Metrolink New Mobile Website

Meet the Metrolink team: Diana Yu and Tony Chappell

When Diana Yu and Tony Chappell reflect on the new, easy- to-navigate Metrolink Mobile website they created, they see a rider standing at a platform, smartphone in hand. That customer is equipped to check on a route, train timeliness, or connecting transit at a destination station.

That was the goal when Yu and Chappell, under the direction of communications manager Claudia Ziebell, teamed up in August to create Metrolink Mobile. Yu, who has been a Metrolink customer- communications administrator for one-and-a-half years, and Chappell, who has been a Metrolink IT web programmer/analyst for a year, tackled the job when it became clear there was no budget for an outside consultant as originally planned.
“We didn’t have any mobile presence,” Yu recalls. “This was a step we could take to help serve our customers when they are away from their desks. We tried to present information that would most help our customers when they are waiting at the station or on the train or on the way to the train.”

But that information isn’t easy to see on a smartphone screen. The mobile website had to focus on the most critical topics, and be easy to read and navigate. As it happened, Metrolink had the right people for the job.

Diana Yu used to be a programmer but changed course and earned a master’s degree in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. She would be responsible for design. Chappell, who had a degree in computer-science engineering from Ohio State University and had worked for a variety of private companies in Ohio and California, would be responsible for development. They went to work.

First, set the priorities. They had customers to thank for this. “It was all based on accumulated feedback from customers over the years,” Yu says. “Many customers had requested schedules in this format as well as service updates.” E-mail subscriptions also demonstrated strong interest in special offers and discounts, she says. And, Chappell adds, thousands of Twitter followers confirmed that Metrolink service updates are important.
Second, surmount the challenges. Chappell wrestled with an old underlying database that could have been better designed for Metrolink websites. Translating its data to display train schedules simply and clearly for mobile phones was difficult. “The Schedules page was by far the biggest challenge in developing the mobile site,” Chappell says.

Third, make it easy to use. Metrolink Mobile’s main page has eight topics—Service Updates, Schedules, Trip Planner, Station Guide, News, Special Offers, System Map, and Contact Us—plus one link to the full website and one feedback link. No matter where you travel on the site, a Main Menu button returns you instantly to the homepage. Service Updates are color-coded by line so users can quickly tell if there are alerts on their lines or not.
The Schedules area offers a feature not available on the full website, Yu points out. Enter your departure station and your arrival station, and you will see only departure and arrival times. This eliminates scrolling through irrelevant station schedules. Transfers are automatically plotted. Metrolink Mobile debuted in October and riders love it.

“General responses from our riders are that it’s a lot easier to use than the full website—a lot easier to find information—and customers liked the new Schedules feature,” Yu says. “We’re considering customer ideas on what features they would like added in the future.”