Mandy reflects on the transformation of transportnsw.info to become the flagship site for public transport and the second most visited NSW Government website with over 7 million trip plans, 5 million sessions and 2.2 million unique users every month.
Under the Customer Channels Transformation Program (CCTP), we needed to transform TfNSW’s digital assets that serve public transport customers. The transportnsw.info website was to become the single source of truth for public transport information with the integration of many previously separate public facing sites such as Sydney Trains, Sydney and Newcastle Buses, NSW TrainLink and Opal, many of which have been or plan to be decommissioned. In order to succeed, we needed to build a website that was scalable, flexible and responsive – and we needed to become more agile, to meet the changing needs of customers and the business.
Where we started
In 2016, we were maintaining four separate websites:
- Desktop – full website
- Mobile – cut down version with primary planning tools
- Text only – trip planner and departure board purpose-built to work on screen readers, as the desktop and mobile versions was not accessible
- Service centre interface – used by contact centre staff
This meant that customers were receiving slightly different content, depending on how they were accessing the website. This wasn’t ideal for customers and it was a maintenance nightmare for people looking after the website! Development was outsourced to multiple vendors in a very waterfall fashion, with limited ability to respond to changing business needs.
We needed to build one site that was accessible by all, on any device. We decided to focus on a few key areas – customer experience, accessibility and agile delivery using technology and automation.
How we changed
We listened to what our customers were telling us and delivered a responsive, mobile-first website with real-time trip planning and smart personalisation. We knew our customers well – through qualitative and quantitative research, customer feedback and analytics. We designed the site to be inclusive and carried out regular usability testing with a diverse range of participants to ensure that we were delivering to the needs of our customers.
We also needed to understand accessibility in order to build services that work for everyone, whatever their access needs. Four million (or 1 in 5) Australians have some form of physical or cognitive disability. While we knew what it meant to have a WCAG 2.0 AA compliant website, we needed to learn how different users interact with the site, how assistive technologies were used and how we needed to build and test our products.
Accessibility is now built into the delivery process and is completed as part of every sprint. It’s included in our Definition of Done, meaning that we can’t release a new feature or enhancement until certain criteria has been met. Content is kept short, clear and simple. Designers consider colours, button placements, font size etc. Developers ensure that interactions are all keyboard accessible and testers do cross-browser testing on various combinations of devices, browsers and operating systems. This includes using a keyboard (no mouse) and using screen readers on mobile and desktop. We test and obtain feedback from people of differing abilities as often as we can to ensure we get it right.
Regular accessibility audits are also conducted to identify any issues, understand the impacts and determine fixes. We partner with third party specialists to provide tailored training, tutorials and documentation and assist us with design, implementation and testing. Over time, we’ve learned and got better at delivering it right the first time, rather than having to go back and fix things later.
Bringing the design, development, maintenance and support in-house transformed the way we worked. We went from a vendor-delivered waterfall approach to a dev-ops model with agile delivery, meaning that the entire team (Product, Delivery, Support) was co-located. We embraced technology as an enabler, using cloud-based software and automation to compile, build, test and deploy.
The results? We are now fully responsive – not just to any device – but to the fast-paced and ever-changing needs of the customers and our business. We are able to release regularly - about every two weeks - enabling us to be quicker to market.
We set standards high
In the beginning, meeting our own high standards meant that initially it took additional time to deliver a feature. However, in the long run, by building good usability, accessibility and technology into the product delivery lifecycle, we’re delivering a better product, faster. Leaving accessibility and usability until the end of a project can be more expensive and leads to less-than-ideal outcomes for users. We proudly own a fully tested and functional product that is inclusive for all, avoiding legal or reputational risk – a good outcome for all.
Quick tips
If you’ve got area for improvement in accessibility or usability, these are the tips the team would share with you as you undergo transformation:
- Don’t be afraid to expose flaws – we couldn’t have undertaken this journey without first accepting that we had lots of room for improvement.
- Bring in subject matter experts – their expertise was invaluable to the team and we wouldn’t have this level of understanding without their contribution.
- Avoid PDFs – PDFs often aren’t accessible. In publishing all content in html and providing content in multiple ways, we acknowledge that not everybody consumes information in the same way.
- Test, test, test – check your final product with different users, on different browsers, with and without a mouse, on different devices to ensure that everyone has equal access to your content.
- Set standards high – aim for accessibility and usability from the beginning, so they’re baked into your project.