Offering a ‘Flexible way to travel’

fflecsi buses pick passengers up and drop them off in the service area, not just at a bus stop. The way fflecsi works is that a bus picks you up at your request, changing its route so that all passengers can get to where they need to go. fflecsi helps people to make local journeys, especially where transport in rural areas is limited. fflecsi is also a more sustainable and economical way to travel, as buses will only run if passengers are booked on to the trip. Once bus operators know how many passengers to pick up, they can make sure they send the correct size vehicle on the route. Transport for Wales wanted to create a small website integrated with existing scheduled bus routes but enabled passengers to use an ondemand service – that is where the Spindogs team stepped in.

Mapping the user journey

We kicked off the project with several discussions with Transport for Wales. To design and develop a website that worked for all communities where the fflecsi bus service would operate, we needed to understand each local authority’s requirements. We held a workshop with stakeholders from across Transport for Wales, as well as local authorities and bus operators, to understand their local needs and what the user journeys on the website would look like for people in their area. The website had to serve different types of customers. Transport for Wales wanted to encourage all commuter types to use fflecsi. From young people who want to travel to the nearest time and place to meet their friends to elderly passengers who need to be dropped off as close to their destination as possible, be it the doctors or the local shop. We had to consider all types of users to ensure they all had the same experience on the website and could book a trip with ease.

Designing the journeys was pretty simple. We were mindful that not all of fflecsi’s users would be computer literate, so we had to make sure that the website was easy enough for everyone at all levels to use and be able to book a bus. We made sure that we implemented a basic design with simple language and instructions. We used strong calls to action (CTAs) to guide the user through finding trips, browsing locations and booking their journeys. To make it as easy as possible, we designed a search bar on the homepage so that users were encouraged to find trips and browse locations from the get-go. We needed to integrate the website with existing bus routes and schedules from local bus operators across Wales. Also, some local authorities had their own systems or used different software, so we had to consider these and integrate the new website.