CTA Tattler

Finally, KevinB and Kevin are on the same page!

I like the addition of the Trip Planner and the helpful image links along the right side. However, the main problem with this design is the unorganized mess of links and images in the center. Design is supposed to create order out of chaos and that clearly failed here.

To make matters worse, the underlying code and markup is even sloppier than the design.

What the CTA continues to need is a complete overhaul of their entire Web site by a responsible design agency that truly understands the web. Unfortunately, based on the work I'm seeing here, I wouldn't trust their in-house team with a complete site redesign.

I'm surprised because everything I hear is that the RTA trip planner simply isn't good enough to be front-page quality, often giving poor suggestions on routings and ridiculous transfers and waits.

You know, they could pay me a few hundred dollars and I'd make the site look MUCH nicer... and I'm not even a design student. THAT is unfortunate.

But at least they tried.

On a happier note, anybody notice the nice new rail station timetables and the excellent audio announcements re: Red Line reroute/construction this week? I was pleasantly surprised.

"As it is, there's no easy way to get back to the home page from a content."

Because clicking on the home icon (which conveniently looks like a house) is too complicated????

OK, I'm wrong. There IS a way to get home from content pages, as reader points out. It just wasn't very clear to me, the average user.

I think it's a good start. Maybe we should email Adam Case (the CTA customer communications chief who came to the Huberman meeting) and ask what the next redesign plans are for the website? I'm sure they aren't stopping with the front page.

The only real plus of the redesign is that it's easier to access the Customer Alerts. The link used to be buried in that middle section with all the tiny type, which is difficult for those of us of a certain age. I'd say the entire site could use a complete overhaul. Hopefully it's in the works. Jake, you are correct about the RTA Trip Planner. It can sometimes be a trip and send unsuspecting passengers on routes that make no sense.

Lets take a look at the london underground's site:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/

Notice how to the far right they have service updates thats consistently updated reporting all the lines reporting good service or as such. Why the CTA can't do something at least similar to this is beyond me. The service updates dialog is extremely helpful, quick to look at get the way out and you can even pull it up on your mobile.

Dear ron, Some friends of mine and I will do some web programming work for you for free. Just let me know.

Kevin, don't do it. Please. No. Please don't make me agree with Mike Doyle over you.

I have to agree with him. I think the changes are a good start and portend future improvements.

I find the page easier to read and definitely less cluttered. The drop down menu at the top is cleanly organized and gets rid of all the multitude of links on both sides of the previous design. It also shows organization that I hope will be expanded on to future content pages. The first main section seems to have quick links to all the recent news at CTA: three track, free rides, job opportunities.

The next section has quick links to big projects: Brown Line, slow zones, mystery shopper (though that's a program without much substance). On the right side, I see links to what I imagine are the most visited pages: customer alerts, schedules, maps, bus tracker, trip planner. What I find really helpful is the text-based site map that can be accessed from the top right corner.

So count me as a fan of this redesign. There's a lot at the CTA to find fault with, but this isn't one of them.

To ac and Mike: Yes, maybe it is a good start. But if that's the case -- that the CTA plans to roll out incremental changes -- I disagree with the approach. They should have just redone the entire site all at once.

Yes, the new home page is better, ac. But the rest of the site is still a mess, and it still lacks the one crucial improvment needed -- site search.

You know at some point, there comes a situation that when you experience it, there are just so many things you could say that your head almost explodes, sort of a perfect storm for snarky comments, so I'm gonna let my silence make the perfect punchy riposte for me :)

KevinB

The current schedules the CTA prints & posts are almost useless in determining the time it will take to get somewhere.
Nowhere do they have the approximate running time of either bus or train routes. That's needed.
I want the ability to create a custom schedule for trains & buses with just the stops I need.

The same for Pace & Metra.

What disappoints me is those ludicrous train schedules. Southbound on weekday mornings on the Red Line, 6 - 10 AM, "every 4 to 7 minutes"? Is that just them throwing up their hands and acknowledging that, even if the system were still at four tracks, they'd have no idea?

well, it looks nice enough. I find it a litte easier on the eyes. Didn't explore it in depth yet.
Completely agree with the Planner, too, since I've been quite vocal in several venues about how poorly it works. I don't need to go to Cumberland Blue Line when I'm heading downtown from the Portage Park/Dunning area. Really. If it worked better, that would be a good place for it, though.

Red Line, 6 - 10 AM, "every 4 to 7 minutes"

This kind of entry made sense in the days of paper schedules. No sense expanding a paper version from the size of a brochure to the size of a paperback to document every train when those trains (theoretically) are coming so close together that actual times are unnecessary.

But in the virtual world, there's no reason not to document what the whole schedule should look like.

Of course that means formatting the schedule for online viewing, and saving the PDF of the printed version for an alternative view for people who may want to print their own copy.

As to the new home page:
Frankly, I haven't seen any major transit system that has a great home page. The usual problem is that they put visual flashiness over utility. But that's not what's bad with the new home page.

Essentially they've taken a working-class Chicago approach, and they're getting right down to business rather than trying to impress us with something pretty. That's good.

What's bad is they're apparently trying to avoid not just the horizontal scroll bar, but they're trying to avoid the vertical scroll bar, too.

Everything is all squeezed together, like a book without paragraphs. They toss in a few graphics seamingly to help give visual cues. But those graphics are too small, too cluttered, and not very helpful.

Better spacing, and better organization would help make the page more useful than eliminating the vertical scroll bar does.

Add some breaking news, and important announcements to the sitemap page, and they'd be doing better. But those navigation buttons over the transit tracker either need to go, or at least be redesigned without the horrible attempt at graphical cues.

Jake, why don't you use the Trip Planner?

You'd have a much better impression of its accuracy than hearsay if you bothered. I rely on it.

The single biggest improvement this redesign brings is the removal of the scrolling marquee about status updates.

However they did add a new marquee in the favicon which says "CTA: Take it!"

What a great slogan and innovative use of the marquee in a place I have NEVER seen it before! (Firefox 2.x anyone else?)

/sarcasm

Bob, I don't know about Jake, but I don't use it anymore, because I have had nothing but problems with it. It regularly adds a leg to my trip (see earlier reference to sending me to Cumberland--really, it would be simpler to tell me to take the 80 west to the Blue Line, rather than east to Cumberland & then catch the Pace bus north), rarely gives me the route I was expecting when I check for timing alone, and (more than once) has given me directions like walk 3 blocks & take a bus back 1 block. I did report the latter, but got no response. Everyone I've told that one to thinks it's hysterical & can't believe anyone or anything would give such poor directions.
I would rather call them; the people at the 836-7000 number use a different program & I'm much happier with the results there, even with the occasional rude person.

I will never recommend the online trip planner to anyone until things improve.

Dee, sorry to hear. I'm not trolling -- I've honestly had only good experiences with it recently. (Frankly, it was a little scary when a northbound Clark bus reached the Andersonville stop I use at the exact moment the trip planner said it would last Friday. I expected to have a moment or two and ended up sprinting to catch it. And it got me to my destination at the exact moment, too.) The week before that, I wanted to visit friends who'd just moved to central Evanston, not really near the Purple Line, and it found a very good, efficient route, with a backup I can use if the timing for that first one doesn't work for me.

Mind you, I'm not using it for anything like a commute. But given that most of my recreational time is spent on the far north -- Uptown, Andersonville, Edgewater, Rogers Park, and bits of Evanston -- it's working very well for me.

maybe it's just my location that gives it fits--I'm on the NW side. Glad it works for SOMEONE at least.

Last year during the Marathon I called to ask the best way to get to work considering I wasn't sure where the runners would be. Foolishly, I trusted the woman I talked to who said take the Brown line down--I ended up with the runners between me and work. I had to get back on the train, take it downtown, transfer to a NB Red Line train, and take that back up to where I could get off and get to work. Half an hour late when I was supposed to be there to unlock the doors and turn on the lights.