Our customers depend on our website—recent public engagement research shows that SFMTA.com is the No. 1 tool that San Franciscans turn to in order to learn about our services, projects and role as a transportation agency.
We are so excited to announce that, as of today, we’ve unveiled a new public website that is now even more customer-friendly.
Now that the site is live we just wanted to give some behind-the-scenes on how we set out to make a more enjoyable website experience for all of our visitors.
Three screen views of the new, mobile-friendly SFMTA.com. On the left phone features a view of the new home page with Quick Links at the upper edge of the screen. At center, the Trip Planner interface, and on the right, the News & Blog page.
What was our approach?
We started from the customer’s point of view. In partnership with Green Ideas, InkëDesign, FivePaths and InterEthnica we conducted surveys with stakeholders and focus groups, we heard about the pain points visitors went through with our previous site. And we set out to solve the issues highlighted in this feedback.
Fun fact: Dating back to 2000, we have had four variations of the SFMTA website. The last was unveiled in 2013. Technology has changed quickly in four years, and so have our customers. Back in 2013, 25 percent of website visits were on mobile. Now, around 65 percent are mobile visits. That’s why we set out to improve the navigation and features for the largest segment of site visitors –- smartphone users.
Surveys of stakeholders and focus groups discovered that 65 percent of our page visitors are accessing the site through a mobile device.
So, what did we accomplish?
CUSTOMER TASKS MADE EASIER: With our new Quick Links function, folks can quickly access the top-trafficked requests. Keep checking back as we continue to rollout new features for agency-wide transactions! And the Services function pulls all of our transactions into one place.
NEW CONTENT: We’ve curated agency content that meets the different needs of the people we serve. Now you’ll find a new section for “Visitors” and one for “Neighborhoods.” You’ll also find mode-specific pages, so you can see all the Bike, Walk, Muni and Drive & Park information in one place.
MOBILE-FRIENDLY: The old site’s drop-down navigation bar was not friendly for smartphone users. We set out to make a better web design that filters content and enhances discoverability on the site with them in mind.
BETTER SEARCH: We upgraded search functions -- now your search returns will quickly comb through uploaded PDF files, too. We’ve also indexed all of the Board items, so it’s easy to find legislation.
Locate the upgraded Search Bar and new Quick Links menu in the upper right corner of SFMTA.com.
NEW DESIGN: What drove this site’s new look and feel were web analytics, user-testing and improvements we anticipate in the future. That’s why this new site is more visual.
MORE DYNAMIC FEATURES: Site-wide there are content feeds with dynamic content like News & Blog, Calendar and Travel & Traffic Impacts.
MORE INCLUSIVE: Web translation functions have been upgraded, as well as an Accessibility section to highlight our work to make transportation available to all.
TECHNICAL UPGRADE: While the security and functionality of SFMTA.com were sturdy, this was our chance to address concerns about the website growing outdated. Our updated back end will allow us to be more agile and to introduce new capabilities on an ongoing basis.
Thank you to all the participants who gave us feedback and guided our web redesign efforts.
As with any good technology, this new site will evolve. We will continue to pursue ways to help SFMTA.com serve as a one-stop transportation shop for everyone who seeks to get around in San Francisco. Please check back regularly to see how we’re working to achieve our vision of an integrated transportation system – the most unique in the world.
Meantime, use your thumb to navigate the city! Take our new website for a spin, and let us know what you think on this survey: SFMTA.com/newwebsite.