The results of the June future mobile site Friday fun poll

The early June Friday fun poll sought answers on how you want your real-time information on the new mobile site. One hundred eighty-four (184) of you responded to the poll, which shows how much interest there is on this subject matter! Here’s how you responded to the poll questions:

We presented three ways the future mobile site could provide you with information on your trip. You can get real-time information by: (1) bus stop, (2) route or (3) by the location of the user. Not surprisingly, only 14 people or 8% of those who participated in the poll said “No” to this third option.

The next question we asked was how to display the information itself when it comes to differentiating between scheduled times and actual times. Most of you (133 or 74%) said colours were the way to go. Only 47 people (26%) said a symbol was the best way to differentiate between the two times.

There were a lot of great comments about this question like these:

Brad

“In regards to  Question 2, colours are usually difficult to use from a usability standpoint. People have various forms of colour-blindness, so using colours for some sort of important information usually leaves these people in the lurch.

Further, you have to take the devices people will be using into account. On my iPhone, colours get washed out in bright sunlight. Bright sunlight might be a concern in Vancouver if it ever comes!

Using some other means to differentiate between real-time and scheduled times would be better than using colours. Italicized fonts, or the suggested asterisk.”

Cliff

“Why not both? Either use both colours and symbols or have an option to switch between them. You could even go as far as having the user select which colours they want to use (as there are many different types of colour-blindness).

When push comes to shove, however, and only one option must be selected, colour is my preference.”

Tim Choi

“Another option is what Seoul does – say WHERE the next bus is (name of the last stop it was at) rather the estimated time of arrival.”

The third and last question the poll asked was on the frequency of how often the site will update information. I was a little surprised by the results. I knew updating once a minute would win against updating once every couple of minutes, but in our fast-paced world, I didn’t think that as many as 80 people (43%) would think that updating every two minutes was good enough. In total, 104 (57%) thought once a minute was the best way to go.

Thanks to all of you who completed the poll. As many of you know, we’re changing our mobile site with the goal of getting a new and improved version up and running by the end of this summer. Keep your eyes on this blog for updates on the progress of the site and more opportunities for feedback. Our mobile team has been very interested in your feedback and in reading all of your comments, so keep them coming!

Friday fun poll: how do you want your real-time information on the new mobile site?

As promised, here’s the Friday fun poll about the new mobile site! Many of you have noticed and commented about the recent changes to the existing mobile site, and I’ve been passing on your questions and concerns to the team working on the new mobile website platform. The team tells me that they’re working hard to get the new mobile site up as soon as possible since they know the platform in its current state (i.e. being redirected to our Trip Planner site) isn’t ideal.

Building on the your input from our previous poll on the new mobile site, including optimizing performance, saving favourites and including enhanced maps, we’d like to know how you would like to get your information on the new platform.

The new mobile site will incorporate GPS technology. This will include GPS information from our fleet and GPS information from user’s smart phones. This new redesign will be optimized for mobile devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices. It will also be available in a generic mobile and desktop version.

Rolling out in stages, will hope this technology will eventually be able to tell transit users the actual location of each bus and approximately how long it will take to get to where they are by relaying information from each bus back to transit users via their mobile devices. This is a huge project, so new features will be rolled out incrementally in select areas of the system before they go system-wide. In the first phase of this project, users will be given bus locations via a map. Later on, functionality like predicted arrival times by stop will be added to the map and in text-based form.

The mobile team has been looking at mobile sites of other systems around the world to see what we can learn and apply to the design of our new mobile site. At the moment, the team has come up with three distinct ways users can use the future TransLink mobile site to get real-time information. I thought I’d use the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York City) mobile site as an example of possible options for the TransLink site since we haven’t decided on any one design yet and hope users like yourself can help in the design process through this poll. So here is how the current design of the new mobile site might work as far as how users can use the tools to get around. Read more »

We’re fixing our mobile site

The new TransLink mobile platform...for now

Many of you have told us that our mobile site is in need of a facelift. Yes, we know we’re not going to win any awards for the current design. Well, we are very happy to report that upgrades are coming on May 25!

We had been planning on doing a complete revamp of both the application (iPhone, Android and BlackBerry) and the mobile site to go live later this summer, but it’s become clear that’s not good enough. The current iPhone app and the mobile site are delivering inaccurate information to customers, so we’re going to upgrade the m.translink.ca site and move it to a new platform.

The good news is that you will have:

• Immediate access to our most current information
• Increased functionality over the current site
• Better access to schedule information
• Better access to Next Bus information
• Access to Trip Planning functionality
• Access to up-to-date alerts that pertain to your trip

That said, the user interface on the new platform is going to be quite basic – because time is of the essence on these improvements, we opted to focus on speed and accuracy of information. Our plan is to improve the mobile interface and functionality over the next few months before launching new iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps.

Speaking of apps, unfortunately, there’s no Buzzer Blog link on the new interface, but there will be one on the app we release in the months to come! This will be especially important for those with iPhones who make up 92% of our mobile site users! We WILL have a Buzzer link on the upgraded site. Hooray! This is good news for iPhone user of which the existing app also has a link to the buzzer. Incidentally, iPhone user make up 92% of all mobile site users.

Depending on your mobile service provider, it may be a day or so before you see the new mobile site, so thanks in advance for being patient!

The new site will be a big improvement, but it won’t be perfect, which is why we need your feedback over the coming weeks and months – please tell us what you like, don’t like, want to see, etc. We want the new site (and apps) to be useful, useable tools, and we need your input to make them great.

Next week, we’ll be building on the feedback you gave us in December last year. I’ll have a Friday Fun poll next week that will ask you which of a handful of options you’ll want for the future app.

How the TransLink mobile site (m.translink.ca) looks like today on BlackBerry and iPhone

Minor update: TransLink.ca gets a new YouTube account

Minor update: TransLink.ca’s main YouTube account is moving!

We have secured the youtube.com/translink URL, so we’ve moved all our videos there from our previous account.

So if you’re subscribed to the existing account, please move over to the new one! This is where all our big, “official” videos are posted: promotional videos for our campaigns, informational videos about public consultation, webinar recordings, etc.

(And if you’re curious: yes, the Buzzer has a separate YouTube account for blog video that would otherwise clutter up the main TransLink account. Also, there’s also one for TransLink’s media team for messages about service disruptions, when they’re needed.)

A couple of tiny updates to the TransLink.ca trip planning widgets

Just wanted to draw your attention to a couple of teeny (but good!) updates to the TransLink.ca trip planning widgets!

Advanced search settings for the homepage trip planner!

The homepage trip planner now has an Advanced Search Settings dropdown menu!

Look: an “Advanced Search Settings” drop down menu has been added to the homepage trip planner! As described in our last update in December 2010, the Advanced Search Settings menu lets you pick things like “More walking” or “Wheelchair accessible stops” or “No SkyTrain” for your trip. Try it out!

The trip planner widget gets a refresh

Tiny style adjustment: both the regular and narrow versions of the embedded TP widget have been revamped to more closely match what we have on the homepage. The new changes have already taken effect everywhere the widget is installed—the code doesn’t need to be replaced.

(As you may know, we have a trip planner widget that you can embed on your own website for others to use. And YES, I asked the web team when we can get prefilled destinations in the widget, and they are apparently still working on it. More updates as I receive them!)

HootSuite releases a case study on TransLink’s Twitter pilot!

A screenshot from the HootSuite case study on the TransLink Twitter pilot!

In case you’re interested: TransLink’s Twitter service pilot has been featured in a HootSuite case study today!

HootSuite is a social media dashboard tool that we use to manage our Twitter account, and it has been invaluable in keeping our workflow smooth. Bonus: HootSuite is based in Vancouver, too!

So if you want to peek behind the scenes a bit, please do check out the case study over at their blog. I think they’ve done a great overview of TransLink’s Twitter work and how HootSuite helps us out!

Yay: our TransLink Twitter service is now permanent!

Our TransLink Twitter customer service pilot has been approved as a permanent program!

Great news everyone—our TransLink Twitter pilot is now a permanent service!

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Twitter pilot was a test project to deliver ramped up customer service through the TransLink Twitter account (twitter.com/translink). Since November 1, 2010, call centre workleaders have sent out system updates and answered customer questions from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day — and the results have been spectacular!

So today, we are happy to announce that the budget has been approved for continuing the Twitter pilot indefinitely. That means it’s now a permanent service you can rely on for the future, with permanent staff positions devoted to Twitter alerts, trip planner alerts and mobile updates, among other things!

A huge thanks to all the staff members involved with the Twitter pilot for making this project such a huge success and such a valuable tool for our customers. And another huge thanks to all the customers we are interacting with online, especially those who sent in such supportive notes for the pilot: we received more than a hundred formal commendations, and countless supportive tweets!

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the blog post that L.A. Metro wrote about our pilot—it’s lovely to hear them chat about our work!

And for those interested, keep on reading for a deep dive into the stats behind our first three months of Twitter service — we now have over 6,900 followers and climbing!

Read more »

Developers: iBusVan is now open source and the code is available now!

A screenshot from iBusVan, the now-discontinued Vancouver transit iPhone app.

Good news: developers can now download the source code for iBusVan, the excellent-but-now-retired iPhone app for Vancouver transit!

Zhenwang Yao, the creator of iBusVan, has decided to make the project open source, and has posted the code at GitHub here: https://github.com/unibus

So if you’re interested in continuing iBusVan’s excellent work, feel free to download the code and take a crack at it.

And e-mail me as your apps develop—I’d love to showcase your apps or help share your developments on the Buzzer blog!

Again, here are the Buzzer’s past posts on iBusVan in case you’re interested:

• iBusVan iPhone app now discontinued (unless you can take over the project!)
• iBusVan: an iPhone transit app (an interview with Zhen!)

iBusVan iPhone app now discontinued (unless you can take over the project!)

Arrr! iBusVan, a really good Vancouver transit iPhone app, is sadly no longer available.

Zhenwang Yao, the developer, has let me know that owing to limited time he won’t be continuing the project anymore. Here’s what he wrote to me:

Due to the limited time and resources. I am winding down the project. I have removed the app from sale. However, I will keep the server running for another while, so current users can still use iBusVan for a while. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The iBusVan logo.

However, I’ve asked Zhen and he is happy to hand over the project if someone else wants to continue developing it! If you’re that someone (and I really hope there is someone!), please do contact Zhen at zhen@unibus.ca.

Thanks Zhen for such a great app, and best of luck with your future work!

For other iPhone transit apps, have a look at this list I put together previously—it includes TransLink’s mobile app and a few others from independent developers. And if you’re developing a mobile app or other handy tool for Vancouver transit, e-mail me! I’d love to write about it on the blog.

Heads up: the Twitter pilot will continue to the end of January 2011

Update, February 11, 2011: Yay: our Twitter pilot has been permanently extended!

Update, February 1, 2011: The Twitter pilot has been extended to the end of February 2011! Things are looking positive for the indefinite extension of the pilot—stay tuned for more!

Just a quick note to let you know that the TransLink Twitter pilot will definitely be extended until the end of January 2011!

We are still in the process of getting approval funding for the project to keep it going indefinitely, but so far, the month of January has definitely been confirmed.

In the meantime, you can still help show your support for the pilot by sharing your feedback in our Customer Feedback Form.

Again, the Twitter pilot has been a ramped up level of service delivered by our call centre workleaders monitoring and responding on Twitter from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Check out our TransLink Twitter account here: twitter.com/translink

As well, you can check out past posts about the pilot, including a deep dive into the stats and results from the first month!

• Our Twitter pilot: a great success so far!
• Heads up: TransLink’s Twitter pilot project for November

Poll results on mobile site improvements: optimized performance and saving favourites rank high

Two weeks ago I posted a poll asking for your input on how to improve our mobile site.

Everyone was allowed to vote for as many features as they liked, and after 125 votes, optimized performance (71%) and the ability to save favourite stops and routes (70%) ranked as the highest priorities.

Trip planning (66%) and enhanced maps (51%) weren’t far behind. And fare info (26%), points of interest and special events) (22%), social media (19%), feedback (15%) and other (14%) brought up the end of the pack.

Now once more I’d like to stress the big caveat for this: be aware we won’t be able to do everything suggested, owing to budget and development constraints! But everyone’s input into this question is still heavily valued, as it provides huge insight into what you feel the priorities for the site should be. And the comments of course provided illuminating feedback on how the mobile site is used in real life and where it is wanting!

For example, Graham Ballantyne and the vast majority of comments emphasized the performance issues that so many voted for as a priority.

Speed, speed, speed. Both the current m.translink.ca and the iPhone app (which is really just the website wrapped in an app) are horrendously slow. My most frequent use is to look up a stop number (usually to see when the #16 is *supposed* to arrive) and it’s far faster to text the stop number to 33333.

User interaction in the current site/app is also pretty bad; there’s often no indication that the the site is doing something. I stopped using it in favour of 33333 and the google maps app because I never knew what the site was doing.

But many highlighted an issue I didn’t capture on the poll—that of offline data access! Here’s JMV:

For what it’s worth, if I could speak for the iPod Touch members of the audience, it would be nice if the app could have some offline features. Without wifi or offline features, the app is unusable as you’re all well aware.

As an alternative, I have saved the full system map as a PDF on my iPod Touch, which has been one of the most handy things to have on hand. I view it with the free PDF viewer app called Transit Maps which I’ve mentioned before. There are lots of PDF viewers that would work though.

Further to this, I also think the ability to save and download a full PDF of each route map in the official app would be nice, but it would be ideal if this was an optional feature rather than a standard feature, to reduce app bloat.

Adrian pointed out another crucial feature: access to key service updates.

The other thing I want to point out is service updates. I see TransLink has now been using twitter for many of its transit alerts, and that’s great, but I think there should be some consistency here. I think TransLink should update both their twitter and service alert updates at the same time, and have these updates and alerts easily available on their mobile site, as well as at SkyTrain stations. That way, more people and informed earlier.

As with updates, if it has anything to do with a delay, TransLink should also try their best to estimate a delay in terms of number of minutes. People often think a delay is VERY long and tedious when they don’t realize the amount of additional time they need. But if they know how long they have to wait, the experience is a little better. It’s just like having RealTime information available: the amount of time it takes for me to wait for a train feels shorter when I know how long I have to wait.

Real-time data was another point that came up a lot: this project is DEFINITELY in the works and is tentatively slated to be complete in late 2011. So there’s that!

And just as a reminder: ;-) pointed out our Next Bus video that shows you how to get next bus times for specific buses at your stop. Have a look!

Thank you again to all who participated in this poll: it was very helpful and I will be passing its results on to our developer project team! Remember, March 2011 is the tentative launch date for the new mobile site: I will have more news to you as the project develops.

Reminder: tell us what you think of our mobile site!

A rider using our mobile site on the go!

Just a reminder that the Friday fun poll is still up! Make sure you tell us what you think of our mobile site to help us work on improving it! And tell your friends!

Our trip planner gets a couple of new improvements

Our feedback form customized for mobile browsers, as seen on an iPhone.

Check it out: we’ve launched a couple of new improvements to our trip planner!

• The customer feedback form is mobile-friendly! You can now fill in our customer feedback form right on your mobile phone. Our mobile trip planner also provides a link to the form so you can enter your complaint or commendation right away. (No, the form wasn’t working well on mobile before. Yes, this is trip planner related because it’s powered by the same system!)
• We’ve improved the trip planner search options on both desktop and mobile. A short list:
  • “Customize your search” has been changed to “Advanced Search Settings” on Step 1 of Trip Planner—a more descriptive wording.
  • The “e.g.” wording beside “Advanced Search Settings” has been changed to “e.g. wheelchair accessibility, bike rack, allow more walking, etc,” so it’s more descriptive.
  • There’s a new option called “Allow More Walking” which allows trips to be planned that include walking distances of up to 1 kilometre. (Some people really want this!)
  • The wording of the options in advanced search settings has rewritten for clarity. For example, you can now restrict trips to “Requires Wheelchair Accessibility” or “Don’t Use SkyTrain,” while before the wording was less clear.
  • And a variety of functional improvements have been made to the Mobile Trip Planner site.
• Also, some upcoming improvements to come include: adding the “Advanced Search Settings” parameters (drop-down) to the homepage trip planner widget, and changing the radio button nomenclature (for sorting) on Step 2 of Trip Planner to read: “Quickest Route” / “Least Walking” / “Fewest Transfers” (yes, these are minor changes, but will hopefully create better understanding and therefore better functionality!).

Just wanted to make sure you saw these: feel free to let us know what you think!

Our Twitter pilot: a great success so far!

Update, February 11, 2011: Yay: our Twitter pilot has been permanently extended!

Update, February 1, 2011: The Twitter pilot has been extended to the end of February 2011! Things are looking positive for the indefinite extension of the pilot—stay tuned for more!

Update: Jan 10, 2011. Just wanted to post the reminder that the pilot is definitely continuing to the end of January—we continue to seek budget approval for keeping the program going indefinitely!

A photo of most of our Customer Information staff working on the Twitter pilot! (Some were a bit camera shy :) Photo by Charlotte Boychuk.

Well, as you may know, we launched a Twitter pilot in November 2010, ramping up service on our popular TransLink Twitter account (www.twitter.com/translink) to try and provide better service for everyone.

And thus far, we think the pilot is a great success—so successful that we’re continuing it through December!

It’s been pretty amazing: after one month, 1,100 more people are following our account, the mood in our call centre is phenomenal, and we keep hearing fantastic, continuous compliments from our Twitter followers. All this after adding one Customer Information Work Leader to each shift in November to focus on Twitter, subscription alerts, and trip planner alerts!

So now, we’re hoping to keep the pilot going indefinitely after December, but we’re just waiting to get full approval for our budget for the program. In the meantime, you can help show your support for the pilot by sharing your feedback in our Customer Feedback Form.

And for those who are interested, keep reading for a deep dive into the results of our pilot, and how we’ve found it’s working well so far.

Read more »

Friday fun poll: what features do you want to see on TransLink’s mobile site?

How the TransLink mobile site (m.translink.ca) appears on BlackBerry and iPhone.

Well, this is a fun poll with real implications!

As I’ve mentioned, we are currently working on a project to revamp our mobile site and iPhone app, with a launch tentatively slated for spring 2011.

We’re currently in the brainstorming phase for features and priorities, which makes it it’s the perfect time to throw it open to your input! Just a few caveats before you launch into it though:

• SUPER IMPORTANT: we won’t be able to do everything you suggest! There’s a limit to our budget and development time, plus our backend scheduling system Trapeze has its own technical limitations. So please do understand if a feature you suggest doesn’t make it in!
• Please think about priority: we love to hear your blue-sky dreams, but make sure to highlight the one or two items that you think are mission-critical for the new mobile site.
• Any light you can shed on how you use on our mobile site in actual practice would be extremely valuable—it is really good to know how people are ACTUALLY using the site so we can optimize the site for reality!

Also, given that we’d like lots of input, I’m going to leave this poll up for two weeks or so, to really give some time for people to get into it.

And now, the poll—I’ve preloaded it with some obvious suggestions but they are by NO MEANS a fixed list that we are starting from!

(Yes, the poll widget’s width is way too narrow, but there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to fix that, blargh.)

Anyway: feel free to make all kinds of suggestions in the comments—just again, make sure to indicate priority, and know that we can’t do everything!