Website Design & Development

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) entered into an ongoing partnership with S4 to improve the web experience for their users with a larger focus on mobile. They contacted us in a time of need because their site was severely out of date and was being used in the scope of awards. We knew we needed to act quickly while not confusing riders too much with design and structural changes. In order to meet launch requirements set by the JTA. phase 1 left the current website's 10+ year old Content Management System (CMS) intact, but contained the look and feel of a brand new site. 

Increased visibility for key navigation items, better organization, and smoother functionalities throughout were some of the new design's core elements. This required S4 to demonstrate not only that we can provide quality designs that adhere to brand standards but also that we could handle the work from a technical standpoint. We were able to manipulate an existing legacy system in order to achieve our timeline limited goals. 

We followed up with a complete overhaul of the CMS that allowed us to more easily achieve our marketing and communication goals. 

A secondary goal of phase 1 was to solidify the JTA's visual identity online. For years, the JTA has been raising the bar with its presence in print collateral and physical spaces. Along with being a more intuitive design, jtafla.com mow carries all of the JTA's visual identity, giving riders a more unified and positive experience. 

Through user data, we found that while the site wasn't mobile compatible, over 80% of users were accessing it through a mobile device. A major portion of Phase 1 was ensuring that the new design was responsive and accessible from any device. 

Above you can see the original S4 redesign. ver the years, the partnership between JTA and S4 has resulted in a better understanding of their key audience. Improvements have been made to stay current with technology and ADA guidelines to provide the best experience for every rider, business person and community member. JTAFLA.com is representative of the strong partnership over the years. 

Mobility Works

The tag line 'More Than Buses' is a true characterization of the JTA's offerings and services. Not only do they travel on the roads but they build them too!

As a long time partner of the organization we worked with the Authority to create a digital footprint that would provide project details, documents, timelines, and funding transparency. S4 developed this system for JTA MobilityWorks in 2017, then again MobilityWorks 2.0 in 2021.

Roadway websites can lean heavy on information and less on functionality and design. We believe that you can have both and more!

While working with the team to create the content fields, S4 worked through the full scope of the projects and the details that could span months or years. One of the key elements of the site is to keep the public informed and reduce redundancies. We met that goal and included a marketing element to notify project subscribers of meetings, document uploads or project updates. 

The Authority works with with multiple partners and transparency is key. We developed a dashboard to showcase the projects based on specific data points. These key numbers are integrated through out the site and entered onetime and automatically updated throughout the site. 

Demand Response / Micro Transit

Public transit has adjusted to the disruption of on-demand transit providers like Uber and Lyft by providing a similar Micro-Transit Service. In Jacksonville, this service is called JTA ReadiRide.

Within our existing website development and support contract, we designed and developed a website that is more than an online marketing tool. We've created an online booking tool that provides reservation assurances and confirmations for the rider, the dispatch provider, and the JTA.

Procurement Portal

To better connect with vendors and facilitate purchasing, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority needed a dedicated procurement platform. We created one that allows vendors to register to receive notifications and keep up to date at any current or future solicitations.

The core focus when developing the JTA's new procurement portal was organizing large volume of tabular data in a way that is not only easy to navigate and skim but also collapsible so as to hide modules for respective membership tiers. Having several membership tiers--in order to restrict information depending on the user--necessitated carefully calculated design. It needed to be flexible enough so that when modules are hidden, the page remains aesthetically sound.

One of the challenges in developing the procurement portal was ensuring it s ADA-compliant so that all business owners can participate. ADA compliance requires an acute attention to detail that we maintained throughout design and development.

JTA Riders Hub

Building off the success of previous version of JTA Schedules, S4 saw the opportunity to improve on the existing infrastructure to better serve the mobile first audience and to simplify updates for the agency. As part of eTransit platform, Riders Hub was built for the ease of both the rider and transit agency in mind.

Simply uploading a GTFS file can provide a fully responsive site that be used at home or on the go. A user can view the scheduled route through a table, map or PDF.

S4 identified the lengthy upload times when an update to a schedule was needed that could only be completed within our internal team. We knew we could do it better and provide a better user experience for the rider while we were at it. 

Incorporating the analytics and feedback gathered from the initial improved schedule, we built an entirely independent application that made the process of acquiring a schedule more visible. Rather than just a hart of schedules, users can now geolocate their current position and seek out nearby stops and timepoints to catch an upcoming bus. ADA compliance was put at the forefront to create an experience that could be used by all.