Five-Phase Approach to Improve Design of Printed Transit Information and to Monitor Impact on Customer Satisfaction

Transfort, the transit service provider in Fort Collins, Colorado, conducted a major design overhaul of its printed information materials (system maps, route maps, and schedules) to achieve the following objectives: (a) increase user comprehension of printed materials, (b) increase ridership, and (c) reduce printing costs while adding four additional routes to the schedule book. To achieve those objectives, a five-phase process was developed to allow the redesign task to be informed by research literature, transit staff opinions, and the views of service users. The new designs were implemented incrementally between July 2007 and August 2008 and were accompanied by a marketing campaign that informed and explained the upcoming changes. Ongoing project monitoring efforts indicated high levels of customer satisfaction with the revised materials and their new features and significant cost savings of 26%, as well as some evidence of a positive ridership effect. These outcomes provide an endorsement of the five-phase approach developed by Transfort and suggest that it may be useful to other transit agencies considering a major revision of their printed information materials.