Hot Tub

Here at Hot, we’re passionate about creating things people love to use. So when BART – the Bay Area Rapid Transit District – approached Hot Studio to redesign their website, we were both excited and eager to take on this challenge. Bart.gov has always been recognized as a leader in public transportation sites, but it faced increasing competition from sites like google.com/transit, and lacked the kind of character that was needed for an iconic transportation system.

We were presented with the following goals:

• increase the utility of the site without creating information overload;
• develop an interface that is elegant and easy to use;
• strengthen the perception that BART is a dependable, safe and easy way to travel around the area.

Hot spent a considerable amount of time researching the site’s users and their needs. We specifically looked at how commuters, leisure travelers, airport travelers and tourists accessed information on the site. By using our user-centered and collaborative approach, we were able to dissect the needs of the users to create a compelling experience.

Less is more

Often it’s what you leave out that makes the difference between something that’s usable and something that isn’t. By stripping away unnecessary information, we were able to prominently display things people needed the most, and add value to areas of the site which were lacking. This is clearly evident in the redesigned trip planner results pages where we used color differentiators, white space and a more intuitive linear presentation of the train schedules. And we helped create stickiness and increase loyalty on the station pages by making them highly interactive and fun to use.

Putting a face to public transportation

Most public transportation sites lack personality and the character of the communities they serve. We wanted to change this trend and give BART a look as unique as the 375,000 people who ride it each day. We created a prominent space on the home page to highlight BART’s riders and the new “My Bay” theme. In addition, we softened the overall look and feel of the site by using warmer, more organic colors and eliminating any hard edges.

The result of our collaborative effort with BART is an easy to use and highly informational tool – with a personality. Features on bart.gov include:

• a prominent and intuitive trip planner and interactive system map;
• clean, clear and interactive trip planner results;
• real-time arrival and service advisory information;
• interactive station pages with area attractions and a Flickr feed from local users;
• a unique and progressive look and feel with clean and modern infographics.

“Response to the new site has been overwhelming positive,” said Tim Moore, manager of bart.gov. “With high gas prices, traffic jams and environmental concerns, our ridership is up 15,000 a day. The new site has made a strong first impression on a lot of new customers. It’s helping us to convert by redefining people’s perceptions about BART.”

Be sure to plan your next Bay Area trip on bart.gov.