CHAPTER 2 OF 3 — YORK REGION TRANSIT · WEBSITE

YRT Website

Information architecture • UX strategy • CMS • Mobile-first

YRT website shown on desktop, phone and tablet

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

What I was responsible for across yrt.ca

  1. Digital strategy and roadmap

    Ran yrt.ca as an annual program, setting priorities, scope and schedule, with a major refresh every four years.

  2. Customer research and UX

    Led journey mapping, focus groups and service-design workshops, and turned the findings into the site structure.

  3. Self-service and support

    Customer Portal, feedback forms, Live Chat and Lost and Found, so riders get help beyond Contact Centre hours.

  4. Accessibility and compliance

    Kept the site to WCAG 2.0 Level AA and tested it with riders and the Accessibility Advisory Committee.

  5. Vendors and stakeholders

    Managed the web support contract and directed the consultant, IT Services, the Contact Centre and subject matter experts.

KEY DECISIONS

What I decided, and why

The challenge

  • Trip planning, service updates and customer support lived in separate places
  • The old tools weren’t built for phones
  • Help was only available during Contact Centre hours

The goal

Build the site around riders’ journeys, so every task is straightforward from the first search to arrival.

DECISION 1 · NAVIGATION

Build the navigation from what riders told us

The challenge: riders had to hunt for everyday information on a site organized around how YRT works, not how riders look for things.

What I decided: I held focus groups with staff, regular riders and first-time transit users, and invited the Accessibility Advisory Committee for feedback. We turned what we heard into a new sitemap and four main menus that put everyday tasks, like the Trip Planner and the Fare Chart, one click from any page.

Draft sitemap in four colour-coded columns, Schedules and Maps, Fares and Passes, Our Services and About Us, each listing its pages and subpages

The draft sitemap we tested with the focus groups: every page, grouped under four main menus.

1 / 5

DECISION 2 · WIREFRAMES

Agree on the framework before design

The challenge: changes made late in design and build are slow and costly, and every group needed to see the plan early.

What I decided: I guided my team and directed the consultant to develop a preliminary framework, starting with low-fidelity wireframes to agree on structure, then high-fidelity wireframes to test the look, for the homepage, navigation, service-advisory dropdowns, interior pages and mobile. We reviewed each round before design and build, then carried them into the final design.

Select a wireframe to enlarge it

Final yrt.ca design on three desktop screens: the homepage with trip planning and rider alerts, the Our Services selector showing Viva, and the photo footer

3 · The final design: the homepage, the Our Services selector and the footer.

DECISION 3 · SELF-SERVICE

Rewrite self-service in riders’ words

The challenge: riders picked their feedback topic from a long dropdown of 16 options with internal names, which caused confusion.

What I decided: We replaced it with ten topic cards, each with an icon and keywords that help riders find the right one. The form connects to the Salesforce CRM Customer Portal, which my team and I mapped so riders reach five self-service tools from one landing page: service requests, request tracking, the knowledge base, the neighbourhood map and transit feedback.

Before Previous Transit Feedback page: a single Topic dropdown opened to a long list of 16 options
After Redesigned Provide Your Feedback page: ten topic cards with icons and examples, such as Fares and PRESTO, Routes and Schedules, and Safety and Security

Before: internal topic names in one dropdown, hidden until opened. After: every topic visible, with keywords that help riders find the right one.

DECISION 4 · TRIP PLANNING

Put trip planning on every device

The challenge: the old trip planning tools weren’t built for phones, where most riders plan their trips.

What I decided: My team and I worked with our technology partners to replace them with a responsive trip planner and a new trip-planning widget on the yrt.ca homepage, so a rider’s next bus is a tap away on any device.

The trip planner on three phones: a colour-coded route list with schedules, 28 routes passing Richmond Hill Centre Terminal, and the Route 601 Viva Blue southbound map

What riders got

  • Real-time bus arrivals and departures
  • Quick search for the closest stop and next departure
  • Up-to-date rider alerts
  • Detailed schedules for every route
  • Colour-coded routes that match the YRT system map
  • Predictive search that shows the best matches first
  • Filters for customized trip plans
  • A layout that adapts to screen size, platform and orientation

DECISION 5 · USER TESTING

Test with real riders before launch

The challenge: launching first and fixing problems afterward would leave riders to find the issues, and if the site didn’t work the way it should, we would lose their trust.

What I decided: I built testing into the schedule and tied development, content and communications to it, staying agile so we could adjust as feedback came in. We recruited riders by email, invited the Accessibility Advisory Committee to test the site, and fixed what they found before launch.

THE OUTCOME

What riders got

Mobile-Friendly Trip Planner

A trip planner designed for phones that shows route options, schedules and step-by-step directions between two locations.

Real-Time Updates

Live bus locations and predicted arrival times for each stop, along with notices of service changes and disruptions.

Live Chat

An online chat on yrt.ca that connects riders with a customer service agent for questions about trips, fares and service.

Customer Feedback Form

An online form where riders submit comments, suggestions and complaints about YRT service.

Lost & Found Tool

An online form for reporting items left on a bus or at a terminal, and searching for items that have been turned in.

RESULTS

In 2020 the redesign won an Award of Excellence at the APEX Awards. The refresh brought a modernized design, a smooth move to a new cloud CMS and WCAG 2.0 Level AA accessibility (99% compliant). Riders now find everyday tasks one click from any page, choose from ten plain-language feedback topics instead of 16 confusing ones, and can reach Live Chat beyond Contact Centre hours. I’ve kept improving the site as an annual program, with technology and design upgrades every year and a major refresh every four years.

NEXT · CHAPTER 3 OF 3Leading Year-Round Multimedia Production