
60% of RTD website visitors accessed the website from a mobile device – likely while en route to using an RTD service.
The existing RTD website had performance issues, was not optimized for mobile, and was difficult for staff to update–preventing critical notifications from being delivered to riders.
Their existing site buried key information for riders within unclear parent categories—schedules and ticket information under multiple layers of navigation, maps and station details were mixed in with details about project funding and construction updates.
We simplified the site's information architecture to ensure prominent access to scheduling and ticketing information.
We created a clear distinction between trip planning actions and information seeking actions, and the new information architecture reflected that in structure.
Using site analytics, competitive analysis, and user interviews, we identified the most visited paged associated with using the transit system and grouped them together.
The new website resulted in increased views per user (+40%), lower bounce rates (-15%), and increased site speed (+30%). A shiny, new CMS using Sanity, Cloudinary, and Vercel helped to improve operational efficiency for RTD staff.
Mapping of legacy site structure: the multiple levels and layers of navigation buried key information for riders. The items marked with the green dot denote links to RTD's NextRide app, creating additional friction and pathing for users to navigate.
Path of returning users
Creating primary content zones for Riders and Informational users
Template pages within the CMS allowed for flexibility while maintaining a consistent design system.
Mapping of legacy site structure: the multiple levels and layers of navigation buried key information for riders. The items marked with the green dot denote links to RTD's NextRide app, creating additional friction and pathing for users to navigate.
Path of returning users
Creating primary content zones for Riders and Informational users
Template pages within the CMS allowed for flexibility while maintaining a consistent design system.
Mapping of legacy site structure: the multiple levels and layers of navigation buried key information for riders. The items marked with the green dot denote links to RTD's NextRide app, creating additional friction and pathing for users to navigate.
Path of returning users
Creating primary content zones for Riders and Informational users
Template pages within the CMS allowed for flexibility while maintaining a consistent design system.
- Research and Discovery
- Defining Migration and Content Strategy
- Product Design
- Wireframing
- Visual Design
- Development Hand-off
