Completed
- Photography
- Web Design
The Client
Ride Together Pierce (RTP) is a centralized hub connecting the Pierce County community with sustainable travel education, tools, and resources.
This cooperative, founded by Pierce County, is on a mission to connect residents with new money-saving and planet-friendly modes of transportation.
The Problem
Ride Together Pierce was successfully supporting employers throughout Pierce County with their employee sustainable transportation programs. However, they were struggling to get their free resources into the hands of individual residents. With website users down and an overall feeling that user experience was missing the mark, the RTP team was looking for a website redesign that could keep up with the community’s evolving needs and provide greater support.
When they came to us, RTP had just undergone a rebrand, including a name change from Pierce Trips, but they needed to implement those changes throughout their online presence.
They wanted to create a stellar online presence that would house all things sustainable transportation in one place.
The Goal
An outstanding online user experience rid of any roadblocks getting in the way of individuals’ ability to seamlessly explore their local, sustainable transportation options.
Photoshoot
We needed photographs of all the sustainable transportation options Ride Together Pierce promotes: bus, carpool, walking, biking, vanpool, commuter train, and light rail.
We planned and managed a three-day photoshoot to get photography for the website, social media, and other marketing materials. The goal was to gather photos that truly captured the Pierce County community. We did model management for up to 15 people each day, including a diverse range of people from children to seniors, and even an adorable service dog named Edgar.
We also created vibrant videos to capture the heart and soul of Pierce County, featuring the city, the people, and the community.
Website
NAVIGATION
The former website’s navigation had a few bumps in the road. Our initial website audit showed a decrease in user sessions of 56.93% over the course of the previous three years.
Part of the rebranding process that RTP had recently gone through included target user personas. We started the web design process by working with the Ride Together Pierce team to rethink each of these user journeys —from employers looking for business programs to carpoolers interested in connecting with other riders. We further focused on pain points that were revealed in our audit, turning them into key objectives for site architecture:
- Consistent information
- FAQs
- Increased trip planning content
- Clear audience journey differentiation
- Interest-based content
This would be foundational for the biggest component of the new website: content.
CONTENT
We researched the audience to determine what content they were looking for when they visited the RTP website. We found that the majority of users had queries about how to ride a bus, how to start biking in Pierce County, and how to start a transportation program at their job.
We followed this research up with a content audit and discovered that the answers to these questions were more often than not disorganized or unclearly written. Our content team used their research and user journeys to create a process for content mapping over 200 pages.
On each page, we broke down the content into three main sections:
- How-to content: Guides and resources to help get individuals started with sustainable transportation.
- Value-driven content: Describing the benefits of getting started with different sustainable transportation options
- Resource content: As a one-stop-shop for all things transportation in Pierce County, RTP wanted to connect individuals with all of the information they could possibly need. With this in mind, we focused a lot of content on linking to other local organizations’ valuable information, including info on biking clubs, events, and ways to get discounted fares.
DESIGN
Once we had a clear, informed content map, we were ready to get to the design of it all.
RTP uses a hosting company called CivicPlus, which specializes in government websites. We worked closely with their team, sending new designs each step of the way, and modifying them as needed, to ensure they would work on their platform. We redesigned all of their pages with updated branding, photography, and user journeys in mind.
Our designs included branded elements, color-blocking, on-screen interactivity, thoughtful image choices, and desktop-to-mobile curation. Our practice is to not only build websites to be mobile-responsive, but mobile-reactive as well. We also made sure to make the site ADA-compliant.
Finally, we made an online portal for employers involved in Ride Together Pierce’s business program.
The Results:
The results of the new site speak for themselves! After launch, total traffic to Ride Together Pierce was up 42.4%, and direct traffic was up 24.9% year over year. We also saw a 22.9% increase in organic traffic and a 13.9% increase in engagement time!
Conclusion
The new website offers a one-stop-shop for all things sustainable transportation in Pierce County, and what’s even better? The streamlined, educational user experience makes saying yes to walking, biking, or carpooling even easier.
This top-to-bottom redesign of over 200 web pages covered everything from trail maintenance and mapping resources for bikers to commuter train guides and bus routes and SO much more. Individuals and employees looking for transportation options that are planet-friendly, money-saving, and community-focused can now explore all of their options in one accessible location.
“The RTP team has been surprised at how quickly people are recognizing the new brand. The writing is leaps and bounds better than before, and people have come up to our team at events so excited about the new site and how user-friendly it is.”
PHASE 2: Awareness Campaign Next, we paired this new website with a local awareness campaign to successfully position RTP as the go-to resource for transportation information in Pierce County. Click here to read Phase 2.
