I decided quite quickly that I would conduct my audit on Translinks website. I have an affinity toward good public transport and love checking out the metros in other countries when I visit. I even started a large summer project about a speculative light rail service for Belfast. This interest compelled me to choose Translink for this project as it felt not only personal but touched on an area which i’ve tried to tackle before.
Although we looked at UX audits in class I still felt a little unsure on how to execute one properly. With this in mind I decided to do a little bit of research into what a good ux audit looks like and the best ways of conducting one.
These articles in particular helped me get a better understanding of this project and how to tackle it.
UX audit checklist: 7 Steps to better UX | Maze
UX Audit Report Examples: Structure, Best Practices, and Tools
The UX Audit: A Beginner's Guide - Usability Geek
As you may know public transport tends to be quite poor across our island. In Belfast and across the north this has become synonymous with the name Translink. Not only are Translink’s services and prices the cause of many headaches but also their digital products. These being; timetables, ticketing systems, journey planners, everything a good transport organisation needs to offer in todays age.
Whilst I don’t think its a uniquely Translink problem, they do seem to have a kind of monopoly here. I myself noticed they removed live tracking from their mobile app fairly recently and now services have the ability to essentially go ghost and not show up. It is these types of behaviours that I believe will make Translink a good subject of my audit.
Plan Your Journey with Translink | Bus & Train NI
I wanted to check out the consumer facing website for other public transport services. I first tried to find some rankings of these types of websites but I struggled to find any. To combat this I began to name as many countries and cities as I could think of to check out their websites to see if they are doing any better than Translink.
The three that stood out most to me were, the Swiss SBB, Transport for NSW & Oslo’s Ruter.
Looking at SBB, Transport for NSW, and Ruter side by side, a few patterns stand out. All three keep things very clear and approachable, using clean layouts, consistent components, and simple navigation to help users make sense of a lot of transport information. Their journey planners are easy to spot and use, and essentials like timetables, fares, and service updates are organised in a way that feels predictable.
Each site has its own personality too, SBB focuses on a really streamlined timetable and ticketing experience, Transport for NSW does a good job managing a big multimodal network, and Ruter leans into a clean, Scandinavian style that makes everything feel light and straightforward. Comparing them is interesting because it shows a few different but equally effective ways to design clear, user friendly transport websites.