ARTA have overhauled the “MAXX website“, which is effectively the face of public transport via the internet in Auckland. It is here where you can plan your journeys, view timetables, see what works are going on to upgrade the system and so forth. Here’s what the new design looks like:
My first reaction is that it certainly looks a bit simpler than the old site. However, there are a few things missing from this new site which I think need to either be made more obvious or actually need to be added back in.
- There’s no “Arrive Before” option when planning your journey. This seems a pretty silly thing to not include as a lot of the time when you’re planning a journey you want to know your options that will get you where you’re going before a certain time.
- The link to the ‘Campaign for Better Transport’ forum has been removed. This link was put in place because a few years back ARTA removed their own forum (which was a pity as it was a good interface between the public, ARTA and various other transport providers). I think it is important for ARTA to both stimulate transport discussion and to also monitor it, so hopefully that link will be restored.
- Unfortunately the mapping system seems to still be stuck in a time-warp from about 2001. Where’s some integration with Google Maps?
- The opportunity to connect the website with the GPS trackers used on most of the buses seems to have passed by. I think it would be damn handy for people to be able to log into a route and see exactly where the buses are. If you have mobile internet on your cellphone you could check where your bus was while waiting for it, and if you just have internet at home you could see where your bus was and decide when to leave home (or work) in the right amount of time to catch it.
- There’s a bizarre error message when you click on the Journey Planner option. It makes the site look unnecessarily complicated and ineffective.
There has been some further discussion on the new website on the Campaign for Better Transport forum. Perhaps whoever redesigned the website should have a read. The MAXX site is the shop-front for how many people engage with public transport in Auckland, so it’s pretty essential we get things right.
What do readers think of the redesign? Is there anything that should be added or removed, or messed around with?
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My girlfriend said the website was horrible. I of course defended it, since I found the old one at least reasonable.
But on trying to navigate the new one, I hit all sorts of similar glitches and badly-thought out interfaces. Yes, it needs some more work. Like the lack of navigation flexibility (in terms of times forward and back, as Jarbury said), and the fact that it does not know such core locations like “Auckland CBD” (it may know Auckland Central, but alternative spellings like that are important). And why is the school bus travel option being auto-selected “on”???
I know it can be very difficult to get these things right (and who knows what budget the people working on it had?) but this is THE public face for anyone considering PT. If somebody who is still a bit dubious about trying PT hits a snag here, he’s not going to give it another try for months or maybe years. He’s just going to go back to his car.