Organization

1. Planning and confirming a specific trip. For people who know when and where they're going, and want to confirm the details.

   EG., I'm in Menlo Park on my bike and going to a Sharks game. Should I leave my bike at the Menlo Park station, or bring it to San Jose ? It depends where there is a bikestation or bike lockers or racks.

   EG., I'm in the San Francisco Sony Metreon, it's 10:15 PM, I've just come out of a movie, and I'm going home, do I need to rush to the train, or do I have time to browse ?

   EG., I'm at Oracle in Redwood Shores, how do I get from here to a station ? Which station ?

   EG., How do I get from the San Antonio station to Shoreline Amphitheatre ?

   EG., I am going to Stanford: from which station should I alight the train ?

2. Frequent travelers about to begin their routine journey:
   

   EG., Check train status, get an instant listing of any delays.
   ACERail does this http://www.acerail.com/cgi/status.pl well.

   EG., Today, are there any special trains (Giants or other Events) ?

3. Frequent travelers who want to:

   EG., Order tickets by mail.

   EG., Book a parking space for a month.

4. Exploring potential trips:

   EG., Can I take Caltrain from Half Moon Bay to Tibiron ? I won't know until I read Caltrian.org.

   EG., I am going to Palo Alto; what is at or near the Palo Alto station ?

   EG., I want to rent a car- which stations offer car rental ?

5. Exploring and participating in planning the future of Caltrain:
   1. Baby Bullets
   2. DTX/TTT: extending Caltrain to downtown San Fransisco
   3. Electrificaction
   4. Expanding service to Gilroy and Salinas
   5. et cetera
   What are the plans for growth and service improvements, and when and where is the public comment on these plans ?

6. Answering curious citizens about history: Caltrain since 1890 (or whenever).

7. Making a suggestion or asking a question: list various contact information for trains, stations, shuttles, ticket sales, etc.

8. An employer wants to be served by a shuttle. Who do they contact ?

9. Learning more about the organization that is Caltrain: who's who: The Joint Powers Board, Jobs, Be-a-vendor-to-Caltrain, etc.

10. Neighbourhood interest:

    EG., I want to congratulate Caltrain on its Menlo Park four quadrant gate quiet zone, and want to get such a quiet zone in their own neighbourhood. Who do I contact ? What is the process ?

11. Diligent citizens want to read minutes of old board meetings.

By considering the various uses of www.caltrain.org, we can decide what information needs to be provided, and how it can be grouped into various web pages. We also produce a list not just of web pages, but of categories of web pages. The front page, www.caltrain.org and the navigation on each page within the website should make these categories of use available and obvious to find.

The eleven sample uses above are not exhaustive, but serve as test cases for questions which should be answerable by www.caltrain.org .

It appears that two very important information categories are 'station information' and 'schedule information'.

The design of the site should also minimize the number of clicks to get from the front page to the pages used most frequently.

Particulars

1. The front page for the domain caltrain.org should feature 90% Caltrain content. This particular page should not be a listing of various agencies, only one of which is Caltrain. The URL http://www.caltrain.com/ should have the content of what is now at http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain/index.html

   Bad entrance	:
   Good entrance:

2. System Map:
   
   
   1. Show each station on one map: the current map is satisfactory in this respect.

   2. Indicate interchange stations with a special station marking, not by appending something onto the station name, and adding a logo ten miles from the station. The current map is terrible in this respect.
      1. You do not transfer to Muni in Pleasanton
      2. There is no airport in Sunol
      3. There is heavy rail in Monta Vista
      4. Santa Clara does not have two major airports -- don't show two planes

      Good index:
      Good intersection interchange:
      Good parallel interchange:
      Bad interchange: Sunol Airport
      Bad interchange: Muni ferry to Hawaii

      Suggested major interchanges to mark are:
      
      1. SF 4th & King: Muni
      2. Milbrae: BART and SFO
      3. Castro: VTA Tasman light rail
      4. Santa Clara: ACE, Amtrak Capitol Corridor, SJC
      5. San Jose Diridon: ACE, Amtrak Capitol Corridor, DASH.

   3. Show significant features at various stations:
      1. Show stations with significant bicycle resources with a special marking
         
      2. Show stations with significant parking with a special marking
         
      3. Show stations with significant bus connections with a special marking
         
      4. Show stations with a significant taxi pool with a special marking
         

   4. The interactive map/schedule is too crowded for users to accurately pick a particular station in the Burlingame-Milbrae area. A zoom-in map feature would be good. Mouseovers or other affordances could be helpful.

      
      

   5. A table of all stations should show amenities and facilities: Parking, monthly parking permits, bicycle station, bicycle lockers, wheelchair lift, a list of connecting bus routes, etc. this information should be more extensive that the summary list of most significant information illustrated by logos on the main system map.

      http://www.caltrain.org/caltrain/caltrain_stations.html is a start, but is not linked to from the maps and schedules pages based on transitinfo.org so users are unlikely to find this page.

      

      The trip planning pages, when they link to station information, should provide the information listed in this table, and offer a link named 'all stations' to this table.

   6. Integrate Caltrain and its supporting shuttle busses into the useful TransitInfo Trip planner at
      http://www.transitinfo.org/cgi-bin/taketransit
      Track usage of this trip planner, and include major destinations which are not names of Caltrain stations in the planning of Caltrain routes.

      For instance, if a user provides a destination of 'Sharks Arena', the transitinfo dictionary should plan a trip to the San Jose Diridon station. The new Caltrain rider is far more likely to know they want to go the the 'Sharks Arena' than know the name of the Caltrain station near the arena. Likely major destinations are SFO, SJC, Stanford (University), Stanford (Mall), Shoreline (Amphitheater), and perhaps up to 100 others. By monitoring the use of the transitinfo destinations, a list of destinations and nearby stations can be continuously improved.

   7. Each station has its own page; these pages should show a station diagram, showing routes of ingress, egress, bus stops, and other facilities and amenities.
      BART has some useful station info, eg at
      http://www.bart.gov/stations/stationGuide/stationOverview_FREMT.asp

      

      A detailed map should show the relationship of the station and major arterial streets, expressways or high streets. Stations which have road connections via cloverleafs and 270 degree loops should have particularly clear directions.

   8. The transitinfo feature which generates a customized schedule showing only two staitons is great.

   9. Web site navigation: always show a Caltrain link to the Caltrain home page on any page that's not Caltrain's home page, so users can restart browsing at the beginning.

   10. Put the YEAR in all dates. Users worry about orphaned pages. Users have old book marks. Search engines find old pages.

   11. The practice of listing of current what's new on the home page is good.
       

       The actual What's New at http://www.caltrain.org/caltrain/caltrain_whats_new.html should date the list items.

   12. The Shuttles page http://www.caltrain.org/caltrain/caltrain_shuttles.html should have a list of served cities at the top, and each city name should link to the shuttles of that city.

   13. Add connection info for ACERail , eg if on ACE #02 and going to Gilroy, change at Santa Clara/San Jose and get on which Caltrain train ?

   14. Add a site map showing a list of each page and how it relates to (parallel to or descendant from) other pages. Something like http://www.caltrain.org/caltrain/caltrain_gen_info.html is a start. This site map page should be labelled site map and linked to from all navigational bars and from the main front page.
   end.