New TriMet.org website

Target Audience: Our primary target audience was new and existing riders.

Strategy Objective:We set out to redesign the trimet.org site to deliver more of the features we knew riders wanted, including a mobile-friendly interactive map, real-time vehicle locations, better search and location-based features. We also introduced multi-modal trip planning features. These features were packaged as a mobile-friendly Progressive Web App that can be easily viewed on phones, with an app-like experience where all features are accessible directly on the trimet.org homepage. The first phase of this project, launched in January 2022, was not the final intended product but a major leap forward that created a platform for us to build future features and functionality – with a sustainable and supportable code base, IT workflow, project team and resources.

Situation Challenge: trimet.org is TriMet's primary communications and marketing channel, receiving 5.6 million pageviews monthly. 95% of trimet.org visitors come for service information including TransitTracker arrival times, trip planning, service alerts, and routes/schedules, and more than 70% of the visitors to trimet.org are viewing the site on a phone. TriMet does not have an official smartphone app, so we are investing in building out our website to better serve and engage riders. In order to support ridership recovery and long-term ridership growth, we wanted to leverage trimet.org's reach to further modernize TriMet's digital presence while making transit and other non-car modes more appealing and accessible to more people.

Results Impact: Although it represented a complete overhaul with many complex and dynamic elements, the new site was launched at the scheduled time and within the intended scope. Since our launch on January 19, 2022, traffic to the new site continues to slowly climb along with ridership. Analytics and customer feedback show that users are accessing the site features as intended. The project team successfully adopted "agile" principles and integrated UX design roles which has improved communication, collaboration and overall quality. The site will continue to be improved over time through smaller, iterative updates.

Why Submit: The new site delivers a set of modern, mobile-friendly "trip tools" and a solid technical foundation to better support the TriMet customer journey. trimet.org introduces multimodal trip planning to a broader audience, we believe this improved digital presence will help us attract, engage and retain more riders moving forward. The site's January Phase 1 launch was a big step toward making transit easier and more appealing for more people in the Portland area.