Intro
How do you aggregate all the literature, opinions and research related to Britain’s rail and English bus passengers outside of London into one user-friendly package?
This is what Passenger Focus were after when they invited us to design their new website for following a major restructure.
The Work
Passenger Focus required a site that reflected their new role and allowed them to communicate with passengers and stakeholders as well as a wider audience.
One of the first considerations we had for the site structure was the segmentation of the audience, the new website offers distinct areas for rail or bus passengers and account registration options for passengers and stakeholders.
Passenger Focus were in need of a visually appealing yet simple website and we chose a design that reflected these requirements. With a scheme consistent with existing branding and an easy to use navigation the new site gives users a familiar and uncomplicated experience. Keeping the site easy to navigate helps reduce strain on the customer support team, something that passenger focus were keen on.
We completely changed the complaints process for Passenger Focus, replacing the antiquated phone system, we developed smart contact forms to capture user data and help Passenger Focus streamline their administrative process. We're continuing to work with the team to use this data to create new bespoke reports.
Campaigning and presenting research data was one of the key requirements for the new site; the wealth of data at Passenger Focus’ disposal was a focal point the wished to share with stakeholders and users. We provided graphical solutions for their existing data as well as the ability to pull new data via surveys and display them in chart format to engage users.
Technology
Passenger Focus wanted a technically simple site, though that didn’t mean we skimped on the features. The home pages aggregate content from across the site, reducing management strain and keeping it fresh.
We better integrated social media into the site providing feeds and follow options. We also provided a much-needed upgrade to the site’s search function.
We integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM into Passenger Focus' new complaints handling process, providing them with a fully online, paperless and streamlined data aquisition tool.
Passenger Focus were reliant on an external agency to alter their website, so it was up to us to deliver a user friendly package that made the site a pleasure to manage - Passenger Focus were amongst the of our clients to use our new user friendly CMS “Jellybean”.
As with all our latest projects we implemented responsive web design fundamentals. Our One-Web approach allows a site to be viewed on any sized screen without all the unsightly squashing and excessive zooming. For a site that’s based on transport information we paid special attention to how the UI shifted when being viewed on mobile devices.
Support
We’re happy to say that we’re just a phone call away for passenger focus in the unlikely case that something goes awry!
Results
Since launch, the website has received praise from several industry insiders, but more importantly, it has begun to improve the communication between the public and Passenger Focus while reducing administrative duties of staff. A month on month comparison shows; user engagement is up by 66% to an average of just under 3 minutes, page views have increased to 3.8 per visit and bounce rate has been reduced as much as 23%. Given all of the UK events over the summer of 2012 the site received a great deal more traffic and saved staff a lot of additional work.
Our revamp of the site has also received praise from the design industry, with the site being named 'Responsive site of the month' by .net magazine (issue 232) and receiving notable mention on the accompanying blog Creative Bloq. Needless to say, we were thrilled with the accolades.
