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ChineseOMG… Metro Launches New Metro.net
I know I just said I was officially on hiatus, but then I logged on to Metro.net today…
OMG. WTF.
I’ve known for a while that Metro was in the process of revamping their website. From what I hear they hired an outside web firm to help them out. Well, I hope they didn’t pay too much. (Update 12:13pm 7/16/08 – I just got word that this new homepage was done in house, not through an outside firm.)
The homepage has been completely redesigned visually, and for the worse, yet the functionality remains largely the same. The most noticible difference is that the content area is significantly larger, in fact everything seems to be bigger and bolder. This is not neccessarily a bad thing, but it certainly looks less sophisticated than the previous design. Some absolutely hideous gradients and drop shadows are thrown in with the effect of not only making it look less sophisticated, but making me want to close my browser window immediately. Metro also took a cue from MetroRiderLA by changing the header color randomly with each reload of the page.
Visual differences aside, the functional design of the homepage remains almost unchanged, with a few key differences. Smartly, the “How To Ride” information links have been moved to the homepage instead of relegated to the menu bar. They are represented with large and attractive icons that are impossible to miss. A new section has been added to the homepage called “In The Loop…” which is represented by a large grey gradient box that manages to induce my gag reflex. This box contains links to “Stop The Presses” (news headlines), “Project Updates”, and “Destination Discounts”.
On the sidebar, the Metro Trip Planner remains, and in a glaring example that this redesign is nothing more than a visual downgrade, to use the much more functional Advanced Trip Planner you still have to click a link to be transported to a new page. Does anyone actually use the basic trip planner?
Just above the Trip Planner is starburst that is completely out of place that says “Click For Service Alerts”. When you cilck it you are actually taken to a text-only version of the website. Also on the sidebar is the ambigously named “Spotlight” which shines the light on links to the useless “Metro Interactive”, a video called “Hot Topic: Keep Fast Lanes Fast”, and “Filming at Metro”. Below that is a box that spews out random trivia about Metro. The top menu bar has been altered slightly to now include a link to the awful and poorly designed e-commerce Metro Store.
What’s worse than the fact that the functionality of the homepage has seen little improvement and the visuals have gotten worse, is that all pages beyond the homepage are unchanged. That’s right, despite a completely new visual look, the rest of the site still looks like (well, effectively is) the old website.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
really? i like the gradients. it’s a lot less “flat.” also, goodbye to the tiny verdana fonts. that was awful. just lists and lists of things. this is much easier to navigate. unfortunately, it’s only the front page and not an entire website.
What was Metro planning to achieve with this superficial redesign? I just dont get it?
Actually, if you click on the part of the starburst that’s in the “Metro Trip Planner” bar and not the top bar, you are taken to “service alerts”.
I’m guessing they were trying to mollify people who were complaining about their web site but didn’t actually look at what people were saying about it.
michael:
Ew. The gradients gross me out. I loved the simplicity of the flat colored grid based layout of the old site (clearly inspiration for my blog template). I agree with the positive note about getting rid of all those stupid lists… but of course the lists are everywhere else on the site… which is also where all the content is. So the change is very superficial, and I personally preferred the previous visual direction.
And boy does some of the hierarchy piss me off. “Trivia” snippets are featured on the homepage but we have to go to another page for service alerts?
Morgan Wick:
LOL. Now that’s design!
Frankly if I could finally get Metro to put on the buses a brochure with an explanation of how to complain and what information you need to have (vehicle number etc.) to submit a complaint, I would be happy. But I have been seeking that for a decade in vain. Meanwhile they can create happy talk material on summertime shopping on Metrorail?
More critiques…
Redundant links:
- On the top menu bar there is a link to “News & Media”. On the “In The Loop…” box there is a link to “Stop The Presses”. These both link to the exact same page.
- Same goes for “Projects & Studies” on the top menu bar and “Project Updates” on the “In The Loop…” box.
-Half of the “Service Alerts” starburst above the trip planner links to the service alerts page. So does the “System Service Alerts” button at the bottom left corner of the main page.
-The “How To Ride” section is essentially the same thing as the first button (“Riders Guide”) in that section… why do we need that button?
Also…
Is “Filming on Metro” so important to the majority of customers that it needs to be on the main page?
Dana Gabbard:
Great point Dana. That’s another glaring problem with this redesigned homepage. There is no “Contact Metro” or “File A Complaint” or “Customer Service” link ANYWHERE. That ESSENTIAL information is hidden in the “Rider’s Guide” page for some reason.
Wow.
I’m not looking forward to having to load that site on my cell phone now. It might work on an iPhone w/ Safari but I’m doubting that most Opera-based mobile browsers are going to play nice with that.
(Edited to add: Given how much Metro is used for filming, especially by commercials, I would imagine that it is, indeed, important enough to put on the main page – not for average customers but to forestall a gazillion phone calls from Industry grunts.)
I think the redesign will make the site more welcoming for first-time visitors in terms of things being much bolder and easier to navigate, but it ends up being pointless in terms of actual functionality. I’d like to see a better trip planner, or better yet, integration with Google Transit!
Narinda, Metro has very ambitious plans for launching 511 for the region that includes phone and net plus eventual texting and cell applications. Anne Karna of Metro gave a presentation Saturday at the SO.CA.TA meeting and it sounds like it will include the kind of trip planning capability many of us have longed for. They hope to launch in early 2009.
I think the revolving Flash images near the top of the page take up way too much space..
It’s very eBoy.
This is so clearly in house. I think it looks nice. Good work Metro Design Studio. I bet you this is just part one, the whole site will probably get refreshed in the coming weeks. Also has anyone seen the new version of BART’s website, bart.gov I foresee a battle of the CA transportation websites.
Actually, Metro did this intentionally just to get you to end your blogging hiatus.
Ricky Courtney:
I guess I just don’t understand the concept behind releasing a web site (or transit passenger displays, or smart card programs) incrementally. Why not work out the whole site, test it, fix the bugs, and the release it all at once? I guess I studied at a different school.
Now that BART web site is pretty hot. Metro’s web site is OK but I love the instant real time trip information on the site.
I’m gonna vaguely disagree and say I like the new site.
Yes, there are problems. Definitely some stuff worth bitching about (way too much vertical space at the top of the page eaten up with stuff people don’t care about, you shouldn’t have to scroll to reach the most important information).
But on the whole, I think it looks a lot friendlier. The new How to Ride bar is a much more eye-catching way to deliver the information that most people probably go to the website for. It seems like a step in the right direction to me; I can now imagine telling someone to visit the site and expecting them to find their way to a map or timetable. Before that information was buried.
The rotating flash thing is not my cup of tea and is way too big and doesn’t have a way to skip forward and back between messages, but it does look nice.
Additional bitching comments: They really shouldn’t roll out a new main page without having applied the look to the entire site. It looks bad to go from the main page to the old designs.
They should really aim for all of the most important information to appear without the user having to scroll down.
It certainly doesn’t seem like they’re any closer to adding a google maps option to the trip planner.
Totally agree.
Totally agree.
What I like about BART’s redesign is there are real photos of people and transit in motion whereas Metro has used a lot of animation which I don’t find as attractive. For example, I love the pictures on the header of this page that rotate with every refresh. That would be awesome to put on the Metro site. They have great looking trains and buses to put on their site.
It’d also be nice to post System Alerts and Real Time Info on the front page, but Metro doesn’t have the latter and I don’t see System Alerts updated much anyway.
I also love what the T has done with their redesign from a couple years ago. All of their bus and rail schedules and maps can be viewed without PDF and the maps are integrated with Google Maps to make them easier to navigate with the surrounding neighborhood.
Simon:
I definitely agree the new site has the POTENTIAL to be friendlier. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with big and bold, but in the parlance of the current internet, I think it’s a FAIL.
For sure the “How To Ride” bar is the best idea on the site, as I noted in my write up. That very important information used to be very hard to find. But unfortunately, the bar also has a redundancy in that the very first icon links to a page that is basically the “How To Ride” bar presented as bullet links instead of icons. They should dump it and add another row of icons: BIKES ON METRO, SAFETY ON METRO, METRO ACCESSIBILITY (Riders /w Disabilities), and of course CONTACT METRO.
Other things that must be changed:
Actually just click the following image to see a quick mock-up I created by rearranging the elements into what I feel is a more sensible hierarchy. Note there is one redundancy, but I think it’s very important redundancy… there are TWO links to CONTACT INFORMATION.
My two cents on the “advanced” and “basic”
People who don’t feel comfortable either surfing the web or the website are going to always choose basic. Aggressive or confident web users will always consider the advanced features first and then if it looks to be too much, head back to the basic.
Try it out some time. Give people the chance to go “advanced” or “basic” and given their confidence level (in absolute no relation to the need they have, or how much information they already have) and most will take Basic over Advanced any day.
I wish there was another way to say “Click here for more search options” rather than “advanced”
I agree.
But I don’t think there should even be such a choice in something as simple, basic, and essential as a trip planner. The only feature that might be considered a truly “advanced” feature (ie. not really necessary for most users) is the “Max. walk distance” option. A list of landmarks and stations is basic and essential functionality and should be included in even the most simple trip planner. Manually typing in an address almost always makes things more complex, for the user and the programmer.
Metro’s website accessibility is still a nightmare and doesn’t work for mobile phone users (who get shunted to an alternate version of their website with no way to reach the System Map).
The trip planner form doesn’t even show up properly on their text-only website: http://assistive.usablenet.com/tt/www.metro.net/default.asp
I imagine that, like the constantly spotty arrival times (that are constantly disappearing in the evenings, when ridership is still considerable; I have been on the Red Line every night round 9:30-9:45 p.m. and it is SRO but no arrival times are being posted), the Metro Web site will be beta on an unsuspecting public for some time. For many years now there have been all manner of Trip Planner snafus (bus lines long since changed and deleted coming up; odd routes being suggested, say, two or three lines when but one or two would be quicker and easier; and, back in the mid-1990s the constant breakdowns owing to the insistence on downloading PDFs—which remains mind-boggling.)
They have their wishes with incredibly increased ridership, but the constant mismanagement of money and the desire for more, is a bad combination. They would do better to add a few more phone staff (who use the same site, I understand, once one has been able to wade through the deep phone menu moat and is not told, “You’re call cannot be completed. . . “
Maybe it’s a marketing or web-content department problem that goes beyond the scope of the design studio.
Metro Mole: i agree
hmmmmm … “metro troll” agrees with “Metro Mole” a whopping two minutes later.
I think we can all see who’s attempting to increase his cred.
Stupid moles.
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